Anarchism

by Carissa Honeywell

Is it possible to abolish coercion and hierarchy and build a stateless, egalitarian social order based on non-domination? There is one political tradition that answers these questions with a resounding anarchism.   

In this book, Carissa Honeywell offers an accessible introduction to major anarchist thinkers and principles, from Proudhon to Goldman, non-domination to prefiguration. She helps students understand the nature of anarchism by examining how its core ideas shape important contemporary social movements, thereby demonstrating how anarchist principles are relevant to modern political dilemmas connected to issues of conflict, justice and care. She argues that anarchism can play a central role in tackling our major global problems by helping us rethink the essentially militarist nature of our dominant ideas about human relationships and security.   

Dynamic, urgent, and engaging, this new introduction to anarchist thought will be of great interest to both students as well as thinkers and activists working to find solutions to the multiple crises of capitalist modernity.

168 pages, Paperback

Published January 19, 2021

Reviews

[George Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having had the pleasure of meeting Carissa, her astute, though contextually nuanced approach to anarchist research never fails to deliver. This book encapsulates the essence of anarchism as a tool for social progression, whilst providing the novice with a clear and concise historical timeline of anarchist critical junctures; establishing the foundations for our own philosophical understanding of the ‘thought experiment’.

Honeywell tends to focus her conceptualisations on the work of Colin Ward, Ursula Le Guin, and David Graeber.

[Borka Szilágyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! It doesn't go really deep into any mentioned topics (and that's kind of the point) but quotes and mentions a lot of thinkers and activists who I want to check out now. A great introduction.

[Doug Newdick · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are plenty of books on the history of anarchism, but very few that describe contemporary anarchism. In that respect this is a useful book - and provides a welcome perspective. It describes the practices and approaches of a range of anarchist groups arguing that far from being proponents of chaos they provide a variety of different ways of articulating freedom, and practically building the mutually dependent society that these anarchists desire. However the book has several major weaknesses. Firstly, there is no examination of the theoretical underpinnings of these different flavours of anarchism. All we get are bald assertions, like that meat-eating is related to the oppression of women, or a range of other claims that really need some sort of justification or explanation: none is forthcoming. Perhaps that is the requirement of a short overview, but when some of the claims are quite counter-intuitive it leaves the book feeling unsatisfying. In fact the book shies away from any kind of theory or moral justification. The discussion of the anarchist attitude towards prisons is especially telling. Here is where there is a strong argument - made powerfully by Kropotkin - for the immorality of the modern penal system. And yet no mention of this is made. All in all, I finished the book felling somewhat dissatisfied, like I'd had a nice meal that lacked seasoning, or watched a movie with a poor script.

[Steffen Gordo · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book Carissa enables those without an in-depth understanding of the workings of contemporary anarchist philosophy in a beautifully written format that makes it easy for the reader to understand the broad concepts of anarchist in modern day society. Highly recommend to students in similar fields of studying to use as it was extremely helpful in understanding the ideas of anarchism.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent for developing a fundamental understanding of contemporary anarchist theory.

Inevitably it won't go into enough detail about an aspect of the philosophy as you would like, but that comes with the territory of any philosophy book, especially one designed to discuss key concepts.

[Jesse Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book to learn some foundational concepts in anarchism over the holidays. I haven’t read many books on this subject but this was insightful while not too dry as to discourage empathy and reflection