The Emma Goldman Papers is part of a national initiative to retrieve the papers of individuals whose life work has had a lasting impact on the course of American history. Since 1980, the Emma Goldman Papers Project at UCB has collected, organized, and edited tens of thousands of documents from around the world by and about Emma Goldman (1869-1940), a leading figure in American anarchism, feminism, and radicalism. In the spirit of Emma Goldman, the EGPP has extended its scholarly research to serve the community-to educate the public about the complexity of engagement in social and political transformation. It has published a microfilm edition of the papers (1991-1993) and A Guide to Her Life and Documentary Sources (1995). The papers provide a window not only into Goldman but also into social and cultural movements in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Other publications include The Life and Times of Emma Goldman: A Curriculum for Middle and High School Students, highlighting primary source historical documents, and With Speech as My Weapon: Emma Goldman and the First Amendment, A Unit of Study for Grades 8–12. Since 1990, the Project has toured an exhibition of thirty-eight reproductions of historical photographs, personal letters, government documents and other memorabilia.
In 2004, The Emma Goldman Papers became a part of Peace and Conflict Studies within International and Area Studies. Edwin M. Epstein, chair of the Peace and Conflict Studies Group Major, is the current chair of the Emma Goldman Papers Faculty Advisory Board.
The Project is currently preparing a four-volume selective book edition, entitled
Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of The American Years (1890-1919).
The first and second volumes, Made For America
(1890-1901) and Making Speech
Free (1902-1909) have been published by the University
of California Press. The third volume, Light and Shadows (1910-1916),
is tentatively scheduled for Spring 2007, and the fourth volume, The
War Years (1917-1919), is scheduled for Spring 2009.
The Project director is Goldman biographer Dr. Candace Falk, author of Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman (Holt, 1984; revised commemorative paperback edition, Rutgers University Press, 1990, 1999).
Dr. Barry Pateman is the Associate Editor.
Edwin M. Epstein, chair of the Peace and Conflict Studies Group Major, is the current chair of the Emma Goldman Papers Faculty Advisory Board. Leon F. Litwack, Morrison Professor of American History at UC Berkeley, chaired the Faculty Advisory Board for many years.
The Emma Goldman Papers is a part of Peace and Conflict Studies, which is a part of International and Area Studies at Berkeley. Its primary federal sponsor is the National Historical Publications and Records Commission of the National Archives in Washington, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as other federal and private funding, supports our continued research.
For more information about the Emma Goldman Papers Project, its publications, its traveling exhibition, or to request a catalogue of commemorative items, contact us at:
The Emma Goldman Papers