Customer Reviews (2)

Wexler does not get Emma
For the real Emma Goldman and for a far better understanding get
yourself copies of

Emma Goldman Living My Life Volume 1
Emma Goldman Living My Life Volume 2

These two volumes amount to nothing less than the single finest, single most relevant and unmatched autobiography in the entire history of English language autobiography.

A tragedy in its classical terms
Driven -- that sums up Emma Goldman's life. Driven to accomplish an ideal. So driven that she seemed to care not what nor whom she scrambled over in order to achieve it.She was not polite about it, nor suave in her arguments.Bluntness she considered her form of honesty.Unfortunately for her, she did not succeed.The obstacles in her path were insurmountable.

Her goalwas world anarchism. Because her membership in an anarchist organization was illegal under the terms of the later discredited Immigration Act of 1918, she was swept up in the Palmer Raids, that shameful law which was spawned by war hysteria and a corrupted notion of patriotism."Red Emma", as the press often referred to her, was then culled out of the population and imprisoned with 248 others on Ellis Island, waiting for an ocean vessel to ship them out of the United States, not because they committed crimes but because they were not native born and because they publicly disagreed with the government.For Emma, this was a final crushing blow -- to be torn away from her home -- for she had just been released after having spent two years in prison because she spoke out against the draft and the United States' entry into World War I.

It was there, on that bitter winter night of 1919,that Alice Wexler begins her well-written narrative of Emma Goldman's tragic odyssey: that ofa 50-year-old matronly woman, a high-profile anarchist, a fiery lecturer, being sent, against her will to Russia -- though she was born in Lithuania --but because she once had lived in St. Petersburg.This is tragedy in its classical terms, because Emma, after having spent more than half her life in the U.S., wasmore American than Russian. Classic tragedy because she was never to return.

When she arrived in Russia, Emma and her sometimes lover and fellow anarchist Alexander Berkman then fell out with the Communists who had just begun to rule Russia following the October Revolution.So she had to move on. She could not send down roots anywhere else, not in France, nor in England, nor in Canada because, according to Ms. Wexler, Emma yearned for an ultimate return to America.

Because Emma gave herself so completely to an unworkable ideal,she was unable to find contentment anywhere or with any person.Her love affairs were all one-sided. She gave more than she could ever hope to receive from those weak men whom she was able to dominate; her commitment to her ideals were the same, she gave them more than she ever received.

To read about Emma Goldman is an interesting experience and Ms. Wexler's even-handed and well-researched view is recommended for any one interested in a study of thwarted ambitions and in the radical movement in American history. Especially important is the glaring lesson in these uncertain times of how gross injustices occur when hysteria disguised as patriotism so grossly abuse civil rights. ... Read more

Book Description
This brief text assists students in understanding Goldman's philosophy and thinking so that they can more fully engage in useful, intelligent class dialogue and improve their understanding of course content. Part of the "Wadsworth Philosophers Series," (which will eventually consist of approximately 100 titles, each focusing on a single "thinker" from ancient times to the present), ON GOLDMAN is written by a philosopher deeply versed in the philosophy of this key thinker. Like other books in the series, this concise book offers sufficient insight into the thinking of a notable philosopher better enabling students to engage the reading and to discuss the material in class and on paper. ... Read more

Book Description
As a young child in polygolt Kovno, Max Petrovich Kraft had a clear vision of his own future and the wonderful adventures he was going to have in America. America! Where everyone spoke English, so that "no matter what anybody says or how anybody says it, everybody understands." Who is Angel Max? Born in 1866, he is an orphan, raised by rich realitives, educated and enlightened Jews. As a boy, he becomes obsessed with English and James Cooper while his siblings get caught up in the anarchist/nihilist underground. He comes to America, to New York, and stays with realtives, not on the Lower East Side but in a townhouse on West 11th Street, just off Fifth Avenue. A sound marriage and equally sound business ventures, in real estate, make the American dream immediately come true-city and country homes, servants, carriages-and, above all, speaking English at all times. But there is the other side of the family-revolutionary stepsisters, a crazed, violent half brother, an anarchist cousin-mone other than "Red Emma" Goldman herself. They are in and out of his life, and Max becomes an "angel" for the anarchist cause, a little out of sympathy but more to keep them at a distance. This ambiguity is splendidly rendered in a richly inventive novel filled with memories of a time past, of lives lived and imagined in all seriousness and with empathy and humor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A powerful and original novel.
The Angel Max is a truly original novel, written in a prose that is at once detached and cool, intelligent and compassionate, sensitive and perceptive. Much of the power of the novel comes from the tone of thisprose, but the story itself is powerful as well. It's one of the bestnovels I've read in recent years.

Also a great literary novel
Besides being an engrossing historical novel, The Angel Max features some of the most finely crafted prose you'll find anywhere, as well as a narrator (Max himself) whose internal conflicts provide a fascinating and singular point of view, a combination the Times review calls "airless", but which I found gave the novel the extra quality that makes it far more than the usual historical novel. This one's also for people looking for great literature.

A great read about a facinating era in America
The Angel Max is a wonderfully written novel about an immigrant from Russia (Lithuania) who arrives in New York in the 1880's.What unfolds in this book is a solidly researched history of immigration, anarchism in America, and the City of New York.The way the story folds factual material into the fictional lives of Max and Fanny Kraft is interesting and fun to read and ponder.There is gentle humor, along with anxiety and sadness in this family,as there is in life for all of us.The book concludes in 1919, an important "threshold"year in American history.This is a great read---go get it today! Peter Glassgold is one terrific writer! ... Read more

Book Description
No Regrets is a candid memoir of a controversial social and medical reformer, Ben Reitman, written by a daughter who struggled to uncover her family's hidden past-searching in letters and family records for the secrets of her long-dead father and the women who had loved him.The book chronicles Reitman's complex relationships with several women including Emma Goldman and the author's own mother.The pain, confusion, idealism, brilliance, and destructiveness in Reitman's life are illustrated with excerpts from Reitman's personal letters. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Thoughts from Mission, texas
I thought "No Regrets" by Mecca Carpenter was quite readable.
It covered the anarchists movement,Emma Goldman & Dr Reitman's
many affairs very well.This was a time when there was no unions,
birth controll was illegal & prostitution was legal.Free love was shocking.Many changes took place.Ben Reitman was right in the middle.He enjoyed change & shocking people.He was faithful only to his Mother.He broke many womens heart.The smart ones moved on as he did.He is a good example of the kind of man to
avoid romantically.I enjoyed the book.
Vicki Kapp

Kinda' dull
For such an interesting man living in such turbulent times as the '20s and '30s in Chicago, this was kinda' dull. Reitman's daughter disects many letters to & from Reitman but really doesn't get into an indepth study of the man--or the times. It's basically just a superficial gloss-over of his many lovers (and there were a lot!)

The author could have used a better editor--she jumps around quite a bit, making statements that aren't followed up.

I kept wondering what drove him to do the things he did--and how he became involved in his diverse causes. You'll never know by reading this book.

Too bad--he could be a very interesting subject that sheds light on a controversial political and social movement in this country.

A good book about an interesting man!
I didn't know anything about Ben Reitman until a friend gave me this book.It is a true story about a man who preached social responsibility but lived a reckless, insensitive, and destructive life.Mrs.Reitman-Carpenter's book is also a contradiction -- a real combination ofscholarship, historical accuracy, and a good, captivating story.I learnedabout hobos, whorehouses, birth control, and a whole cross-section oftopics in early twentieth-century history. Mrs. Reitman-Carpenter'semotional relationship to her subject fills the book with energy.Shemakes the reader feel as though he/she actually met Ben Reitman.Was he ahero or an anti-hero?He was a living example of the wave of heroicradicals which dominated artistic movements at the start of the twentiethcentury.He reminded me vividly of "Bazarov" from Turgenev's"Fathers and Sons".This book can be read for fun, or tolearn about US history.The provocative topics which are brought up onpractically every page stimulate the reader to open his/her mind andreconsider prejudices on controversial issues. The diligent scholarship,the high quality of the pictures, and the brilliantly clear prose are threegood reasons to read this book!

Carpenter provides a nuanced view of Reitman's love life.
In her biography of her father, Mecca Reitman Carpenter effectively rescues Ben Reitman from Emma Goldman's longstanding portrayal of him as ablindly promiscuous, self-indulgent libertine.While she does not alwayssympathize with his treatment of the women in his life, Carpenter'sexamination of the unpublished letters of several of the women who lovedhim, including those written by her mother, provides a nuanced view ofthese relationships.Her portrait of her mother is especially instructiveand engaging.Medina Oliver Reitman's dry wit and her unshakable sense ofself-direction are both endearing and admirable.While she was ostensiblyapolitical, unmoved by the radical social and sexual philosophies of hercontemporaries, she is the best embodiment of the "New Woman" ofthe twentieth century in fact or fiction that I've come across. ... Read more