["What I have written is not a work of beauty, created that someone may spend an hour pleasantly; not a symphony to lift up the spirit, to release it from the dreariness of reality.  It is a story of a life, written in desperation, in unhappiness.  I write of the earth on which we all, by some strange circumstance, happen to be living.  I write of the joys and sorrows of the lowly.  Of loneliness.  Of pain.   And of love." Smedley 7).]

The socialist movement criticized the exploitation of workers under capitalism.  The feminist movement, lead by middle-class women, criticized the exploitation of women.  Each movement on its own ignored the fundamental objective of the other.  Yet, out of these two movements emerged socialist feminists like Agnes Smedley, who were determined to bring each movement together and give birth to...