“This dramatic and impressive book vividly brings the tumultuous and tragic life of ex-slave and American revolutionary Lucy Parsons to what should be a large audience. Even those of us who cherish a more heroic view of Parsons’s life in struggle will learn enormously from this meticulously researched and learned biography.”
—David Roediger, author of Class, Race, and Marxism
“No scholar has done more to illuminate the tangled politics of race and class in American history than Jacqueline Jones. In this deeply researched and powerfully written book, Jones narrates the thrilling life of Lucy Parsons—the infamous labor radical and anarchist who scandalized American audiences with her incendiary critiques of industrial capitalism and government oppression, all the while concealing her own past in slavery. A richly revealing story, brilliantly told. Parsons will get under your skin.”
—Michael Willrich, author of Pox and City of Courts