Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition

by Jim Mac Laughlin

Activist, economist, geographer, evolutionary theorist, and philosopher Peter Kropotkin remains one of the most important and progressive anarchist theorists, pushing anarchist thought beyond an individualist model to a theory of communal anarchism. Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition seeks to rescue Kropotkin’s philosophy of anarchism from the neglect that it has suffered at the hands of mainstream histories of the social and environmental sciences. Jim Mac Laughlin provides a sustained and critical reading of Kropotkin’s extensive writings on the social, historical, and scientific basis of modern anarchism, giving a thorough examination of a number of key themes in Kropotkin’s philosophy, including his concerted efforts to provide anarchism with an historical and scientific basis; the role of mutualism and mutual aid in social evolution and natural history; the ethics of anarchism, including the ethics of scientific research; and the anarchist critique of state-centered nationalism and other expressions of power politics.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 2016

Reviews

[Chris Caps · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed read. A lot of this is little more than putting Kropotkin in his historical context. This is fine but not really what I was hoping for. Large passages do review Kropotkin's scientific analysis and how this informed his justification for Anarchism. However, where I was expecting (hoping) for this to develop into a wider exploration of the development of Anarchism and it's ongoing intellectual evolution, the book looks at how Kropotkin specifically and Anarchism in general was outside academia, intentionally dismissed by both state-supported and state-supporting intellectuals and Marxist dogmatists. This is fine but it makes the book a lot more academic and historical in its scope than I was hoping for, where I was hoping for the more practical applications of Anarchism's intellectual development.
Overall, the book is well-researched and the reappraisal of Kropotkin as a significant geographer is illuminating and necessary. However, as a book for developing an understanding of Kropotkin within a modern context, the book is lacking. Depending on what you're looking for will determine how much mileage you will get out of the book.

[Slavia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este ensayo es una buena introducción sobre la vida, obra y pensamiento del geógrafo anarquista. Dividida en cinco capítulos bien diferenciados, parte por introducir las raíces históricas del anarquismo, para luego, en los siguientes cuatro apartados, detallar aspectos biográficos de Kropotkin, dar cuenta de su trabajo en la geografía política y su producción intelectual en torno al anarquismo científico. Lejos de idealizar su figura, el autor incluye también las críticas a sus planteamientos y contrasta su visión con la de sus coetáneos.