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Living My Life (Penguin Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Emma Goldman
Creator: Miriam Brody
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
Buy New: $10.30
You Save: $7.70 (43%)
New (30) Used (9) from $10.30
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 223040
Format: Abridged
Media: Paperback
Edition: Abridged
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 672
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0142437859
Dewey Decimal Number: 335.83092
EAN: 9780142437858
ASIN: 0142437859
Publication Date: April 4, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Forget all those New Left memoirs: for readers who want to know what it is to be a revolutionary in America, this is the book to read. At the turn of the 20th century, Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was probably the most hated woman in her adopted country. (She emigrated from Russia at age 17.) It was bad enough that she was an anarchist, accused of complicity in the 1901 assassination of President McKinley. But her vehement espousal of women's rights--including birth control--really enraged upright citizens. Goldman's marvelously militant autobiography gives ample evidence of her gift for bearing a grudge and inability to mince words--she decries fellow leftists at least as often as the bourgeoisie, especially after she is deported to the Soviet Union in 1919 and discovers that the Bolshevik Revolution is not what she hoped for. But Goldman's blazing honesty and unflinching commitment to unpopular causes make her a larger-than-life heroine. She does display the occasional human weakness, including a lengthy romance with a man whose infidelities torment this advocate of free love, but they're less interesting than her heroic challenge to America to live up to its ideals. Whether or not she was literally a bomb thrower remains a matter of debate. For posterity, her words are incendiary enough. --Wendy Smith
Product Description
Anarchist, journalist, drama critic, advocate of birth control and free love, Emma Goldman was the most famousand notoriouswoman in the early twentieth century. This abridged version of her two-volume autobiography takes her from her birthplace in czarist Russia to the socialist enclaves of Manhattans Lower East Side. Against a dramatic backdrop of political argument, show trials, imprisonment, and tempestuous romances, Goldman chronicles the epoch that she helped shape: the reform movements of the Progressive Era, the early years of and later disillusionment with Lenins Bolshevik experiment, and more. Sounding a call still heard today, Living My Life is a riveting account of political ferment and ideological turbulence.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
Perfect service, a little over-packaged, new book December 26, 2007
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. Book arrived quickly, new book. All was well in my world. Only complaint would be that 2 of the 3 books I ordered simultaneously came packaged together in an excessive amount of packaging. Overboard on the plastic wrap followed by extra cardboard for protection, followed by a box. Don't need all that for books. Need to think about the environment Amazon.
One of the most important books you'll ever read August 23, 2004
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
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. The difficulties and the times are conveyed amazingly well. The book will make you look carefully at your own life ... in ways that can only change it for the better.
bewat June 28, 2003
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
NOTE: THIS IS VOLUME ONE ONLY! It's a great book but it is not labeled as just the first half of the memoir.
Enjoyable book, fun to read, informative September 22, 2002
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
I could not disagree more with Goldman's ultimate philosophical conclusions, but I enjoyed this book, and volume II as well. Her essential humanity emerges, and it is a good case study and an interesting read, historically, philosophically and personally. She is no Mark Twain or Billy Faulkner, but her life was interesting and her prose adequately conveys the milieu she became enmeshed in. 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. 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 heartily recommend this book. It is informative, enlightening and entertaining to boot.
Living Beyond Expectations June 27, 2001
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
In her autobiography Emma Goldman explains her life, narrating the experience of marching to her own drummer. Depending on the reader's political expectations, Emma's life is either inspiring or downright terrifying. Those who believe in social conformity would probably be more comfortable moving on to other fodder. Nevertheless, this eyewitness account of American and Russian history, ought not to be trivially dismissed. Emma fought for things we have taken for granted in modern life, such as birth-control and the eight-hour work day; she went to jail in the struggle to obtain these for us. This book explains how she lived her commitment to individual liberty, choosing who she would love, advocating revolution, and harrassing those of her "allies" who compromised on these principles. Perhaps the most interesting portion of the book is her years in Russia. Here she describes arriving at the "Promised Land" of the peoples' revolution and how that mutated into a sense of disillusionment and horror at what she saw as the betrayal of that revolution by the "dictatorship of the proletariat." Her writing style is nothing exceptional, but the story she weaves from the material of her life is nothing short of fascinating. Another reviewer suggested taking a break between volumes--I couldn't! I had to know what happened next. Although there are a lot of pages to wade through, I will give this book as a gift to the young women in my life. I believe that Emma can serve as a role model for living one's own life, not living out the expectations of friends, family, or society. In a dysfunctional world, we have too few people who model this. Emma gets three stars for writing style, but the powerful and plentiful content bring the rating up to five stars. Not to be missed. (If you'd like to discuss this book or review, click on the "about me" link above & drop me an email. Thanks!)
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