New Book | Johann Most: Life of a Radical

Tom Goyens | University of Illinois Press, September 2025

I've been looking forward to sharing this for a long time: my new book—a biography of the revolutionary Johann Most—is finally being published! It will be released on September 12, 2025, in paperback, hardcover, and eBook by University of Illinois Press.

You can find more details on the publisher’s website (link below).
Thanks for your support—and please help spread the word!

From the Publisher:

Known best for articulating the propaganda of the deed, Johann Most was and still is caricatured as a radical fanatic. Tom Goyens’ in-depth biography rediscovers the complexities that animated the German American agitator and made him a pivotal figure in the development of anarchism in the US and socialism in Germany.

Most galvanized workers through passionate speeches and writings that showcased his gifts as a performer, satirist, and rhetorician. Numerous challenges, including repeated convictions for his incendiary rhetoric, failed to curb his organizing or his efforts to foster a dedicated network of comrades that included Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and his common-law wife, Helene Minkin. Goyens details Most’s essential contributions to the anarchist movement while also highlighting his critique of religion and defense of science within emancipatory movements. As Goyens follows Most’s ideological journey, he illuminates the political contexts that shaped the anarchist’s evolving views on revolutionary action and social change.

Comprehensive and long overdue, Johann Most traces the intellectual life and enduring relevance of a misunderstood radical figure.

Tom Goyens is a professor of history at Salisbury University. He is the author of Beer and Revolution: The German Anarchist Movement in New York City, 1880–1914.

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University of Illinois Press, September 12, 2025.

978-0-252-08903-9

296pp.

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