It’s not quite relevant, but we couldn’t resist: In honor of Earth Day (April 22), here’s an issue of Mother Earth, printed in August of 1914. On its cover is a drawing by Man Ray, the famed Dada artist. The image offers a bleak portrayal of humanity, torn asunder by capitalism and government.
Mother Earth was an early twentieth-century journal, edited by known anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. It was, in its own words, “devoted to social science and literature.” Mother Earth’s pages contained articles on labor practices, education, literature, state and government control, and women’s emancipation. Its subscribers and supporters were a “who’s who” of the radical left, including Ben Hecht, Leo Tolstoy, Margaret Sanger, and Eugene O’Neill.