How Did Emma Goldman Influence Her Men

Words: 1276
Pages: 6
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Rodolfo Vargas
Professor Todd Menzing
History 175
27 January 2015 Emma Goldman and Her Men
Emma Goldman is one of the most controversial figure in the 20th century. Starting out as a poor immigrant, Goldman eventually grew to be one of the most beloved (only by her peers) and hated woman in America. Chalberg’s book Emma Goldman: American Individualist, he covered her life from when she was a child in Russian to the end of life after her exile from America. In his book, Chalberg goes in depth into the many relationships that Goldman has been involved in during her life time. The majority of the men in these relationships have always been fellow anarchist and have in few ways influence Goldman in her …show more content…
Her father was known to have certain period of temper tantrum. His business was depended willingness of the community to continue its contract with her family. Since anyone can rescind his or her contract at will, their economic well-being fluctuated quite often; this has a direct effect on her father’s mood. It was during her childhood that Goldman also developed discontent for the government. She witnessed the government’s power to force young men into the military and there was nothing anyone could have done about it. Perhaps it was this experience that led her to fervently fight her nephew draft during World War I. Her father was probably the main contributor toward Goldman’s practice of free love. He brought up the idea of marriage to Goldman when she was just only 15. In his mind, she was a “loose girl; therefore, the logical solution was marriage” (Chalberg, 17). Goldman swiftly denied his request. Goldman’s time with her father was the catalyst for Goldman’s anarchist ideology and many other independently formed notions that went along with it such as the idea of free …show more content…
Johann Most turned out to be a mentor to Goldman. Many Eastern Europeans immigrants during that time period had “unskilled, dirty jobs near the bottom of the occupational ladder” (Nash, 531), Goldman was not an exception to this. Her occupation was “making silk shirtwaist of their apartment” (Chalberg, 38). This was not what she wanted to do for the rest of her live. Her true passion was speaking for her ideology and against capitalism. Most said that if words could never be erased if they are spoken with “eloquence, enthusiasm, and fire” (Chalberg, 38). Goldman was mesmerized by Most’s performance from the start. She was determined to spread her words with the same passion and intensity that she had seen in Most. She was able to demonstrate her speaking ability during the winter of 1890. Goldman realized that she also has the power to captivate an audience. She said that she could “sway people with words! Strange and magic words that welled up within me, from some unfamiliar depth” (Chalberg, 39). Despite teaching her everything he knew about public speaking, Most and Goldman’s ideology would soon drift apart over the issue of labor. During the late 19th century, workers “shared in common a very long working day-usually 10 hours a day, six days a week” (Nash, 532), Most was against this because he felt that the workers needed more time for recreation and leisure. He had his
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