Suggestions for my Reading List?

[Veg_Athei_Socialist]

I've Read:

The Communist Manifesto by Marx & Engels
Anarchism: From Theory To Practice by Daniel Guerin

Currently Reading:

The ABC Of Anarchism by Alexander Berkman

Going to/wanting to Read:

The Conquest Of Bread by Peter Kropotkin
Fields, Factories & Workshops by Peter Kropotkin
Anarchy In Action by Colin Ward
Anarchy Alive!: Anti-Authoritarian Politics From Practice To Theory by Uri Gordon
The Great Anarchists: Ideas And Teachings From Several Major Thinkers by Dr. Paul Eltzbacher and Steven T. Byington
Anarchism And Other Essays by Emma Goldman
In Defense Of Anarchism by Robert Paul Wolff
Against The State: An Introduction To Anarchist Political Theory by Crispin Sartwell
Anarchism As Political Philosophy by Robert Louis Hoffman
The Case For Socialism by Alan Maas
Why Not Socialism? by G. A. Cohen
Socialism: Utopian & Scientific by Engels

So what do you think of these?

[BAM]

Anarchy Alive is not very good. It was obviously a PhD thesis recycled into a book (not that there's anything wrong with that) but I didn't feel it said anythign new.

Colin Ward's book is really good though.

Try Durruti in the Spanish Revolution by Abel Paz.

[x359594]

Guerin's book supersedes Elzbacher's book, so there's really no need to read it. Wolfe's book is poorly argued.

Instead, try Drawing the Line: the Political Essays of Paul Goodman recently re-published by AK Press and also Goodman's People or Personnel, a 20th century re-statement of Kropotkin's ideas. Goodman was the voice of US anarchism in the 1960s and 70s.

[Rakhmetov]

State & Revolution by V. I. Lenin

Art of War by Sun Tzu

On War by Clausewitz

[Magón]

All of those you've shown look interesting, and I've read some of them: ABC, The Great Anarchists, Against the State, and Anarchy in Action. Some others you might be interested in adding to your list is some of these. Read them all, and loved them all.

Anarchism and Its Aspirations by Cindy Milstein


Anarchism and the City: Revolution and Counter-revolution in Barcelona by Chris Ealham

Anarcho-Syndicalism in the 20th Century by V.V. Damier

and also: You Anarchist, You! by Ernest Tanrez (It's old, but very interesting.)

[Veg_Athei_Socialist]

Thank you for your suggestions so far!

[Across The Street]

Check this out - http://libcom.org/library/social-ana...urray-bookchin

Don't know much about Bookchin and this is the first writing of his i've delved into, but it should help you.

Title: Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism - An Unbridgeable Chasm

[RED DAVE]

The Two Souls of Socialism

Contains a good critique of anarchism.

RED DAVE

[M-26-7]

Guerin's book supersedes Elzbacher's book, so there's really no need to read it. Wolfe's book is poorly argued.

Instead, try Drawing the Line: the Political Essays of Paul Goodman recently re-published by AK Press and also Goodman's People or Personnel, a 20th century re-statement of Kropotkin's ideas. Goodman was the voice of US anarchism in the 1960s and 70s.

Really? I've read Guerin's book, but I still think Eltzbacher's book is essential reading. It gives the original anarchist thinkers in their own words. That's invaluable. These were two of the first anarchist books I ever read, and I definitely do not regret the time I invested in either one.

I agree that Drawing the Line is an interesting book.

[x359594]

...I still think Eltzbacher's book is essential reading. It gives the original anarchist thinkers in their own words...

For reading the original anarchist thinkers in their own words, Guerin's anthology No Gods, No Masters is comprehensive and has the benefit of his short introductory essays. It's available in a one volume edition from AK Press.

Rudolf Rocker was also an original anarchist thinker, and his books Anarcho-Syndicalism and Nationalism and Culture are worth seeking out. So is a collection of Errico Maltesta's essays The Anarchist Revolution.

[bricolage]

The Two Souls of Socialism

Contains a good critique of anarchism.

Personally I think its one of the weaker critiques of anarchism out there, all he does is go on about Proudhon and you'd be hard to pushed to find an anarchist today (or even in the 1960s) who really based any of their views on Proudhon at all.

[Svoboda]

Seems like you have an anarchist tendency, if so you have to go with some Proudhon and Bakhunin. With Proudhon you should read first "What is Property?" he essentially was the first to declare himself an anarchist and this is his expose on property and it set the basis of all anarchist thought. Bakunin never wrote a full work but, God and State was almost complete, so you should try to get a book with a collection of his writings.

Also if your going to read Kropotkin I'd recommend Mutual aid, and if you want a market socialist you should go for Benjamin Tucker. Das Kapital also is essential for a critique on Capitalism although it can be dull and difficult if you aren't well read enough.

Also try not to focus so much on theory, try to go into some history and fiction too.

[fa2991]

"Proposed Roads to Freedom" by Bertrand Russell. One of philosophy's great minds and one of history's great socialists tackles syndicalism, anarchism, Marxism, etc. in one easy-to-read little book.

http://www.zpub.com/notes/rfree10.html

[Bilan]

L'Anarchia - Malatesta.
Good anarchist text.
Pretty much anything you can get your hands on by Malatesta is a keeper.

[M-26-7]

For reading the original anarchist thinkers in their own words, Guerin's anthology No Gods, No Masters is comprehensive and has the benefit of his short introductory essays. It's available in a one volume edition from AK Press.

Yes, I have that one as well, and it's quite good - much more comprehensive than The Great Anarchists. I guess I just like the old school way that The Great Anarchists is broken down systematically by topic for each anarchist: their views on "Law", "The State", "Private Property", etc. Maybe I also have some sentimental attachment to TGA since it is one of the first real leftist books I ever read. It's the first book I ever read which explicitly attacked private property as a social institution.

[x359594]

...Maybe I also have some sentimental attachment to TGA since it is one of the first real leftist books I ever read. It's the first book I ever read which explicitly attacked private property as a social institution.

I hear you. I have the same kind of sentimental attachment to some of my own first books. Indeed, one probably gets a lot from those first books because they pointed one in the right direction for further resaerch.

[fa2991]

I never cared for TGA that much, probably mostly because the edition I have looks like it was formatted and typeset by a blind person.

[anticap]

Draper's Two Souls of Socialism is indeed an important read, but his "critique" of anarchism is an even more ridiculous and transparent attack against a straw man than Engels's On Authority, and that's saying something. All Draper does is carefully select bits from Proudhon and Bakunin to make them look bad, and imply that those bits undermine anarchism in general. It's essentially the same argument used against Marxism by reactionaries who find a juicy quote from Marx or Engels reflecting flaws in their personalities.

The important critique in the work is the one against non-anarchist (including the ostensibly Marxist) forms of "socialism-from-above." You can (and should) skip chapter four without missing any of that; and, it'll save you from polluting your thinking with Draper's approach to a subject he clearly either knew little about or deliberately misrepresented.