Matthew S. Adams

Kropotkin, Read, and the Intellectual History of British Anarchism

Introduction 1. Contexts: Anarchism in British Intellectual History, 1886-1968 2. Foundations: System-Building Philosophy 3. Statism: The Power of History 4. Revolution: The Journey to Communism 5. Utopia: Imagining Post-Capitalist Society Conclusion

Art, Education, and Revolution: Herbert Read and the Reorientation of British Anarchism

Summary It is popularly believed that British anarchism underwent a ‘renaissance’ in the 1960s, as conventional revolutionary tactics were replaced by an ethos of permanent protest. Often associated with Colin Ward and his journal Anarchy, this tactical shift is said to have occurred due to growing awareness of Gustav Landauers work. This article challenges these readings by focusing on Herbert Reads book Education through Art, a work motivated by Reads dissatisfaction with anarchisms association with political violence. Arguing that aesthetic education could remodel social relationships in a non-hierarchical fashion, Read pioneered the reassessment of revolutionary tactics in the 1940s that is associated with the 1960s generation. His role in these debates has been ignored, but the broader political context of Reads contribution to anarchist theory has also been neglected. The reading of Reads work advanced here recovers his importance to these debates, and highlights the presence of an indigenous strand of radical thought that sought novel solutions for the problems of the age.

Formulating an anarchist sociology: Peter Kropotkin's reading of Herbert Spencer

The work of Herbert Spencer was a crucial influence on the development of Peter Kropotkin’s historical sociology. However, scholars have underestimated this relationship; either overlooking it entirely, or minimizing Kropotkin’s attachment to Spencer with the aim of maintaining the utility of his political thought in the present. This article contests these interpretations by analyzing Kropotkin’s reading of Spencer’s epistemological, biological, and political ideas. It argues that Kropotkin was engaged in a critical dialogue with Spencer, incorporating many Spencerian principles in his own system, but also using this reading to articulate a distinctive anarchist politics.

Political theory and history: the case of anarchism

Abstract This essay critically examines one of the dominant tendencies in recent theoretical discussions of anarchism, postanarchism, and argues that this tradition fails to engage sufficiently with anarchism’s history. Through an examination of late 19th-century anarchist political thought—as represented by one of its foremost exponents, Peter Kropotkin—we demonstrate the extent to which postanarchism has tended to oversimplify and misrepresent the historical tradition of anarchism. The article concludes by arguing that all political-theoretical discussions of anarchism going forward should begin with a fresh appraisal of the actual content of anarchist political thought, based on a rigorous analysis of its political, social, and cultural history.

Anarchism and the First World War

Centring on the defining debate between Kropotkin and Malatesta, this chapter contextualises anarchist responses to the outbreak of war in the major belligerents—Britain, France, Italy, Germany, the United States, and Russia. Drawing on the latest historical research, it examines the multifaceted reactions to the war amongst anarchists and their struggles to plot a path through the unprecedented crisis confronting them in 1914. In so doing, it demonstrates the importance of grappling with these challenges to the articulation of a distinctive anarchist political identity; the importance of the war in generating fresh tactical perspectives, especially in terms of anti-militarism and anti-colonialism; and, the tactical and theoretical plurality obscured by undue focus on the Kropotkin/Malatesta debate.

George Woodcock and the Doukhobors: peasant radicalism, anarchism, and the Canadian state

ABSTRACT For the British-Canadian writer and intellectual George Woodcock, the Doukhobors – a persecuted radical Christian sect, many members of which emigrated from Russia to Canada at the turn of the twentieth century – were a continual source of fascination. A cause célèbre for a host of nineteenth-century thinkers, including Leo Tolstoy and Peter Kropotkin, the Doukhobors were frequently portrayed as the exemplars of the viewer’s particular ideological beliefs. The present article examines Woodcock’s shifting interpretation of the Doukhobors, mapped onto the development of an intellectual career that saw him emerge as a leading anarchist thinker, and his broader transition from a British writer to a Canadian public intellectual. Where once he saw the Doukhobors representing anarchism in action, as his politics matured his view of the sect became more complex. Rather than living anarchists, he came to see the Doukhobors’ experience as a powerful reminder of the forces of assimilation at work in modern democracies that threatened the liberties of dissenters. Reflecting Woodcock’s revised anarchist politics, the Doukhobors’ story now became a key component of an intellectual vision that cast a probing light on Canadian history and Canadian cultural politics.

Essays in Anarchism and Religion

This is an Open Access Book. It is published by Stockholm University Press under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access chapter. It is published by Stockholm University Press under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Essays in Anarchism and Religion: Volume 1

This is an Open Access Book. It is published by Stockholm University Press under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access chapter. It is published by Stockholm University Press under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Anarchism and religion: Mapping an increasingly fruitful landscape

This is an Open Access Book. It is published by Stockholm University Press under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access chapter. It is published by Stockholm University Press under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Cold war modernists: art, literature, and American cultural diplomacy

(part of sound household management for all social groups) and through the recirculation of goods via second-hand markets would again throw valuable light onto today’s ‘throw-away’ society or fashion for up-cycling. In a book of this scope, such gaps are perhaps inevitable. Trentmann’s achievement here is considerable; this is an impressive book that provides an invaluable context for studies of contemporary consumption and a framework for placing historical analyses into a broad geographical and temporal setting.