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Goldman was a real adventurer, a real revolutionary after a design that seems forgotten today. Where her political philosophy is concerned, she is definitely uncompromising.
Her devotion to the liberation and well-being of women and her renouncement of terrorist tactics in her later life demonstrate this quite sufficiently. However, Goldman seems to me much more human than many of the era's major revolutionary figures.
I consider this autobiography as essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the United States, or early 20th century international political history. The very fact that Goldman still comes off as so dangerously radical is testimony to both her brilliance and courage, and to the lack of change that typifies most of the world's social systems.I agree with other reviewers' assessment of Goldman's writing abilities, but she was an ideologue more than an artist.
The long relationship between Goldman and Alexander Berkman reveals the personal cost of revolutionary activity and is probably worth a book of its own. Beyond its value as a historical document, 'Living My Life' is also a gripping read.
The stories that come from her rough and tumble experiences in America, the still-born Soviet Union, and Europe, are breathtaking, heartbreaking, and pertinent in our own age of political and economic instability.I firmly believe that this book should be required reading in American high schools or junior highs, especially for young women.
Only complaint would be that 2 of the 3 books I ordered simultaneously came packaged together in an excessive amount of packaging. Don't need all that for books. I'm happy with the purchase, just typing on the keyboard in the privacy of my own home, selecting a book, clicking on it, easy, quick, effecient. Overboard on the plastic wrap followed by extra cardboard for protection, followed by a box. Need to think about the environment Amazon. Book arrived quickly, new book. All was well in my world.
The book will make you look carefully at your own life. The difficulties and the times are conveyed amazingly well. in ways that can only change it for the better. This is the best autobiography I've ever read, because her life was lived with such commitment & independence. Certainly, she was hugely influential in her time, but her success was scratched out of nothing, with no support, and huge opposition.
It's a great book but it is not labeled as just the first half of the memoir. NOTE: THIS IS VOLUME ONE ONLY.
I heartily recommend this book. If you don't, or find that you are getting lost in the history and sequence, it would pay to do a little research to better understand what she lived through. It will also help you spot bias on Goldman's part. I could not disagree more with Goldman's ultimate philosophical conclusions, but I enjoyed this book, and volume II as well. It is informative, enlightening and entertaining to boot. She is no Mark Twain or Billy Faulkner, but her life was interesting and her prose adequately conveys the milieu she became enmeshed in. Her essential humanity emerges, and it is a good case study and an interesting read, historically, philosophically and personally. A fair degree of antecedent historical knowledge is necessary to fully enjoy this book, but you most likely have that or you wouldn't be reading about Emma to begin with.
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