Though she had already been exposed to leftist politics by fellow workers at her factory job in Rochester, the 1886 Haymarket affair and ensuing state execution of the anarchists Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, and August Spies became the crucible in which Goldman’s radicalization and ongoing political self-education was forged. Her journey out of Tsarist Russia and into a leading light of anarchism began on the factory floor and crystallized at the gallows. This attitude gave rise to one of the most popular quotes attributed to her: “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your revolution.” She is remembered as an earthy, bohemian woman who loved art, music, and sex, and saw no reason for a revolutionary to deprive themselves of beautiful things. For her, life was about roses as well as bread. However, Goldman’s openness brought an altogether human element to the sometimes inflexible realm of radical ideological thought.
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