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An Anarchist FAQ: Volume 2
Aimed at the curious and, as yet, unconverted, and covering topics from "Why do anarchists oppose State Socialism?" to "What would an anarchist society look like?" the two-volume An Anarchist FAQ stands as the go-to reference for what anarchists believe, what they want, and how they intend to go about it. Find out what all the fuss is about. Iain McKay is the editor of Property is Theft! A Pierre Joseph Proudhon Anthology . He lives in London, England.
550 pages, Paperback
First published November 13, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 11, 2012
The electronic copy is freely available online.
http://www.infoshop.org/page/AnAnarch...
Basically the book deals Anarchist theories, thoughts, ideals and variances within anarchism.
Definitely a worthwhile read for anyone interested or curious about Anarchism and Anarchists.
Not particularly useful if your looking for validation of the cliched stereotypical anarchist often used by the media.
http://www.infoshop.org/page/AnAnarch...
Basically the book deals Anarchist theories, thoughts, ideals and variances within anarchism.
Definitely a worthwhile read for anyone interested or curious about Anarchism and Anarchists.
Not particularly useful if your looking for validation of the cliched stereotypical anarchist often used by the media.
October 3, 2021
The whole text of both volumes of 'An Anarchist FAQ' can be found here;
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/libra...
I've been dipping in and out of both volumes of 'An Anarchist FAQ' on and off for a while now and today got round to reading everything in it. The book does what it says in the title - it's an FAQ for those interested in what anarchism is and what anarchists do and believe in.
One of the challenges of putting something like this together is of course anarchists often disagree with each other and also some discussions can go round and round on the most minutest of points so it's hard to put a massive text like this together and say, 'hey, this is what anarchists think' because one of the points of anarchism (for me at least) is that we don't tell other people what to think or believe in! Indeed, it would be a huge error to interpret this tome as some kind of basis for anarchist thought (indeed, far to many on the left spend way to long interpreting the texts of long dead Marxists as a guide for what to do now).
What the book does cover though is covering 'broad' commonalities of thought, more general perspectives on how anarchists view the world. And to be fair it does a good job of it. It's very comprehensive, exceptionally well resourced and researched (an editorial choice is to continually refer back to the things anarchists said / wrote and what they do / did) and has a view on practically any element of anarchism or the world we live in.
I imagine this would be an indispensable resource for someone learning about anarchism, trying to see if it fits in with their world view - particularly for those who rightly are suspicious of statism. For those more familiar with the concepts it works as something to dip in and out of, but whilst some quotes may be new the ideas perhaps not.
I do have a few criticisms of the work. It is intended to be referred back to, referenced as needed. Therefore as a text it is quite repetitive and often quite dry. Much of the text reads like a big argument with an-caps (what a strange world they live in) and Trots (ditto). If anyone has been stuck in terminal discussions with someone debating the minutae of what happened in Russia a century ago this text will be useful to directly respond to some of those arguments. (And yet, I remember many debates with Bolsheviks or state capitalists and they are like robots and no matter of presenting evidence or reason works with them). What this does come back to is continually referring to the words of long dead anarchists to refute the words of others. I've always had a hang up about any ideology that references some man (Marxism, Trotskyism, Leninism, Maoism, Stalinism...see the pattern?) Sometimes this book falls into the trap of, 'here are the ancient words of Proudhon, Bakunin, Krotopkin and Goldman'. I get why the references are there but a significant number of references are from people who lived and died a long time ago. It detracts from a message that anarchism is a living ideology that has principles but it forward looking, rather than backward. It shouldn't promise solutions (this book doesn't) but at the same time it shouldn't live in the past.
Anyway, over the years I've pointed sections of this at friends and those curious about anarchism and it has provoked further reading and exploration from them so whilst we would never want a 'conversion text' it does serve as a gateway to anarchist ideas and definitely serves it's purpose.
(The appendices are good also - learnt loads of history about the Russian Revolution and the betrayal of the Bolsheviks and I'll only lose an argument to them by boredom in future I think! It also spells out loud and clear that 'uniting against a common enemy' is foolish - because at heart there is little difference between statists whether on the 'left' or 'right')
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/libra...
I've been dipping in and out of both volumes of 'An Anarchist FAQ' on and off for a while now and today got round to reading everything in it. The book does what it says in the title - it's an FAQ for those interested in what anarchism is and what anarchists do and believe in.
One of the challenges of putting something like this together is of course anarchists often disagree with each other and also some discussions can go round and round on the most minutest of points so it's hard to put a massive text like this together and say, 'hey, this is what anarchists think' because one of the points of anarchism (for me at least) is that we don't tell other people what to think or believe in! Indeed, it would be a huge error to interpret this tome as some kind of basis for anarchist thought (indeed, far to many on the left spend way to long interpreting the texts of long dead Marxists as a guide for what to do now).
What the book does cover though is covering 'broad' commonalities of thought, more general perspectives on how anarchists view the world. And to be fair it does a good job of it. It's very comprehensive, exceptionally well resourced and researched (an editorial choice is to continually refer back to the things anarchists said / wrote and what they do / did) and has a view on practically any element of anarchism or the world we live in.
I imagine this would be an indispensable resource for someone learning about anarchism, trying to see if it fits in with their world view - particularly for those who rightly are suspicious of statism. For those more familiar with the concepts it works as something to dip in and out of, but whilst some quotes may be new the ideas perhaps not.
I do have a few criticisms of the work. It is intended to be referred back to, referenced as needed. Therefore as a text it is quite repetitive and often quite dry. Much of the text reads like a big argument with an-caps (what a strange world they live in) and Trots (ditto). If anyone has been stuck in terminal discussions with someone debating the minutae of what happened in Russia a century ago this text will be useful to directly respond to some of those arguments. (And yet, I remember many debates with Bolsheviks or state capitalists and they are like robots and no matter of presenting evidence or reason works with them). What this does come back to is continually referring to the words of long dead anarchists to refute the words of others. I've always had a hang up about any ideology that references some man (Marxism, Trotskyism, Leninism, Maoism, Stalinism...see the pattern?) Sometimes this book falls into the trap of, 'here are the ancient words of Proudhon, Bakunin, Krotopkin and Goldman'. I get why the references are there but a significant number of references are from people who lived and died a long time ago. It detracts from a message that anarchism is a living ideology that has principles but it forward looking, rather than backward. It shouldn't promise solutions (this book doesn't) but at the same time it shouldn't live in the past.
Anyway, over the years I've pointed sections of this at friends and those curious about anarchism and it has provoked further reading and exploration from them so whilst we would never want a 'conversion text' it does serve as a gateway to anarchist ideas and definitely serves it's purpose.
(The appendices are good also - learnt loads of history about the Russian Revolution and the betrayal of the Bolsheviks and I'll only lose an argument to them by boredom in future I think! It also spells out loud and clear that 'uniting against a common enemy' is foolish - because at heart there is little difference between statists whether on the 'left' or 'right')
November 9, 2023
Mi reseña en bookwyrm
https://lectura.social/user/rsf92/rev...
https://lectura.social/user/rsf92/rev...
July 19, 2025
Because nothing says “no rulers” like a thousand meticulously footnoted pages telling you exactly why you don’t need them.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews