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Book Review :: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: The Rebel Girl, Democracy, and Revolution by Mary Anne Trasciatti

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: The Rebel Girl, Democracy, and Revolution by Mary Anne Trasciatti book cover image

Review by Eleanor J. Bader

Mary Anne Trasciatti’s biography of intrepid civil liberties and labor activist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn [1890—1964] is as much an account of Gurley Flynn’s nearly 60-years as an organizer, speaker, tactician, and fundraiser, as it is an account of government crackdowns on dissent during the first two-thirds of the 20th century. The heavily detailed and exhaustively researched volume digs into Flynn’s earliest work with the Industrial Workers of the World (the IWW), where she developed a reputation as a fearless, outspoken firebrand. Dubbed The Rebel Girl, her work in support of exploited laborers took her from her home in the Bronx to cities across the country where she mounted a soapbox and exhorted crowds to support striking workers in Paterson, New Jersey, Missoula, Montana, and Spokane, Washington.

Her humor and ease with people won her approval from everyday folks – and attention from rightwing politicians and police who tried to silence her. But she would not be cowed. Instead, her defense of labor rights and free speech led her to the then-fledgling American Civil Liberties Union and Communist Party. Although she was booted out of the ACLU during the height of the Red Scare, her commitment to working people never faltered.

Nonetheless, there were setbacks. In 1955, for example, Flynn was jailed for violating the Smith Act, legislation that made it a crime to advocate the overthrow of the US government. She used her time in prison to read, write, and agitate from afar. Once released, she fought against repressive legislation that sought to revoke US citizenship from those convicted of rebellion, insurrection, seditious conspiracy, or Smith Act violations.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn lived a life of resolute political engagement. At the same time, Trasciatti makes Flynn fully human, detailing several failed relationships and the heartbreaking loss of her only son to cancer. The end result is a richly drawn portrait of a bold, principled, and savvy woman who deserves to be remembered and celebrated.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: The Rebel Girl, Democracy, and Revolution by Mary Anne Trasciatti. Rutgers University Press, June 2025.

Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent.

Editor’s Choice :: Too Poor to Die

Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins by Amy Shea book cover image

Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins by Amy Shea
Rutgers University Press, September 2025

Death is the great equalizer, but not all deaths are created equal. In recent years, there has been an increased interest and advocacy concerning end-of-life and after-death care. An increasing number of individuals and organizations from health care to the funeral and death care industries are working to promote and encourage people to consider their end-of-life wishes. Yet, there are limits to who these efforts reach and who can access such resources. These conversations come from a place of good intentions, but also from a place of privilege.

Amy Shea’s Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins is a collection of closely connected essays, taking the reader on a journey into what happens to those who die while experiencing homelessness or who end up indigent or unclaimed at the end of life. Too Poor to Die bears witness to the disparities in death and dying faced by some of society’s most vulnerable and marginalized and asks the reader to consider their own end-of-life and disposition plans within the larger context of how privilege and access plays a role in what we want versus what we get in death.

Pre-order is available with shipment upon publication and exam/desk/review copies are available upon request.

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New Book :: W. E. B. Du Bois Souls of Black Folk

The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963); A Graphic Interpretation by Artist Paul Peart-Smith book cover image

W. E. B. Du Bois Souls of Black Folk: A Graphic Interpretation by Paul Peart-Smith
Rutgers University Press, April 2023

“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” These were the prescient words of W. E. B. Du Bois’s influential 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk. The preeminent Black intellectual of his generation, Du Bois wrote about the trauma of seeing the Reconstruction era’s promise of racial equality cruelly dashed by the rise of white supremacist terror and Jim Crow laws. Yet he also argued for the value of African American cultural traditions and provided inspiration for countless civil rights leaders who followed him. Now artist Paul Peart-Smith offers the first graphic adaptation of Du Bois’s seminal work.

Peart-Smith’s graphic adaptation provides historical and cultural contexts that bring to life the world behind Du Bois’s words. Readers will get a deeper understanding of the cultural debates The Souls of Black Folk engaged in, with more background on figures like Booker T. Washington, the advocate of black economic uplift, and the Pan-Africanist minister Alexander Crummell. This new release vividly conveys the continuing legacy of The Souls of Black Folk, effectively updating it for the era of the 1619 Project and Black Lives Matter.