Against the State: Anarchists and Comrades at War in Spain, Myanmar, and Rojava

by James Stout

A book about those that cannot wait any longer for the world to change.


Stumbling across a Reddit forum in 2021, James Stout established contact with teenage Burmese rebels who were in military conflict with the junta. This unprofessional "army" was intuitively antiauthoritarian and resourceful beyond imagination—they 3D print working firearms in the jungle. The dreams, motivations, and hardships of these young adults are immediately recognizable, despite differing context across space and time. These young revolutionaries, colloquially referred to by journalist James Stout as “anarchists” for their nonhierarchical forms of organization based on mutual aid and solidarity, face incredible danger to pursue their expression of freedom. Against the State seeks to understand these anarchists, to honor their struggles, and ask tough questions about confronting the state. In doing so, Stout invites us to reimagine war in the twenty-first century. 


Against the State draws on Stout’s research and experiences of conflict as an academic and journalist. What interests him in these regional conflicts, are places where people are taking care of one another while building new cooperative social relations. 


Stout provides testimony from those building democratic confederalism while fending off Turkish drones and ISIS fighters in Kurdistan, the young insurgents beating back the military junta in Burma, and, for historical context, those storied workers in 1936 that fought capitalism and fascism in the Spanish Civil War and Revolution. While these movements look and operate unlike guerrilla movements of the past, they still have their martyrs. Crucially, the book presents current movements as evolving, growing and shrinking after setbacks, and mourning the loss of combatants. Against the State centers the voices of those too often overlooked in conflict studies and misunderstood by Western radical movements. 

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, War

296 pages, Paperback

Published January 20, 2026

Reviews

[Luna M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have an AK Press subscription and this was one of their picks. I’m so glad I finally read it. It was an inspiring and moving read that explored struggles from Rojava to Burma to the Spanish civil war through the lens of anarchism. The book reminded me of my time with the Zapatistas— having the embodied and undeniable realization that people can indeed come together to build a different world based on liberatory values rather than oppression. Beyond the ability of these movements to abolish or significantly displace the state, the book shows the deeply subversive and socially transformative power inherent in the struggle itself. I teared up multiple times throughout the book as I learned about the kids and womenfolk and rebels and queer comrades taking to the mountains to challenge state power with their ingenuity and guts. The author made it feel like their dream was my dream too, their losses my own, their fight ours to share. Can’t wait to see what else he writes!

*note that the writing is sometimes dense with names, acronyms, dates, and places.

[Jack Roberge · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved loved loved this book, and i have a career crush on James Stout. it’s so obvious that Stout cares so deeply about his sources - all of whom are deserving of the care.

Stout’s brand of “doing politics” is so attractive to me, as is the anarchist model. i really need to get out of my house and do something. inspiring book, i really hope to write something like this someday.

hopes up for the Rojava, and to all of the anti regime fighters in Burma.

[Matthew Stienberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good anarchist polemic. A fascinating examination of what modern revolutionaries from Myanmar and Kurdistan are doing to fight the modern repressive state and buttressed with examples from the anarchists of the Spanish Civil War. While occasionally falling into ideological blinders, it is an honest and open assessment of revolutionary organizing both historic and contemporary.

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

It may be early but there’s no way this isn’t one of the best books of the year. Utterly engrossing, a look at the anarchist realities of war in Spain, Rojava and Myanmar, brilliantly told by incredible journalist. It doesn’t get better than this.

[mall0rie666]

there is something so distractingly white and English about Stout’s narrative voice that I’m having difficulty (and no desire) to read past. I also tire of illegible explanations of revolutionary Spain, and would rather read first person accounts from Rojava and Myanmar anyway.

[Lottie C · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75⭐️

Important history, I just don’t think I’m a descriptive history kind of person

[Cole M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hopeful look at what building a society without the state can look like, and in-depth examinations into the heroes of revolutions across Spain, Myanmar, and Rojava. Incredibly enlightening