Primer 19 — PATRIOTISM: A MENACE TO LIBERTY · Emma Goldman
About the Author
Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was a leading figure in American radicalism. Her outspoken support of women’s rights, worker’s rights and free speech led her to be denounced and eventually deported.
About the Text
Patriotism: a Menace to Liberty was originally included in the book, Anarchism and Other Essays, published by Mother Earth Association, New York, 1910. The text is taken from Project Gutenberg.
About the Illustrations
The illustrations are from a series titled Deathby Alfred Rethel (1816 – 1859), a German history painter. The cover illustration is a detail of the “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsen Flag.
16 pages; 4 x 7; saddle-stitched
$5.00
read an excerpt
Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy. — George Bernard Shaw
You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it. — Malcolm X
The contention that a standing army and navy is the best security of peace is about as logical as the claim that the most peaceful citizen is he who goes about heavily armed. The experience of every-day life fully proves that the armed individual is invariably anxious to try his strength. The same is historically true of governments. Really peaceful countries do not waste life and energy in war preparations, with the result that peace is maintained. When we have undermined the patriotic lie, we shall have cleared the path for that great structure wherein all nationalities shall be united into a universal brotherhood, – a truly FREE SOCIETY.
