Books by Alexander Berkman

A collection of writings from American anarchist Alexander Berkman, on the Russian Revolution, the American labor movement, the Paris Commune, Kronstadt, and Anarchism. Includes "The Need of Translating Ideals into Life", "The Kronstadt Rebellion", "The Paris Commune and Kronstadt, "The Idea is the Thing", and others. New Introduction gives a biography and overview.

A firsthand account of the Russian Revolution, from American anarchist Alexander Berkman. At first a supporter, Berkman became disillusioned by the Communists and their repressive system of party dictatorship and state capitalism.

"e;A book of rare power and beauty, majestic in its structure, filled with the truth of imagination and the truth of actuality, emphatic in its declarations and noble in its reach."e;Bayard Boyesen, Mother Earth. "e;No other book discusses so frankly the criminal ways of the closed prison society."e; Kenneth RexrothIn 1892, Alexander Berkman tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick for the latter's role in violently suppressing the Homestead Steel Strike. Berkman's attempt was unsuccessful. Berkman spent the next fourteen years in Pennsylvania's Western Penitentiary. Upon release, he wrote what was to become a classic of prison literature, and a profound testament to human courage in the face of oppression.This new edition of his account of those years is introduced and fully annotated by Barry Pateman and Jessica Moran, both former associate editors of the Emma Goldman Papers at the University of California Berkeley. Their efforts make this the definitive version of Berkman's tale of his transformation within prison, his growing sympathy for those he'd considered social parasites, and the intimate relationships he developed with them. Also includes never-before-published facsimile reprints and transcriptions of the diary Berkman kept while he wrote this book, conveying the difficulties he had reliving his experiences.Alexander Berkman (18701936) was a leading writer and militant in the anarchist movement and author of the classic primer What is Anarchism?Barry Pateman was associate editor of Emma Goldman: A Documentary History, and editor of Chomsky on Anarchism. He is a historian and member of the Kate Sharpley Library collective.Jessica Moran, was an assistant editor of Emma Goldman: A Documentary History. She is a member of the Kate Sharpley Library collective and is an archivist currently living and working in New Zealand.

Published here for the first time is a crucial document in the history of American radicalism-the "Prison Blossoms," a series of essays, narratives, poems, and fables composed by three activist anarchists imprisoned for the 1892 assault on anti-union steel tycoon Henry Clay Frick.