Dear Friends:— I am happy, inexpressibly happy to be in your midst again, after an absence of fourteen long years, passed amid the horrors and darkness of my Pennsylvania nightmare. * * * Methinks the days of miracles are not past. They say that nineteen hundred years ago a man was raised from the dead after having been buried for three days. They call it a great miracle. But I think the resurrection from the peaceful slumber of a three days' grave is not nearly so miraculous as the actual coming back to life from a living death of fourteen years duration;—'tis the twentieth century resurrection, not based on ignorant credulity, nor assisted by any Oriental jugglery.
Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 1, March 1906: Step back in time and explore the influential publication that ignited the spirit of radical social and environmental activism. Key Points: Historical significance: Experience the inaugural issue of Mother Earth, a groundbreaking publication that advocated for social justice, anarchism, and environmental conservation. Catalyst for change: Delve into the passionate writings of various contributors who challenged societal norms, inspiring readers to question authority and work towards a more egalitarian and sustainable world. A voice of dissent: Mother Earth became a platform for progressive thinkers, fostering a sense of community and inspiring generations to fight for justice, equality, and the preservation of the natural world. Mother Earth presents a captivating collection of thought-provoking essays penned by various authors, delving into pressing social issues of the early 20th century. Published in March 1906, this groundbreaking publication captures the essence of a time marked by social unrest, political transformation, and calls for change. Within its pages, readers encounter passionate and insightful discussions on topics such as inequality, labor rights, feminism, and anarchism. The authors, representing a diverse range of perspectives, challenge the prevailing societal norms and provoke readers to question the status quo. They examine the oppressive structures of power, advocate for workers' rights, and explore the role of women in society. Mother Earth serves as a platform for intellectual and ideological exchange, fostering a vibrant dialogue that aims to inspire activism and social change. Its essays encourage readers to critically analyze the existing systems and imagine alternative ways of organizing society. The publication, known for its radical stance, sparks conversations on individual freedom, communal living, and the intersection of politics and philosophy. Amidst a time of great transformation, Mother Earth becomes a catalyst for mobilization and a voice for the disenfranchised. Its essays ignite the flame of social consciousness, challenging readers to contemplate the world around them and envision a more just and equitable future. Through this collection, the power of ideas and the pursuit of social progress converge, leaving an indelible mark on the history of social activism.
This second of a three-volume set documenting Emma Goldman's life and work in the United States covers the years from 1902 through the end of 1909, from the 1901 assassination of President McKinley by a Polish-American anarchist through Goldman's participation in a wider political sphere that began with her launch of the anarchist magazine Mother Earth.
Oscar Wilde is remembered as a wit and a dandy, as a gay martyr, and as a brilliant writer, but his philosophical depth and political radicalism are often forgotten. Resist Everything Except Temptation locates Wilde in the tradition of left-wing anarchism, and argues that only when we take his politics seriously can we begin to understand the man, his life, and his work. Drawing from literary, historical, and biographical evidence, including archival research, the book outlines the philosophical influences and political implications of Wilde's ideas on art, sex, morality, violence, and above all, individualism. Williams raises questions about the relationships between culture and politics, between utopian aspirations and practical programs, and between individualism, group identity, and class struggle. The resulting volume represents, not merely a historical curiosity, but a contribution to current debates within political theory and a salvo in the broader culture wars.
This book addresses provides a series of in-depth portraits of men and women who have been labelled ‘terrorists’, from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Bridging historical methodologies and theoretical approaches to terrorism studies, it seeks to contribute to the developing historicising of terrorism studies. This is achieved principally through a prosopographical approach. In the preponderance of detailed statistical and quantitative data on the practice of terrorism and political violence, the individuals who participate in terrorist acts are often obscured. While ideologies and organisations have attracted much scholarly interest, less is known of the personal trajectories into political violence, particularly from a historical perspective. The focus on a relatively narrow cast of high-profile terrorist ‘villains’, to a large part driven by popular and media attention, results in a somewhat skewed picture; of equal value, arguably, is a more sustained reflection on the lives of lesser-known individuals. The book sits at the juncture between terrorism studies, historical biography and ethnography. It comprises case studies of ten individuals who have engaged in political violence in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, in a number of locations and with a variety of ideological motivations, from Russian-inflected anarchism to Islamist extremism. Through detailed empirical research, crucial themes in the study of terrorism and political violence are explored: the diverse individual radicalisation pathways, the question of disengagement and re-engagement, various counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency strategies adopted by governments and security forces, and the changing nature and perception of terrorism over time. Although not explicitly comparative, a number of themes resonate between the case studies, which will be drawn together in the conclusion to this book. These include the role of migration in radicalisation, the influence of radical family heritages, the experience of imprisonment and the narratives which individuals construct to tell their own terrorist life-stories. It also provides an historically grounded answer to one of the most contentious and heated debates in recent literature on terrorism studies: ‘what leads a person to turn to political violence?’ In examining the life-narratives of a diverse range of men and women who at some point embraced violence, this book seeks to contribute to a growing understanding of the entire arc of a terrorist lifespan, from radicalisation to mobilisation, to disengagement and beyond. This book will be of much interest to students of political violence, terrorism studies, security studies and politics in general.
