Goldman's Arguments Against Anarchism

POLI1020: Major Essay

Question: Selecting one anarchist thinker (Emma Goldman) critically evaluate their arguments that the state is the problem not the solution.

"That government is best which governs not at all" - Henry David Thoreau

Civil Disobedience (1849)

Anarchism as an formal political philosophy is a relatively recent concept that emerged during the French Revolution in the late 18th century and later formalised by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in the mid 19th century. However throughout the decades, particularly during the early 20th century, anarchist ideologists such as the controversial Emma Goldman helped articulate arguments that not only supported anarchist thought, but also helped to popularise it as a movement. As what could be considered a…show more content…
[8]c.f. Geoffrey R. Stone, Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime, From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism, W.W. Norton & Company, 2004, p. 139–152.
[9] Emma Goldman, Anarchism and other Essays: Prisons A Social Crime and Failure, Dover Publications, 1969, p.62.
[10] Andrew Heywood, Political Ideologies, 4th ed, London, Palgrave macmillan, 2007, p. 177.
[11] c.f. Carl Landauer, European Socialism: A History of Ideas and Movements, University of California Press, 1959.

[12] c.f. Emma Goldman, "Anarchism and other Essays: Anarchism what it really stands for" Dover Publications, 1969.

[13] Ibid p.56.

[14]c.f. Andrew Heywood, Political Ideologies, 4th ed, London, Palgrave macmillan, 2007, p. 190.

[15] Goldman, op. cit., p.57.

[16] The American Experience 2004. Emma Goldman [Videotape]. United States: Public Broadcasting System.

[17] Andrew Heywood, Political Ideologies, 4th ed, London, Palgrave macmillan, 2007, p.180.

[18] Emma Goldman, "Anarchism and other Essays: Anarchism what it really stands for" Dover Publications, 1969, p. 55.

[19]c.f. Michael Curtis (ed), The great political theories volume 2, New York, Avon Books, 1981,