Overview

From a prize-winning historian, a new portrait of an extraordinary activist and the turbulent age in which she lived Goddess of Anarchy recounts the formidable life of the militant writer, orator, and agitator Lucy Parsons. Born to an enslaved woman in Virginia in 1851 and raised in Texas-where she met her husband, the Haymarket ""martyr"" Albert Parsons-Lucy was a fearless advocate of First Amendment rights, a champion of the working classes, and one of the most prominent figures of African descent of her era. And yet, her life was riddled with contradictions-she advocated violence without apology, concocted a Hispanic-Indian identity for herself, and ignored the plight of African Americans. Drawing on a wealth of new sources, Jacqueline Jones presents not only the exceptional life of the famous American-born anarchist but also an authoritative account of her times-from slavery through the Great Depression.

Full Product Details

9780465078998

Table of Contents

Reviews

This dramatic and impressive book vividly brings the tumultuous and tragic life of ex-slave and American revolutionary Lucy Parsons to what should be a large audience. Even those of us who cherish a more heroic view of Parsons' life in struggle will learn enormously from this meticulously researched and learned biography. --David Roediger, author of Class, Race and Marxism One of our most talented historians tackles one of American history's most enigmatic figures. Lucy Parsons lived a life full of contradictions: an ex-slave who convinced the world she was Mexican, an anarchist who loved fashion, the wife of an ex-Confederate turned socialist. Goddess of Anarchy is at once a fascinating biography and a window onto the tumultuous debates of the Gilded Age. --Karl Jacoby, author of The Strange Career of William Ellis: The Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaire

Michael Willrich, author of Pox: An American History and City of Courts No scholar has done more to illuminate the tangled politics of race and class in American history than Jacqueline Jones. In this deeply researched and powerfully written book, Jones narrates the thrilling life of Lucy Parsons-the infamous labor radical and anarchist who scandalized American audiences with her incendiary critiques of industrial capitalism and government oppression, all the while concealing her own past in slavery. A richly revealing story, brilliantly told. Parsons will get under your skin. Michael Kazin, author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918 Lucy Parsons was a unique figure in the history of the American left: eloquent, beautiful, uncompromising in her anarchist faith, and loath to embrace her mixed-race identity. Jacqueline Jones, one of our nation's most distinguished historians, fills her narrative of this remarkable life with both the vivid drama and the critical understanding it deserves. David Roediger, author of Class, Race and Marxism This dramatic and impressive book vividly brings the tumultuous and tragic life of ex-slave and American revolutionary Lucy Parsons to what should be a large audience. Even those of us who cherish a more heroic view of Parsons' life in struggle will learn enormously from this meticulously researched and learned biography. Steven Hahn, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration With remarkable research and insight, the distinguished historian Jacqueline Jones has recovered the life and thought of an extraordinary historical figure whom we barely know. The result is a powerful and unsettling story of race, radicalism, and personal trauma, of growth, struggle, and loss, which casts a century of United States history in new and provocative light. Karl Jacoby, author of The Strange Career of William Ellis: The Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaire One of our most talented historians tackles one of American history's most enigmatic figures. Lucy Parsons lived a life full of contradictions: an ex-slave who convinced the world she was Mexican, an anarchist who loved fashion, the wife of an ex-Confederate turned socialist. Goddess of Anarchy is at once a fascinating biography and a window onto the tumultuous debates of the Gilded Age. -- This dramatic and impressive book vividly brings the tumultuous and tragic life of ex-slave and American revolutionary Lucy Parsons to what should be a large audience. Even those of us who cherish a more heroic view of Parsons' life in struggle will learn enormously from this meticulously researched and learned biography. --David Roediger, author of Class, Race and Marxism One of our most talented historians tackles one of American history's most enigmatic figures. Lucy Parsons lived a life full of contradictions: an ex-slave who convinced the world she was Mexican, an anarchist who loved fashion, the wife of an ex-Confederate turned socialist. Goddess of Anarchy is at once a fascinating biography and a window onto the tumultuous debates of the Gilded Age. --Karl Jacoby, author of The Strange Career of William Ellis: The Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaire

David Roediger, author of Class, Race and Marxism This dramatic and impressive book vividly brings the tumultuous and tragic life of ex-slave and American revolutionary Lucy Parsons to what should be a large audience. Even those of us who cherish a more heroic view of Parsons' life in struggle will learn enormously from this meticulously researched and learned biography. Michael Willrich, author of Pox: An American History and City of Courts No scholar has done more to illuminate the tangled politics of race and class in American history than Jacqueline Jones. In this deeply researched and powerfully written book, Jones narrates the thrilling life of Lucy Parsons-the infamous labor radical and anarchist who scandalized American audiences with her incendiary critiques of industrial capitalism and government oppression, all the while concealing her own past in slavery. A richly revealing story, brilliantly told. Parsons will get under your skin. Michael Kazin, author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918 Lucy Parsons was a unique figure in the history of the American left: eloquent, beautiful, uncompromising in her anarchist faith, and loath to embrace her mixed-race identity. Jacqueline Jones, one of our nation's most distinguished historians, fills her narrative of this remarkable life with both the vivid drama and the critical understanding it deserves. Steven Hahn, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration With remarkable research and insight, the distinguished historian Jacqueline Jones has recovered the life and thought of an extraordinary historical figure whom we barely know. The result is a powerful and unsettling story of race, radicalism, and personal trauma, of growth, struggle, and loss, which casts a century of United States history in new and provocative light. Karl Jacoby, author of The Strange Career of William Ellis: The Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaire One of our most talented historians tackles one of American history's most enigmatic figures. Lucy Parsons lived a life full of contradictions: an ex-slave who convinced the world she was Mexican, an anarchist who loved fashion, the wife of an ex-Confederate turned socialist. Goddess of Anarchy is at once a fascinating biography and a window onto the tumultuous debates of the Gilded Age. -- This dramatic and impressive book vividly brings the tumultuous and tragic life of ex-slave and American revolutionary Lucy Parsons to what should be a large audience. Even those of us who cherish a more heroic view of Parsons' life in struggle will learn enormously from this meticulously researched and learned biography. --David Roediger, author of Class, Race and Marxism One of our most talented historians tackles one of American history's most enigmatic figures. Lucy Parsons lived a life full of contradictions: an ex-slave who convinced the world she was Mexican, an anarchist who loved fashion, the wife of an ex-Confederate turned socialist. Goddess of Anarchy is at once a fascinating biography and a window onto the tumultuous debates of the Gilded Age. --Karl Jacoby, author of The Strange Career of William Ellis: The Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaire

Author Information

Jacqueline Jones is the Walter Prescott Webb Chair in History and Ideas and the Mastin Gentry White Professor of Southern History at the University of Texas, Austin. Winner of the Bancroft Prize for Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow, Jones lives in Austin, Texas.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available