Johann Most: Life of a Radical

by Tom Goyens

Overview

Known best for articulating the propaganda of the deed, Johann Most was and still is caricatured as a radical fanatic. Tom Goyens’ in-depth biography rediscovers the complexities that animated the German American agitator and made him a pivotal figure in the development of anarchism in the US and socialism in Germany. Most galvanized workers through passionate speeches and writings that showcased his gifts as a performer, satirist, and rhetorician. Numerous challenges, including repeated convictions for his incendiary rhetoric, failed to curb his organizing or his efforts to foster a dedicated network of comrades that included Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and his common-law wife, Helene Minkin. Goyens details Most’s essential contributions to the anarchist movement while also highlighting his critique of religion and defense of science within emancipatory movements. As Goyens follows Most’s ideological journey, he illuminates the political contexts that shaped the anarchist’s evolving views on revolutionary action and social change. Comprehensive and long overdue, Johann Most traces the intellectual life and enduring relevance of a misunderstood radical figure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252046919
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	12/09/2025
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Tom Goyens is a professor of history at Salisbury University. He is the author of Beer and Revolution: The German Anarchist Movement in New York City, 1880–1914.

Editorial Reviews

Goyens’ book expertly demolishes myths and caricatures, while uniting the German and American halves of Johann Most’s radical career through a meticulously documented transnational biography. Most emerges in the text as a formidable thinker as well as an electrifying activist.”
—Kenyon Zimmer, coeditor of With Freedom in Our Ears: Histories of Jewish Anarchism


“Goyens comprehensively follows Most’s development from childhood to adulthood and his activity in Europe and the US. Most’s militancy helped create the stereotype of the anarchist as terrorist. Yet he was a complex figure whose interventions shed importa

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