Statism and Anarchy

[The Feral Underclass]

Who has read this book? I have failed to see the relevance of it. All Bakunin does is aggresivly critcise the mentality of Germans and their unwillingness to act in a revolutionary way. It should be entitled "The Pan-german State and Reformism".

Why do people think Bakunin wrote this book? Maybe I am missing the point, but it does not seem to display any information that could be helpful to the anarchist movement. Maybe it is a good way to show how you analyze society, but apart from that it comes across as anti-germanism and in blatant form.

I read this book in the hope that it would further my understand of why anarchism is relevant and how you would build a movement to oppose the state. But it dosnt. He just rants endlessly about the shitness of germany and germans.

Can people enlighten me more about the importance of this book, if there is any? Can people explain what the guy was talking about? and why he felt compelled to write about this subject?

[Blackberry]

Originally posted by The Anarchist [email protected] 4 2003, 01:50 AM
Who has read this book? I have failed to see the relevance of it. All Bakunin does is aggresivly critcise the mentality of Germans and their unwillingness to act in a revolutionary way. It should be entitled "The Pan-german State and Reformism".
I haven't read it, but it might have been relevant in his time.



I read this book in the hope that it would further my understand of why anarchism is relevant and how you would build a movement to oppose the state. But it dosnt. He just rants endlessly about the shitness of germany and germans.

From the title, I would have figured it would be a critique of the state -- not an instructory piece on how to build a movement in opposition to the state.


Can people enlighten me more about the importance of this book, if there is any? Can people explain what the guy was talking about? and why he felt compelled to write about this subject?

It sounds like he used the German state as an example of what he was trying to say. Of course, this same German state doesn't exist today.


You will find that a lot of his works are now out of date, like most writers of his time. If you are going to find a critique of the state and how it is irrelevant to anarchy, look for a modern writing on the subject.

[Morpheus]

It's not a very good book, IMO. Most of it is an analysis of thins happening in the 1860s & 1870s which was relevant then, but no longer relevant. The best part the critique of Marx, which is still relevant, and his thoughts on the revolutionary movement in Russia are interesting in light of the later revolution. "God and the State" is way better.