Life of an Anarchist - The Alexander Berkman Reader

Editor: Daniel Guérin
With a New Forward by: Howard Zinn

Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Pages: 362
Released: 1992, This Edition Jan 7, 2004
ISBN-13: 9781583226629


Description (from the Back of the Book):

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 at first hand 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.

About the Editor:
Gene Fellner is a New York City-born artist. During the Nicaragua revolution he lived in teh country and produced murals with Sandinista artists. He is the author and Illustrator of GLF Occasional, booklets of art and text. Recent work can be seen at www.genefellinerart.com.

About the Forward Author:
Renowned historian Howard Zinn is the author of the classic A People's History of the United States and most recently the co-editor of Voices of a People's History of the United States.