Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessarily limited to, governments, nation states, and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies or other forms of free associations. As a historically left-wing movement, this reading of anarchism is placed on the fa...

Statism and Anarchy is a complete English translation of the last work by the great Russian anarchist Michael Bakunin, written in 1873. Then he assails the Marxist alternative, predicting that a 'dictatorship of the proletariat' will in fact be a dictatorship over the proletariat, and will produce a new class of socialist rulers. Instead, he outlines his vision of an anarchist society and identifies the social forces he believes will achieve an anarchist revolution. Statism and Anarchy had...

THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF BAKUNIN. Scientific Anarchism. Compiled and Edited by G. P Maximoff. Mikhail Bakunin is one of the key anarchist thinkers and revolutionary activists of the 19th century. Building upon the federalist and libertarian socialist ideas of his friend Pierre-Joseph Proudhon as well as those in the European labour movement, Bakunin shaped anarchism into its modern form. His revolutionary, class-struggle-based anarchis...

Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin on the Paris Commune, government and the state: "This work, like all my published work, of which there has not been a great deal, is an outgrowth of events. It is the natural continuation of my Letters to a Frenchman (September 1870), wherein I had the easy but painful distinction of foreseeing and foretelling the dire calamities which now beset France and the whole civilized world, the only cure for which is the Social Revolution. &qu...

Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) was a Russian revolutionary and theorist, and has often been called the father of anarchist theory. Bakunin studied philosophy, finding himself drawn to works by Fichte and Hegel, eventually converting himself entirely to Hegelianism. Bakunin gained criminal status after being deported from France where he met George Sand, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Karl Marx and later being arrested for his involvement in the Czech rebellion of 1848. His unfinished 1871 work, "...

Among the 19th-century founders of modern philosophical anarchism, none is more important than Michael Bakunin (1814–76). Born into the Russian nobility, he renounced his hereditary rank in protest against Czarist oppression and fled to Western Europe. A colorful, charismatic personality, Bakunin quickly became central to the anarchism movement, and everyone involved either built upon or reacted to his ideas. Yet Bakunin, despite the power of his ideas, was primarily a man of action, and h...

Bakunin's classic and highly influential atheist text setting out the anarchist critique of religion as bound up in legitimising the state.The keynote of God and the State is Bakunin’s repudiation of authority and coercion in every form. In a withering passage he vents his fury, on “all the tormentors, all the oppressors, and all the exploiters of humanity — priests, monarchs, statesmen, soldiers, public and private financiers, officials of all sorts, poli...

By one of the most profoundly influential thinkers of our century, The Rebel is a classic essay on revolution that resonates as an ardent, eloquent, and supremely rational voice of conscience for our tumultuous times.For Albert Camus, the urge to revolt is one of the "essential dimensions" of human nature, manifested in man's timeless Promethean struggle against the conditions of his existence, as well as the popular uprisings against established orders th...

This new edition of the political classic comes with a foreword by historian Rupert Matthews and includes a number of other early works relating to 19th Century Communism.The Communist Manifesto, originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party (German: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei) is a short 1848 publication written by the German Marxist political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manus...

Throughout history, from the time of Socrates to our own modern age, the human race has sought the answers to fundamental questions of life: Who are we? Why are we here?In his previous national bestsellers, The Discoverers and The Creators , Daniel J. Boorstin first told brilliantly how e discovered the reality of our world, and then he celebrated man's achievements in the arts. He now turns to the great figures in history who sought meaning and purpose in our existence.Boo...

The image of Poland has once again been impressed on European consciousness. Norman Davies provides a key to understanding the modern Polish crisis in this lucid and authoritative description of the nation's history. Beginning with the period since 1945, he travels back in time to highlight the long-term themes and traditions which have influenced present attitudes.His evocative account reveals Poland as the heart of Europe in more than the geographical sense. It is a country where Europe'...

Represents a selection from Nietzche's notebooks to find out what he wrote on nihilism, art, morality, religion, and the theory of knowledge, among others.Nietzsche's notebooks, kept by him during his most productive years, offer a fascinating glimpse into the workshop and mind of a great thinker, and compare favorably with the notebooks of Gide and Kafka, Camus and Wittgenstein. The Will to Power, compiled from the notebooks, is one of the most famous boooks of the philos...