Facing an interrogator in the hour before her death, Rosa Luxemburg reached into her handbag for needle and cotton and deftly repaired the hem of her skirt, which had frayed during her abduction. A century later, Rosa Luxemburg is still a household name, though few remember for what. From today’s perspective, it is not unreasonable to suggest—as Dana Mills does in “Rosa Luxemburg,” a compact and admiring biography—that she is a potential role model to the woke generation, an icon to the feminist, environmental, equality and anticolonialist rebellions. Her first lover, Leo Jogiches, had wealthy parents who financed her socialist newspaper and sedate lifestyle, complete with household staff. He kept the front-door keys, paid the rent and threatened to kill her unless she let him stay in her life.

Source: Wall Street Journal September 08, 2020 23:03 UTC