Take Bread

Early Writings on Political Violence

By: Emma Goldman

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Paperback | 1 January 2026

At a Glance

Paperback
118 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
17.8 x 10.8 x 0.71

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"They will go on robbing you, your children, and your children's children, unless you wake up, unless you become daring enough to demand your rights. Well, then, demonstrate before the palaces of the rich; demand work. If they do not give you work, demand bread. If they deny you both, take bread."

Imprisoned for inciting riot, blamed for fomenting the assassination of William McKinley, deported in the firstRed Scare, called the High Priestess of Anarchy, the Red Queen, the most dangerous woman in America-writer and revolutionary Emma Goldman was one of the most prominent and feared radical thinkers of her time.

Presented here are her early views on political violence, a nuanced collection comprehending the relationship between the individual violence of the revolutionary and the institutionalized violence that calls it forth.

Industry Reviews

Rave reviews from her contemporaries:

"The most dangerous woman in America ... Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman are, beyond doubt, two of the most dangerous anarchists in this country and if permitted to return to the community will result in undue harm."

- J. Edgar Hoover

"From the newspapers you would judge her to be an ignorant, vulgar, shrieking harridan, with a bomb in one hand and a bottle of vitriol in the other."

- William Marion Reedy, St. Louis Mirror

"The facial signs of destructiveness and alimentiveness are very pronounced in the form of the mouth, and it is chiefly in the mouth and eyes that we may detect the signs of quality and temperament which account for the woman's disposition to attack the present social fabric."

- Editor, Phrenological Journal and Science of Health

"Your language was such as to incite disorder, to incite to riot, and the language as interpreted by those who heard it was such that a riot might have ensued ... You told us you did not believe in our institutions; that you did not believe in our laws, and that you have no respect for them. Such a person cannot be tolerated in this community by those who believe in law ... I look upon you as a dangerous woman in your doctrine."

- The Honorable Judge Randolph B. Martine to Goldman, at her sentencing for inciting riot

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