Top 15 Books About Anarchism Updated 04 /2024

The Nation on No Map

William C. Anderson, Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, Saidiya Hartman

Black survival in the midst of widespread disaster is urgently needed. The Nation on No Map focuses on the politics of Black autonomy and self-determination while examining state power, abolition, and ideological contradictions in the fight for Black liberation. When it comes to the continuing struggle against capitalism and white supremacism, the left is showing fresh interest in Black anarchism. Anderson presents a principled rejection of reformism, nation-building, and citizenship.

In the face of deteriorating socioeconomic circumstances, he proposes that community-based development be given top priority, claiming that in order to defeat oppression, individuals must develop capacities independent of the state. History, myth, and leadership are examined to see whether they might be utilized to rehabilitate the government rather than abolish it. The Nation on No Map aims to urge readers to use a Black anarchic perspective in support of comprehensive change, no matter what it's called, through challenging our comprehension of our current condition. With regard to the nation state itself, Anderson's essay addresses reformism as a problem that must be overcome and a critical location for a liberatory reconceptualization of struggle.

For a Just and Better World

Sonia Hernandez

As a symbol of the importance of Mexican women in the revolutionary cause, Caritina Pia Montalvo was the embodiment of that role. As part of the anarchist vision of a global community of workers, Sonia Hernández narrates the tale of Pia and other Mexicanas from the Gulf of Mexico area who campaigned for labor rights at home and abroad. The Tamaulipas native turned worldwide labor broker never set foot outside of her hometown. Despite this, she was a natural at bridging the gap between American and Mexican communities. Her experience sheds light on the circumstances that led to the birth of anarcho-syndicalism as a strategy for achieving equality in the workplace and for women.

A look at women as leaders and participants of the labor movement shows how their thoughts and displays of feminist principles were shaped by their experiences. From the lives of Mexican women who fought for labor rights and gender equality in the early twentieth century to the author's own life story, For a Just and Better World is a fascinating look at a radical activist and her time and place.

Anarchism and the Black Revolution

Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin

Author: 'A strong, even stunning, challenge to the myths of 'white' anarchism'. Even now, the book's critique of police brutality and the fascist danger is just as relevant as it was back in the 1970s. It is possible that it is even more so" - Peter James Hudson In 1979, for the first time, anarchism and black radicalism were linked. New content has been added to the original book by a significant player in the Civil Rights struggle, making it more relevant to today's current climate. It has long been a challenge for anarchist ideology to be seen as all white.

Both capitalism and racism are heavily critiqued in this book's content. Defending an anarchist movement that opposes racism, sexism, militarism, and homophobia, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin debunks the myths and falsehoods about anarchism that are disseminated by its opponents on both the left and right. Author William C. Anderson has been interviewed in addition to fresh writings and a contextualizing history of Anderson's life.

No masters but God

Hayyim Rothman, Bénédicte Miyamoto

This book reveals the long-forgotten history of Orthodox Jewish anarchism, as well as the exploits and ideals of some of its most important people. A group of raBB Hardbackis and conservative intellectuals who expressly used anarchist principles to articulate the meaning of the Torah, traditional practice, Jewish life, and the goal of contemporary Judaism are identified in No Master but God, which is set in the decades around both world wars.

This anarcho-Judaism in all its guises is explored via the writings of Yaakov Meir Zalkind, Yitshak Nahman Steinberg, Yehuda Leyb Don-Yahiya, Avraham Yehudah Hen, Natan Hofshi, Shmuel Alexandrov, Yehuda Ashlag, and Shmuel Tamaret, all of whom are represented by new archives Anarchism and Zionism, pacifism and Zionism, prophetic anti-authoritarianism and mystical antinomianism are all intertwined in Hayyim Rothman's ground-breaking analysis.

The Anarchist Handbook

Michael Malice, Murray Rothbard, Max Stirner, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Throughout history, anarchism has served as both a vision of a peaceful, cooperative society—and a doctrine of revolutionary violence. To put it another way, the name “anarchism” itself implies that the positive alternative is impossible to imagine. In the Anarchist Handbook, people of different ages and backgrounds may express their unique perspectives on the black flag. People who perceived things differently from the rest of the human race were among these individuals. They fought and they loved at the same time. They were born and they were born again. In spite of their differences, they all had one thing in common: a desire for freedom.

Other Worlds Here

Theresa Warburton

Using Native women's literature as a case study, Other Worlds Here: Honoring Native Women's Writing in Contemporary Anarchist Movements investigates the relationship between literature and radical social movements. Interdisciplinary scholar Theresa Warburton argues that contemporary anarchist politics have not adequately accounted for the particularities of radical social movement in a settler colonial society as she traces the rise of New Anarchism in the United States following protests against the World Trade Organization in 1999.

As a consequence, anarchist spaces have adopted the habitation pattern of activists. However, not everything is lost. Instead than focusing on a critique of current anarchist politics, Other Worlds Here argues that the capacity to adapt and evolve is a distinguishing trait of New Anarchism. Warburton contends that anarchists must change from the belief that another world is conceivable to one that acknowledges other worlds currently present: tales, networks, and histories that set forth strategies of forging reciprocal connections with the earth and its people. More than just an ethnographic study of Native American experience, Other Worlds Here expands the study of Native women's writing to include a broad range of current political critiques that may be applied to a variety of contexts.

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