I wasn’t familiar with Emma Goldman (1869-1940) before reading A DANGEROUS WOMAN, the graphic biography (as opposed to a graphic novel) written and illustrated by Sharon Rudahl. This softcover book details her life from her birth in Russia, as an anarchist who traveled the world, the relationships she had, to her death at age 70.
The biography is a good introduction to Goldman for adults. If they’re intrigued they might consider reading further about this strong-willed woman who championed birth control yet was against the right to vote for women.
Leaving Russia for the United States at age 15, Emma became an anarchist after the Haymarket Square bombing and traveled for most of her life as a great orator. She organized strikes, incited riots, spoke against patriotism, and was imprisoned several times. After her devotee Sasha Berkman was imprisoned for shooting an industrialist, she planned an ill-fated attempt to free him from prison. She published an anarchist magazine and worked many different jobs to pay for her travels and printing costs. Eventually she was deported but continued fighting for her beliefs.
The author put a great deal of work in drawing Emma’s life. For a graphic book there is a lot of information packed into its 115 pages.
As stated before, I think this is a good introduction to Emma Goldman’s life for older teens upwards. Personally I wouldn’t give it to a younger person as there are sexual scenes.
I would recommend A DANGEROUS WOMAN to those who are interested in the history of anarchy. ( )

I had never heard of Emma Goldman before this book crossed my desk on it's way to another library, she sounded interesting so I reserved the book and started reading. Emma was an anarchist at the turn of the 20th Century. A woman who started life in Tsarist Russia as a Jew and finished almost stateless in Canada, having spoken in many countries and been imprisoned many times. She was a woman before her time, but without her seed some thoughts would never have grown in people's minds. I closed it wondering what she would think about today. Most of the text is adapted from Emma Goldman's own words and details aren't spared. ( )

Book Review: "Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman"

By Sharon Rudahl

Review by James Generic



Emma Goldman is one of the big name names of American anarchists, as well as one of the earlier to contribute to free speech, birth control, and the labor movements. She was an amazing public speaker, something that is lost in this day of television and radio, and her writing still ranks amongst the classics of Anarchist thought for a free and just society. From her involvement in the shooting of Frick (though Alexander Berkman was a lousy shot) to free speech fights to labor struggles in Massachusetts to getting deported by Edgar Hoover, all the way to being amongst the first radicals to denounce the government of the Bolsheviks (which ostracized her amongst the left), and finally working to raise funds for the Spanish Revolutionary cause. She was jailed for fighting against the draft, advocating for birth control, and for "inciting a riot." In a lot of ways, the stuff she said then was visionary for the time period. She remains one of the most amazing people in history, and someone who gave her all so others could be free and live in a just world.



"Dangerous Woman: A Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman" can be best described as a graphic novel version of "Living My Life", and it's a real treat. The artist, Sharon Rudahl, does a great job capturing Goldman's turbulent and unique life, growing from a fiery Jewish peasant girl fleeing Russia to an active Anarchist speaker and organizer hated by the government, to the patron-saint of the American Anarchist movement, though small by the time of her death. She spares no detail, especially the parts about Emma's sex life and her many partners over the years. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when she has been sent by her mentor, Johann Most, on a speaking tour "Against the 8 Hour Day" (it was too little and was too reformist and not revolutionary enough.) She encounters an older man in the Chicago stop of the tour who tells her that while he understands why young people would be impatient with small demands, but "I won't live to see the revolution. Will I never have a little time for reading or to walk openly in the park?" After this encounter, Emma vowed never to let doctrine or ideology get in the way of a good fight that brought real change to real people's lives. That's a lesson that a lot of radicals then and now could learn and take to heart.

Today, the closest we in the United States have to an Emma Goldman is academics in ivory towers, as loud mouth voices in the sea of state and corporate rule. The speaking tours of yesterday is the youtube, internet, music albums and television of today, which is much more controlled than speaking in public used to be, though less prone to violent disruption by people who disagree with the author. It's hard to imagine a story like hers again where someone from such a humble beginning devotes her entire life, to the point where she refused to correct health problems like infertility, to the cause of fighting the existing order, and becoming such an international figure as she did. Maybe a new Emma Goldman of the internet or TV or music like hiphop will arise to become an inspiration to people's movements everywhere, like Subcommader Marcos in Chiapas has, or elsewhere. It's hard to say. Either way, check out Emma's life in graphic novel comic form, because she's a real life superhero in a way that Superman never could be.

MLA Citation:
Rudahl, Sharon et.al. Dangerous Woman. New York: New Press, 2007.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel or comic book form of the biography of Emma Goldman.

Emma Goldman is one of the big name names of American anarchists, as well as one of the earlier to contribute to free speech, birth control, and the labor movements. She was an amazing public speaker, something that is lost in this day of television and radio, and her writing still ranks amongst the classics of Anarchist thought for a free and just society. From her involvement in the shooting of Frick (though Alexander Berkman was a lousy shot) to free speech fights to labor struggles in Massachusetts to getting deported by Edgar Hoover, all the way to being amongst the first radicals to denounce the government of the Bolsheviks (which ostracized her amongst the left), and finally working to raise funds for the Spanish Revolutionary cause. She was jailed for fighting against the draft, advocating for birth control, and for “inciting a riot.” In a lot of ways, the stuff she said then was visionary for the time period. She remains one of the most amazing people in history, and someone who gave her all so others could be free and live in a just world.

"Dangerous Woman: A Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman" can be best described as a graphic novel version of "Living My Life", and it’s a real treat. The artist, Sharon Rudahl, does a great job capturing Goldman’s turbulent and unique life, growing from a fiery Jewish peasant girl fleeing Russia to an active Anarchist speaker and organizer hated by the government, to the patron-saint of the American Anarchist movement, though small by the time of her death. She spares no detail, especially the parts about Emma’s sex life and her many partners over the years. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when she has been sent by her mentor, Johann Most, on a speaking tour “Against the 8 Hour Day” (it was too little and was too reformist and not revolutionary enough.) She encounters an older man in the Chicago stop of the tour who tells her that while he understands why young people would be impatient with small demands, but “I won’t live to see the revolution. Will I never have a little time for reading or to walk openly in the park?” After this encounter, Emma vowed never to let doctrine or ideology get in the way of a good fight that brought real change to real people’s lives. That’s a lesson that a lot of radicals then and now could learn and take to heart.

Today, the closest we in the United States have to an Emma Goldman is academics in ivory towers, as loud mouth voices in the sea of state and corporate rule. The speaking tours of yesterday is the youtube, internet, music albums and television of today, which is much more controlled than speaking in public used to be, though less prone to violent disruption by people who disagree with the author. It’s hard to imagine a story like hers again where someone from such a humble beginning devotes her entire life, to the point where she refused to correct health problems like infertility, to the cause of fighting the existing order, and becoming such an international figure as she did. Maybe a new Emma Goldman of the internet or TV or music like hiphop will arise to become an inspiration to people’s movements everywhere, like Subcommader Marcos in Chiapas has, or elsewhere. It’s hard to say. Either way, check out Emma’s life in graphic novel comic form, because she’s a real life superhero in a way that Superman never could be.