A Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman

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Outside the United States, social movements of the left have used a variety of creative techniques–posters, puppet shows, songs, and art–as popular education tools to convey their collective goals and aspirations. Unfortunately, for much of the left in the United States, we have tended to focus our efforts on producing lengthy books and dense articles that are read by only a small number of people already sympathetic, thereby limiting the left’s outreach. Sharon Rudahl’s Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman is an important piece of popular education–taking Goldman’s autobiography, reducing it from its 1,000 pages and illustrating it. Rudahl’s work, by virtue of its accessibility, should help people learn more about Goldman–one of the more inspirational figures from anarchist and left history.

Emma Goldman’s story should be common knowledge, but unfortunately, she is rarely mentioned in mainstream history books used in high school and college classes. While those books might mention her in relation to anarchists–usually involving bomb throwing–they often fail to convey her dedication to her ideals. Turning to anarchism after the Haymarket incident in the 1880s, Goldman spent years advocating anarchism, organizing, publishing, writing, and agitating for a better world. She toured the country numerous times lecturing on topics ranging from anarchism to theatre and gained a reputation as the United States’ “most dangerous woman.” She served time in prison for her beliefs and actions and was ultimately deported from the United States for organizing against World War I. Once deported, she went to her native Russia and was an early critic of the Bolshevik revolution. She continued to write and be active on the left until her death in 1940.

Emma Goldman’s story is one that should be inspirational to us all. She dedicated her life to the struggle for a more justice world and linked a variety of issues–women’s liberation, free speech, antiwar organizing, and access to birth control–under the common banner of anarchism. While the climate in which Emma Goldman organized is considerably different than the present, we continue to see the harsh effects of capitalism. There have been some improvements in the past 100 or so years that have moderated or hidden capitalism’s harshest aspects, but in many ways Emma Goldman’s critique remains vivid today. A Dangerous Woman presents Emma Goldman’s life and work in a new and exciting way and hopefully it will inspire more people to take action in their own lives.

Sharon Rudahl, Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman, (The New Press, 2007).

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Tags: anarchism, biography, feminism, history