On Trial: Conflicting Versions of Emma Goldman’s Address to the Jury

Little attention has been given to the fact that there is no known stenographic account of Emma Goldman’s July 9, 1917, address to the jury. Nor have scholars recognized the extent of the differences between the two printed versions of the speech, one in the July 1917 issue of Goldman’s magazine Mother Earth, the other in an October 1917 pamphlet. This essay argues that the two versions of Goldman’s address are best seen not as slightly modified representations of the same speech, but as different, albeit consanguineous, rhetorical acts with their own audiences and purposes.