The Blast: The Complete Collection

“The pages of The Blast seem to smell of black powder, or better, seem to have blown out of the eye of a social hurricane. A sense of absolute emergency pervades almost every column.” —Richard Drinnon

After serving as editor for Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth, Alexander Berkman moved to San Francisco and started his own newspaper. This historical reprint of the complete 29 issues features articles, letters, news and editorials by Berkman and his revolution-minded contemporaries. Topics include the political trial of labor activists Mooney-Billings, a profile of Pancho Villa, the imprisonment of the Magon brothers, arrests of Goldman and Margaret Sanger for birth control agitation, and anti--conscription actions. Complete with powerful political artwork and photos.

Alexander Berkman was a leading writer and participant in the 20th century Anarchist movement. The young, idealistic Berkman practiced "propaganda by deed" attempting to assassinate Henry Clay Frick during the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892. While imprisoned, he wrote the classic tale of prison life Prison Memoirs of and Anarchist. After his release, Berkman edited Emma Goldman's Mother Earth and his own paper The Blast!. Deported from New York City to his native Russia in 1919, were he saw first hand the failure of the Bolshevik revolution and dedicated himself to writing the classic primer on Anarchism, What is Anarchism?.