Description

Life of an Anarchist
The Alexander Berkman Reader
Alexander Berkman
Foreword by Howard Zinn
Edited by Gene Fellner

Alexander Berkman was a twentieth-century American revolutionary. Like the abolitionist John Brown before him, Berkman was hugely idealistic, ready to go to the furthest extreme of self-sacrifice and violence on behalf of justice and civil rights. He decided to assassinate industrialist Henry Clay Frick after reading in the newspaper that Pinkertons hired by Frick had opened fire on the Homestead strikers, killing men, women,and children. Berkman’s bungled attempt cost him fifteen years in a federal penitentiary. Upon his release, he became an effective agitator against conscription and was again imprisoned and eventually deported to Russia, where he saw firsthand the early days of Bolshevism. Berkman’s writings remain a lasting and impassioned record of intense political transformation.

Featuring a new introduction by Howard Zinn, Life of an Anarchist contains Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, Berkman’s account of his years in prison; The Bolshevik Myth, his eyewitness account of the early days of the Russian Revolution; and The ABC of Anarchism, the classic text on the nature of anarchism in the twentieth century. Also included are a selection of letters between Berkman and his lifelong companion Emma Goldman, and a generous sampling from Berkman’s other publications.

Gene Fellner is a New York City–born artist. During the Nicaraguan revolution he lived in the country and produced murals with Sandinista artists. He is the author and illustrator of the GLF Occasional, booklets of art and text. Recent work can be seen at here.

Howard Zinn is the editor, with Anthony Arnove, of Voices of a People’s History of the United States (Seven Stories Press, 2004).

“Alexander Berkman is one of the lost heroes of American radicalism, a rare pure voice of rebellion . . .This anthology is a valuable treasure.” —Howard Zinn, from the Introduction

“Includes everything an aspiring revolutionary could want.” —Los Angeles Reader