The Rebel Girl: An Autobiography, My First Life (1906-1926)

by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

Book Overview

Book by Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0717803686
• Release Date: January 1973
• Publisher: Intl Pub Co Inc
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

The Hobo Philosopher

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is one of those little girls who grew up to be a Jane Addams, or a Harriet Beecher Stowe, or an Emma Goldman, or a Susan B. Anthony, or a Mother Jones, or a Florence Nightingale, or a Margaret B. Sanger or a Rosa Parks, or a Sojourner Truth or - I suppose one could even say - a Joan of Ark. All these little girls are either good or evil depending on your point of view. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is not so well known as some of these others because she was an American Communist. American Communists do not get a lot of space in American history books, whether they are male or female. She was, first a Socialist, and then a Communist. Ms. Flynn was an American, born and bread, Communist and proud of it. In "The Rebel Girl", an autobiography, she puts it this way; "Many have written as ex-Communists. This second book will be the story of an active American Communist and one who is proud of it. No matter what are the consequences, `I will never move from where I stand.' ... I feel it is important for me to set down here my personal recollections of this earlier part of the century, a period full of heroic struggles on the part of the working class, especially the foreign born. As the reader will see, the years 1906 to 1926 were full of `force and violence' used by the ruling class in America against the workers, who gave their lives, shed their blood, were beaten, jailed, blacklisted and framed, as they fought for the right to organize, to strike and to picket. Struggles for a few cents more an hour, for a few minutes less a day - were long and bitterly fought. Nothing was handed on a silver platter to the American working class by employers. All of their hard-won gains came through their own efforts and solidarity." And that about says it! Books written by Richard Noble - The Hobo Philosopher: "Hobo-ing America: A Workingman's Tour of the U.S.A.." "A Summer with Charlie" Salisbury Beach, Lawrence YMCA "A Little Something: Poetry and Prose "Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother" Novel - Lawrence, Ma. "The Eastpointer" Selections from award winning column. "Noble Notes on Famous Folks" Humor - satire - facts. "America on Strike" American Labor - History

History Revisited

Elizabeth Flynn is not a gifted writer, so this book makes for "choppy" reading. But, she is a powerful, passionate and dedicated woman; an example to young people of the 21st century. She spent time in jail and served for several years as head of the Communist Party in the United States. Yet, I would call her a great American. Reading her story makes one appreciate the progress of Labor in this country and how much we owe those of the early 20th century who put their lives on the line for human dignity.