Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Skip to main content
British anarchism has a rich intellectual history. Although marginal as a political force, anarchist ideas developed in Britain into a distinctive political tradition. Kropotkin, Read, and the Intellectual History of British Anarchism... more
British anarchism has a rich intellectual history. Although marginal as a political force, anarchist ideas developed in Britain into a distinctive political tradition. Kropotkin, Read, and the Intellectual History of British Anarchism explores this lost history, offering a new appraisal of the work of Kropotkin and Read, and examining the ways in which they endeavoured to articulate a politics fit for the particular challenges of Britain's modern history.

This book traces how their politics emerged in response to the controversies animating Britain's intellectual history, including the social implications of Darwinism, the role of the state, and the status of modern art and culture. Challenging existing interpretations of their work, it re-conceptualises the history of British anarchism, uncovering the attempt to broaden anarchism, the politics of protest, into a comprehensive philosophical system.

“The strength of Adams’ interesting and intelligent book is that it gives us a view of anarchism as a dynamic tradition of thought that is integral to any wider intellectual history. And in one memorable phrase, Adams explains why we should not ignore it. Kropotkin and Read, by ‘Their pursuit of reason uncovered a universe of wonder’ … . This book helps us join them.” (Peter Ryley, European Review of History, Revue européenne d'histoire, Vol. 23 (1-2), 2016)

“In directing his readers’ attention to the connections between Kropotkin and Read, Adams has indeed pointed to one of the most important streams that fed into British anarchist thought more generally. … Adams’s book is a welcome addition to a growing number of studies aimed at recapturing the largely lost tradition of British anarchism and plugging a significant hole in our understanding of anarchist history and ideas.” (Benjamin J. Pauli, New Political Science, Vol. 38 (2), 2016)

“This volume serves as an excellent account of British anarchism as an intel­lectual history, which explores the translation and impact of ideas and practices within a transregional context.” (Global Histories, Vol. 1, December, 2015)

'In a well-argued, contextualised account, Adams succeeds in restoring Kropotkin to the centre of socialist and anarchist debates in Britain in the late Victorian period. He also provides an admirably lively account of the intellectual inheritance of these engagements in subsequent decades through the lens of Herbert Read's life and ideas, restoring a sense of the vibrancy and sophistication of left-wing political theory through this period.'
- Gregory Claeys, Professor of the History of Political Thought, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

Reviews:

European Review of History

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13507486.2015.1122950

New Political Science

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07393148.2016.1153200?journalCode=cnps20
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, British Literature, History, Intellectual History, Cultural History, and 197 more
This handbook unites leading scholars from around the world in exploring anarchism as a political ideology, from an examination of its core principles, an analysis of its history, and an assessment of its contribution to the struggles... more
This handbook unites leading scholars from around the world in exploring anarchism as a political ideology, from an examination of its core principles, an analysis of its history, and an assessment of its contribution to the struggles that face humanity today. Grounded in a conceptual and historical approach, each entry charts what is distinctive about the anarchist response to particular intellectual, political, cultural and social phenomena, and considers how these values have changed over time. At its heart is a sustained process of conceptual definition and an extended examination of the core claims of this frequently misunderstood political tradition. It is the definitive scholarly reference work on anarchism as a political ideology, and should be a crucial text for scholars, students, and activists alike.
Research Interests:
Introduction - Matthew S. Adams and Ruth Kinna Part I: The interventionist debate 1 Saving the future: the roots of Malatesta's anti-militarism - Davide Turcato 2 The Manifesto of the Sixteen: Kropotkin's rejection of anti-war... more
Introduction - Matthew S. Adams and Ruth Kinna

Part I: The interventionist debate

1 Saving the future: the roots of Malatesta's anti-militarism - Davide Turcato

2 The Manifesto of the Sixteen: Kropotkin's rejection of anti-war anarchism and his critique of the politics of peace - Peter Ryley

3 Malatesta and the war interventionist debate 1914-17: from the 'Red Week' to the Russian Revolutions - Carl Levy

Part II: Debates and divisions

4 Beyond the 'People's Community': the anarchist movement from fin de siècle to the First World War in Germany - Lucas Keller

5 'No man and no penny': F. Domela Nieuwenhuis, anti-militarism and the opportunities of World War One - Bert Altena

6 'The bomb plot of Zürich': Indian nationalism, Italian anarchism and the First World War - Ole Birk Laursen

7 The French anarchist movement and the First World War - Constance Bantman and
David Berry

8 At war with Empire: the anti-colonial roots of American anarchist debates during World War I - Kenyon Zimmer

Part III: The art of war: anti-militarism and revolution

9 The anarchist anti-conscription movement in the U.S. - Kathy E. Ferguson

10 Aestheticising revolution - Allan Antliff

11Mutualism in the trenches: anarchism, militarism and the lessons of the First World War - Matthew S. Adams
Index
Research Interests:
Hinduism, History, European History, Military History, Modern History, and 225 more
Contents: About this issue’s cover George Woodcock’s Transatlantic Anarchism - Allan Antliff and Matthew Adams Pacifism, Violence and Aesthetics: George Woodcock’s Anarchist Sojourn, 1940-1950 - Mark Antliff George... more
Contents:

About this issue’s cover

George Woodcock’s Transatlantic Anarchism
- Allan Antliff and Matthew Adams

Pacifism, Violence and Aesthetics: George Woodcock’s Anarchist Sojourn, 1940-1950
- Mark Antliff

George Woodcock: The Ghost Writer of Anarchism
- Süreyyya Evren and Ruth Kinna

Kropotkin, Woodcock and Les Temps Nouveaux
- Iain McKay

Memory, History, and Homesteading: George Woodcock, Herbert Read and Intellectual Networks
- Matthew Adams

George Woodcock on ‘The Anarchist Critic’
- Allan Antliff
Research Interests:
British Literature, Buddhism, History, Intellectual History, Cultural History, and 160 more
After the tragedies of the twentieth century, the utopian impulse was subject to searching criticism by a host of liberal intellectuals including Karl Popper, Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and Jacob Talmon. Looking to history and... more
After the tragedies of the twentieth century, the utopian impulse was subject to searching criticism by a host of liberal intellectuals including Karl Popper, Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and Jacob Talmon. Looking to history and political philosophy, these thinkers impugned utopianism for so frequently destroying the freedoms it appeared to pursue. Defined by its theoretical contradictions, the utopian project, rooted in the politics of the Enlightenment, bore some responsibility for the totalitarianism and genocide that had shaped their lives. As this critique became liberal orthodoxy, a heretic group of anarchist thinkers challenged these conclusions. While travelling some distance with the liberal critics, for Paul Goodman, Marie Louise Berneri, and Herbert Read, the twentieth century, rather than invalidating the utopian urge made its boldness and experimentalism all the more vital. Their act of heresy was defending utopianism as a central component of their anarchist critique of the present.
This article examines anarchist responses across three generations to the split in the anarchist movement at the outbreak of the First World War. Focusing on appreciations of Peter Kropotkin’s role in that division, it demonstrates how... more
This article examines anarchist responses across three generations to the split in the anarchist movement at the outbreak of the First World War. Focusing on appreciations of Peter Kropotkin’s role in that division, it demonstrates how shifting contextual circumstances and a developing memory of the war subsequently reshaped the narrative of these events in ways that reflected the broader memory of the war. Arguing that curation of a political tradition’s history is central to the self-identity of that tradition, the article investigates this process as successive generations of anarchists tried to make sense of the anarchist split in 1914, and, in turn, define their own political projects.
Civic virtue is a core concept in the republican tradition. Its associations with duty and sacrifice indicate that it is temperamentally incompatible with anarchism, an ideology typically defined by its commitment to maximizing freedom.... more
Civic virtue is a core concept in the republican tradition. Its associations with duty and sacrifice indicate that it is temperamentally incompatible with anarchism, an ideology typically defined by its commitment to maximizing freedom. Presenting an original reading of the work of Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin, two seminal figures in the history of anarchist ideas, this article argues that, nevertheless, a conception of civic virtue was central to their political theory. Tracing their engagement with the language of Enlightenment civic virtue, filtered through the experience of the French Revolution and the politics of Jacobinism, it argues that Bakunin and Kropotkin looked to anarchist civic virtues to both conceptualize anarchist revolution and underpin future anarchist social relations. Casting fresh light on anarchism’s intellectual origins, its neglected relations with republicanism, and the complexities of republican visions of civic virtue, this article also recovers duty, and a potentially demanding model of participation, as key values in anarchist political thought.
For the British-Canadian writer and intellectual George Woodcock, the Doukhobors – a persecuted radical Christian sect, many members of which emigrated from Russia to Canada at the turn of the twentieth century – were a continual source... more
For the British-Canadian writer and intellectual George Woodcock, the Doukhobors – a persecuted radical Christian sect, many members of which emigrated from Russia to Canada at the turn of the twentieth century – were a continual source of fascination. A cause célèbre for a host of nineteenth-century thinkers, including Leo Tolstoy and Peter Kropotkin, the Doukhobors were frequently portrayed as the exemplars of the viewer’s particular ideological beliefs. The present article examines Woodcock’s shifting interpretation of the Doukhobors, mapped onto the development of an intellectual career that saw him emerge as a leading anarchist thinker, and his broader transition from a British writer to a Canadian public intellectual. Where once he saw the Doukhobors representing anarchism in action, as his politics matured his view of the sect became more complex. Rather than living anarchists, he came to see the Doukhobors’ experience as a powerful reminder of the forces of assimilation at work in modern democracies that threatened the liberties of dissenters. Reflecting Woodcock’s revised anarchist politics, the Doukhobors’ story now became a key component of an intellectual vision that cast a probing light on Canadian history and Canadian cultural politics.
Research Interests:
British Literature, Christianity, History, Intellectual History, Cultural History, and 80 more
The work of Herbert Spencer was a crucial influence on the development of Peter Kropotkin’s historical sociology. However, scholars have underestimated this relationship; either overlooking it entirely, or minimizing Kropotkin’s... more
The work of Herbert Spencer was a crucial influence on the development of Peter Kropotkin’s historical sociology. However, scholars have underestimated this relationship; either overlooking it entirely, or minimizing Kropotkin’s attachment to Spencer with the aim of maintaining the utility of his political thought in the present. This article contests these interpretations by analyzing Kropotkin’s reading of Spencer’s epistemological, biological, and political ideas. It argues that Kropotkin was engaged in a critical dialogue with Spencer, incorporating many Spencerian principles in his own system, but also using this reading to articulate a distinctive anarchist politics.
Research Interests:
History, American History, Modern History, Intellectual History, Evolutionary Biology, and 121 more
Research Interests:
History, American History, Modern History, Intellectual History, Cultural History, and 129 more
This essay critically examines one of the dominant tendencies in recent theoretical discussions of anarchism, postanarchism, and argues that this tradition fails to engage sufficiently with anarchism’s history. Through an examination of... more
This essay critically examines one of the dominant tendencies in
recent theoretical discussions of anarchism, postanarchism, and argues that this
tradition fails to engage sufficiently with anarchism’s history. Through an examination
of late 19th-century anarchist political thought—as represented by one
of its foremost exponents, Peter Kropotkin—we demonstrate the extent to which
postanarchism has tended to oversimplify and misrepresent the historical tradition
of anarchism. The article concludes by arguing that all political-theoretical
discussions of anarchism going forward should begin with a fresh appraisal of the
actual content of anarchist political thought, based on a rigorous analysis of its
political, social, and cultural history.
Research Interests:
History, Modern History, Intellectual History, Cultural History, Evolutionary Biology, and 98 more
Drawing on the fragmentary chain of letters between George Woodcock and Herbert Read, this article uses these materials as a point of departure to consider the development of Woodcock’s cultural politics. Focusing on the memories he... more
Drawing on the fragmentary chain of letters between George Woodcock and Herbert Read, this article uses these materials as a point of departure to consider the development of Woodcock’s cultural politics. Focusing on the memories he explored in his autobiographical writing, his histories of anarchism and Canada, and his project to live off the land, it examines the ways in which Woodcock looked to anarchism’s past to theorise afresh its future.
Research Interests:
History, Intellectual History, Cultural History, Canadian Studies, Political Philosophy, and 79 more
To Hell With Culture was Herbert Read’s most concise exposition of his aesthetic politics, but it was a work moulded by the particular context in which he wrote. Starting life as a contribution to a series of pamphlets pondering the shape... more
To Hell With Culture was Herbert Read’s most concise exposition of his aesthetic politics, but it was a work moulded by the particular context in which he wrote. Starting life as a contribution to a series of pamphlets pondering the shape of Britain in the aftermath of the Second World War, Read drew on a deep reading of socialist intellectual history to plot a new, radical path for democracy. His text was a necessary utopia, presenting an outcry against the cultural barbarities of both the capitalist and totalitarian superpowers, and entering a battle of ideas to determine the shape of post-war Europe.
Research Interests:
Christianity, History, Modern History, Intellectual History, Cultural History, and 131 more
Kropotkin's commitment to a concept of evolution has often been viewed as a problematic aspect of his political thought, and the adoption of the evolutionary metaphor has led to the marginalisation of his historical works. Mainstream... more
Kropotkin's commitment to a concept of evolution has often been viewed as a problematic aspect of his political thought, and the adoption of the evolutionary metaphor has led to the marginalisation of his historical works. Mainstream readings suggest that he adhered to a fatalist position, seeing anarchism as an inevitable future state, revealed by a careful reading of the historical record. It is argued here that Kropotkin's use of evolution is more subtle. A closer analysis of his historical writing reveals that he did not adopt a straightforward notion of progression, and that reaction played a central role in his analysis of history. Thus, for Kropotkin, anarchism was not the inevitable culmination of the historical process, and active revolutionary activity remained essential. Moreover, Kropotkin did not see anarchism as representing an end to history. As a potential mode of future organisation Kropotkin's image of anarchism enshrined a principle of flux, concomitant with an anarchist emphasis on maximising freedom. Far from conflicting with his anarchist politics, Kropotkin's approach to history reflects its central principles.
in History, 99:337 (Oct., 2014), pp.715-717.
in European Review of History, Vol.17, No.6 (2010), pp.923-8.
Herbert Read was not a religious anarchist, but nevertheless a sense of the spiritual played an important role in his thought. Through a comparison with the work of H.G. Wells, who Read treated as a representative of a particularly arid... more
Herbert Read was not a religious anarchist, but nevertheless a sense of the spiritual played an important role in his thought. Through a comparison with the work of H.G. Wells, who Read treated as a representative of a particularly arid form of social theory, this chapter reconstructs Read’s argument that spiritual unity was integral to any functioning society, and would therefore also be important to any successful anarchist community. The truth of the lesson was revealed for Read in the centrality of spiritual vibrancy to historical moments of particular artistic creativity. With cultural effervescence his measure of the successful realisation of meaningful freedom, he theorised a utopian anarchist community defined by both its economic communism and spiritual communion.