Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman’s opposition to the American government poses an interesting question for our modern democracy: is there room for radical dissent?

Yesterday’s “good" immigrant can turn into tomorrow’s radical.

The writings of Emma Goldman entered the public domain. Here is an introduction to Goldman's life and her particular brand of anarchism.

The fears that were conjured by nativists 80 years ago are chillingly similar to what we're hearing today.

A 1950s mass deportation campaign shows that abuse and dehumanization are intrinsic to immigrant detention.

As director of the FBI for decades, J. Edgar Hoover helped build a massive, professionalized national security state and hounded leftists out of public life.

The crusade against civil liberties during World War I.

Despite their minority status, the Socialists had been a significant force in American politics before patriotic war hysteria brought on an era of repression.

Watching the Ken Burns series on the U.S. and the Holocaust and thinking about American folk music.

Anthony Comstock’s crusade against vice constrained the lives of ordinary Americans. His antagonists opened up history for feminists and other activists.

When 'seditious' and 'unpatriotic' speech was criminalized in the U.S.

On the passage and enforcement of laws to exclude or deport immigrants for their beliefs, and the people who challenged those laws.

A hundred years ago, the Palmer Raids imperilled thousands of immigrants. Then a wily official got in the way.

The radical and reactionary currents of New York at the turn of the 20th century.

The history of the left in the United States is a history of betrayal.

A new biography of Lucy Parsons makes it clear that the activist deserves attention apart from her more well-known husband.

Freeing Thoreau from layers of caricature that have long distorted his legacy.

How a South Asian immigrant became a Wyoming fast-food legend and received American citizenship - twice.

We are again caught between nationalists longing for an imagined past, and activists invoking ideals the nation has not attained.

What's next for Planned Parenthood?