More than 60 years after her death, the celebratory anarchist spirit of Emma Goldman continues to hold more resonance with young people storming the barricades of globalization than many contemporary political icons. Goldman, known during her life as “the world’s most dangerous woman,” was an influential agitator, writer, and lecturer on a vast array of topics, from birth control and modern drama to the eerie similarities between communist and capitalist systems of control.

Focusing on three significant periods Goldman spent in Canada, the Moritzes have done a major service to fill in the biographical black holes that seem to open up whenever a historical figure ventures north of the 49th parallel. The Moritzes paint a vivid picture of the radical circles that welcomed Goldman in Toronto, Winnipeg, and Montreal, and the often vicious partisan debates that erupted over whether it was politically correct to attend one of her lectures.

Even readers unfamiliar with Goldman’s life should be drawn into this empathic biography which, despite a slow first chapter, develops into an emotional roller coaster ride piecing together her published writings, personal correspondence, and recollections of acquaintances. The Moritzes explore the vulnerable soul underneath the fearless firebrand, a woman wracked with intense feelings of loss, betrayal, persecution and, in the end, a fear of irrelevance as world events seemed to pass her by.

The work occasionally suffers from the kind of insularity of which Goldman herself could be accused – the authors forget that not everyone is familiar with the lingo of social movements, and that casual, unexplained references to Babbitt or Paul Robeson may be lost on some readers. Nonetheless, this book stands as an elegant tribute to a woman who spoke the unfashionable truths, no matter the personal and political consequences.