Mother Earth was an anarchist journal that described itself as "A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature," edited by Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....

. Alexander Berkman

Alexander Berkman

Alexander Berkman was an anarchist known for his political activism and writing. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century....

, another well-known anarchist, was the magazine's editor from 1907 to 1915. It published longer articles on a variety of anarchist topics including the labor movement, education, literature and the arts, state and government control, and women's emancipation, sexual freedom, and was an early supporter of birth control

Birth control

Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...

. Its subscribers and supporters formed a virtual "who's who" of the radical left

Radical left

Radical left is a term used in the names of several political movements:* Det Radikale Venstre, a social-liberal party in Denmark* Radical Party of the Left , a social-liberal party in France...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in the years prior to 1920.

In 1917, Mother Earth began to openly call for opposition to US entry into World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and specifically to disobey government laws on conscription

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 and registration for the military draft. On June 15, 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act. The law set punishments for acts of interference in US foreign policy and espionage. The Act authorized stiff fines and prison terms of up to 20 years for anyone who obstructed the military draft or encouraged "disloyalty" to the U.S. government. After Goldman and Berkman continued to advocate against conscription, Goldman's offices at Mother Earth were thoroughly searched, and volumes of files and detailed subscription lists from Mother Earth, along with Berkman's journal The Blast, were seized. As a US Justice Department news release reported:

A wagon load of anarchist records and propaganda material was seized, and included in the lot is what is believed to be a complete registry of anarchy's friends in the United States. A splendidly kept card index was found, which the Federal agents believe will greatly simplify their task of identifying persons mentioned in the various record books and papers. The subscription lists of Mother Earth and The Blast, which contain 10,000 names, were also seized.

Mother Earth remained in monthly circulation until August 1917. Berkman and Goldman were found guilty of violating the Espionage Act, and were later deported.

Contributors

The following is a partial list of contributors whose essays or poems were published in Mother Earth:

Leonard D. Abbott Leonard Dalton Abbott Leonard Dalton Abbott was an English-born American publicist, politician, and freethinker. Originally a socialist, Abbott turned to libertarian anarchism in the first decade of the 20th century. He is best remembered as a leader of the so-called "Modern School movement" of those years.-Early... Margaret Caroline Anderson Margaret Caroline Anderson Margaret Caroline Anderson was the American founder, editor and publisher of the art and literary magazine The Little Review, which published a collection of modern American, English and Irish writers between 1914 and 1929... Max Baginski Max Baginski Max Baginski was a German-American anarchist.Baginski was born in 1864 in Bartenstein , a small East Prussian town. His father was shoemaker who had been active in the 1848 revolution and was thus shunned by the conservative inhabitants of the village... Alexander Berkman Alexander Berkman Alexander Berkman was an anarchist known for his political activism and writing. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century.... Maxwell Bodenheim Maxwell Bodenheim Maxwell Bodenheim was an American poet and novelist who was known as the King of Greenwich Village Bohemians. His writing brought him international fame during the Jazz Age of the 1920s.-Biography:... Bayard Boyesen Georg Brandes Georg Brandes Georg Morris Cohen Brandes was a Danish critic and scholar who had great influence on Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Breakthrough" of Scandinavian culture... Louise Bryant Louise Bryant Louise Bryant was an American journalist and writer. She was best known for her Marxist and anarchist beliefs and her essays on radical political and feminist themes. Bryant published articles in several radical left journals during her life, including Alexander Berkman's The Blast... Voltairine de Cleyre Voltairine de Cleyre Voltairine de Cleyre was an American anarchist writer and feminist. She was a prolific writer and speaker, opposing the state, marriage, and the domination of religion in sexuality and women's lives. She began her activist career in the freethought movement... John R. Coryell Julia May Courtney Padraic Colum Padraic Colum Padraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. He was one of the leading figures of the Celtic Revival.-Early life:... Floyd Dell Floyd Dell Floyd Dell was an American author and critic.-Biography:Floyd Dell was born in Barry, Illinois on June 28, 1887.... Mabel Dodge Will Durant Will Durant William James Durant was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant and published between 1935 and 1975... Francisco Ferrer Guardia Ricardo Flores Magón Ricardo Flores Magón Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón was a noted Mexican anarchist and social reform activist. His brothers Enrique and Jesús were also active in politics. Followers of the Magón brothers were known as Magonistas.... William Z. Foster William Z. Foster William Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Marxist politician, whose career included a lengthy stint as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA... Emma Goldman Emma Goldman Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.... Maxim Gorky Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...  (translated by Alice Stone Blackwell Alice Stone Blackwell Alice Stone Blackwell was an American feminist, journalist and human rights advocate.-Biography:The daughter of Henry Brown Blackwell and Lucy Stone, she was born in East Orange, New Jersey....  and S. Persky) Margaret Grant Martha Gruening Bolton Hall Bolton Hall (activist) Bolton Hall was an American lawyer, author and activist who worked on behalf of the poor and was the originator of the back-to-the-land movement in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.-Activism:... Sadakichi Hartmann Sadakichi Hartmann Carl Sadakichi Hartmann was a critic and poet of German and Japanese descent.Hartmann, born on the artificial island of Dejima, Nagasaki and raised in Germany, became an American citizen in 1894. An important early participant in modernism, Hartmann was a friend of such diverse figures as Walt...

Hippolyte Havel Hippolyte Havel Hippolyte Havel was a Czech anarchist who lived in Greenwich Village, New York, which he declared to be "a spiritual zone of mind". He was close friends with Emma Goldman.... Ben Hecht Ben Hecht Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of... Robert Henri Robert Henri Robert Henri was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art.- Early life :... C. L. James Harry Kelly Harry Kelly (anarchist) Harry May Kelly was an American anarchist and lifelong activist in the Modern School movement.- Early life and work :... Harry Kemp Harry Kemp thumb|rightHarry Hibbard Kemp was an American poet and prose writer of the twentieth century. He was known as "the "Vagabond Poet, the Villon of America, the Hobo Poet, or the Tramp Poet," and was a well-known popular literary figure of his era, the "hero of adolescent Americans."-Life and... Peter Kropotkin Peter Kropotkin Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between... Errico Malatesta Errico Malatesta Errico Malatesta was an Italian anarcho-communist. He was an insurrectionary anarchist early in his life. He spent much of his life exiled from his homeland of Italy and in total spent more than ten years in prison. He wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend of... Max Nettlau Max Nettlau Max Heinrich Hermann Reinhardt Nettlau was a German anarchist and historian. Although born in Neuwaldegg and raised in Vienna he retained his Prussian nationality throughout his life. A student of the Welsh language he spent time in London where he joined the Socialist League where he met... Eugene O'Neill Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...  (unsigned) Robert Allerton Parker Charles Robert Plunkett Robert Lonzo Élisée Reclus Élisée Reclus Élisée Reclus , also known as Jacques Élisée Reclus, was a renowned French geographer, writer and anarchist. He produced his 19-volume masterwork La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes , over a period of nearly 20 years... Ben Reitman Ben Reitman Ben Lewis Reitman was an American anarchist and physician to the poor . He is best remembered today as radical Emma Goldman's lover.Reitman was a flamboyant, eccentric character... Lola Ridge Lola Ridge Lola Ridge was an anarchist poet and an influential editor of avant-garde, feminist, and Marxist publications best remembered for her long poems and poetic sequences... Rudolf Rocker Rudolf Rocker Johann Rudolf Rocker was an anarcho-syndicalist writer and activist. A self-professed anarchist without adjectives, Rocker believed that anarchist schools of thought represented "only different methods of economy" and that the first objective for anarchists was "to secure the personal and social... Morris Rosenfeld Morris Rosenfeld Morris Rosenfeld was a Yiddish poet.... Margaret Sanger Margaret Sanger Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American sex educator, nurse, and birth control activist. Sanger coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood... Theodore Schroeder Theodore Schroeder Theodore Schroeder was a controversial author who wrote on issues pertaining to freedom of expression. Schroeder was perhaps one of the first authors to challenge the state of freedom of speech in the United States, claiming that the US government may be a tyranny and that the way Americans view... Leo Tolstoy Leo Tolstoy Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist... Ross Winn Ross Winn Ross Winn was an anarchist writer and publisher who was best known for publishing several radical political journals and trying to promote anarchism within the historically conservative southern United States.... Adolf Wolff Charles Erskine Scott Wood Charles Erskine Scott Wood Charles Erskine Scott Wood was an author, civil libertarian, soldier, and attorney. He is best known as the author of the 1927 satirical bestseller, Heavenly Discourse.-Early life:...

The following is a partial list of contributors of cover art:

• Jules-Félix Grandjouan
• Manuel Komroff
  Manuel Komroff
  Manuel Komroff was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, editor and translator. Komroff was born in New York City....
  
  
• Robert Minor
  Robert Minor
  Robert Berkeley "Bob" Minor was political cartoonist, a radical journalist, and a leading member of the American Communist Party.-Early life:...
  
  
• Man Ray
  Man Ray
  Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
  
  
• Adolf Wolff

External links

• PBS American Experience, Mother Earth magazine, includes a complete scan of the February 1915 edition.
• Project Gutenberg Anarchist Bookshelf has the first four editions of Mother Earth available as ebooks.