Emma is a play by historian and playwright Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...

 (1922–2010). It was first performed in 1976.

The play dramatizes events from the life of the real Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....

. Zinn wrote the play using Goldman's autobiography, correspondence between Goldman and fellow anarchist Alexander Berkman

Alexander Berkman

Alexander Berkman was an anarchist known for his political activism and writing. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century....

 (Emma's lover, who also became a character in the play), and other research.

As Zinn describes her in his introduction, "She seemed to be tireless as she traveled the country, lecturing to large audiences everywhere, on birth control

Birth control

Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...

 ('A woman should decide for herself'), on the problems of marriage as an institution ('Marriage has nothing to do with love'), on patriotism

Patriotism

Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

 ('the last refuge of a scoundrel'), on free love

Free love

The term free love has been used to describe a social movement that rejects marriage, which is seen as a form of social bondage. The Free Love movement’s initial goal was to separate the state from sexual matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery...

 ('What is love if not free?'), and also on the drama — Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

, Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...

, Strindberg

August Strindberg

Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...

."

According to author Tom H. Hastings, the play shows the period of Goldman's "nonviolence

Nonviolence

Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...

 and resistance to militarism

Militarism

Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....

", rather than her earlier "attachment to violent revolution". After someone accuses her of plotting to "blow up the fleet" in San Francisco harbor, she declares "Bombs are not my way", but she "would be happy to see the fleet sink to the bottom of the sea ... so that we, and our brothers and sisters in other countries, can live in peace."

Plot summary

The action of the play takes place during the late 1880s, and focuses on the character of Emma Goldman as she grows from a simple textile factory worker to a revolutionary and anarchist. The outspoken advocacy of radical anarchist and populist ideals are followed through persecution and hardship to the beginnings of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. The play closes with the words of Goldman during an anti-conscription

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 protest in 1917, just before her arrest on sedition

Sedition

In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...

charges.