“The definitive biography … the first plausible portrait of this extraordinary woman, drawn con amore, with tact and great delicacy. A splendid work.”
—Hannah Arendt, New York Review of Books
“A remarkable woman about whom J. P. Nettl has written a remarkable book.”
—Eric Hobsbawm, Economic History Quarterly
“In this time of crisis, it is urgent and a pleasure to study Rosa Luxemburg’s life and work. She was a rigorous and creative Marxist theoretician, a strategist and leader, and a revolutionary so passionate about human freedom that she fairly marches off the page. We are lucky to have John P. Nettl’s essential biography newly available.”
—Sarah Leonard, journalist and author of The Future We Want: Radical Ideas for the New Century
“Rosa Luxemburg’s life and work, brought fully to life in J.P. Nettl’s biography, reminds us that political acumen, human desire, revolution, and vividness of feeling are all related. Rosa looked upon radical politics as a means of living life fully. She wanted everything: marriage and children, books and music, walks on a summer evening and the revolution, personal happiness and social justice, sex and art, democracy and working-class politics. She is an example for our time: a revolutionary socialist, Jewish, immigrant woman, who reminds us most fully what human beings need to feel human.”
—Vivian Gornick, author of Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life
“Excellent.”
—Marx & Philosophy Review of Books