The selection of speeches, essays and articles in this book, largely written by Keller herself, reveal a woman of fierce intellect, driven by the strength of her political convictions to champion the most radical of causes at a time when to be a left radical was to risk vilification and imprisonment.
Despite vitriolic and insulting attacks in the press Keller became a passionate advocate for working people and joined the U.S. Socialist Party in 1909 and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) soon after. She campaigned against World War I, advocated reproductive rights and votes for women and supported Lenin, the Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution. The FBI kept her under surveillance for most of her adult life.