As with many political, economic, and philosophical ideas, anarchism has a long and complex history of essayists and activists writing treatises and manifestos detailing their principles, motivations, and actions. While there is no obligation to read before choosing to disregard political coercion, it can be extremely beneficial to read widely and weigh varied ideas from diverse thinkers and different times. Just as machinists and carpenters have reference books and calculation tables, perhaps you need a handbook of anarchist essays.
Where can you get such an overview of anarchist thought? Enter Michael Malice and The Anarchist Handbook. Each chapter is presented chronologically. Most of the content is in the public domain now, or at least readily accessed online, so let's take a look chapter by chapter.
Note: If you read this long after February 2022, you may need to search anew for these authors and titles, or at least delve into archive.org's wayback machine. Things get memory-holed far too easily nowadays...
Cover image via michaelmalice.com/books
Chapter 1
Hoch Die Anarchie! (Hurrah for Anarchy!) is Malice's brief introduction. The title is from the last words spoken by George Engel and the last words written by Louis Lingg. They had been convicted, not for any personal responsibility for any crime, but merely for being anarchists swept up in the aftermath of the Haymarket Affair. Read more here in another essay bearing the same title as this chapter.
Chapter 2
An excerpt from Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness by William Godwin, specifically Book III, Chapter II. @kwilley has an in-depth review of his own here. The Amazon link above is his affiliate link from that post. This chapter spends a mere four pages to dismantle most arguments for the existence of a "social contract" between the government and the people. Even before the term "anarchist" was coined, people were questioning the legitimacy of government based on the foundational principles of consent versus coercion.
Chapter 3
My Power, from The Ego And His Own by Max Stirner. Stirner's followers can be a bit obnoxious when encountered online in my experience, but don't let them dissuade you from actually exploring the guy's ideas. This is a longer chapter at 21 pages, and requires considerable more thought before I am prepared to render an opinion. Kwilley also offered a deeper look here.
Chapter 4
Oddly enough, it seems difficult to find a complete Proudhon library online. This seems to be Malice's source for The Nature and Destination of Government. Another translation is available here. I find Proudhon to be the most intriguing of the socialist and mutualist anarchists I have read, and find the usual summation of "property is theft" poorly conveys his thoughts on society. This is another short chapter, and not a difficult read, but it is an effective indictment of both the modern governments of his day and the socialists who wanted to sieze political power in an effort to turn it to their own ends. Check out Kwilley's more in-depth review here.
Chapter 5
Herbert Spencer's Social Statics chapter on The Right to Ignore the State is apparently only included in early editions, and was removed by the author in later publications during his lifetime. Spencer was complicated, and not eager to embrace anarchism, although many of his ideas support the conclusion as demonstrated here. The audiobook version is available on archive.org if you prefer.
Chapter 6
Chapter 1 of Josiah Warren's True Civilization dives immediately into the messy issue of consent versus coercion. The main thrust is that consent is the foundation of civilized human interaction, while the nature of government is unavoidably rooted in coercive force.
Chapter 7
Mikhail Bakunin gets a two-for-one chapter including Chapter 3 of Marxism, Freedom, and the State and an excerpt from God and the State, answering the question, "what is authority?" The former is from Bakunin's dissenting dissertation on Marxism, and the latter remarkably prescient, as demonstrated in the following quotation:
Suppose a learned academy, composed of the most illustrious representatives of science; suppose this academy charged with legislation for and the organization of society, and that, inspired only by the purest love of truth, it frames none but laws in absolute harmony with the latest discoveries of science. Well, I maintain, for my part, that such legislation and such organization would be a monstrosity, and that for two reasons: first, that human science is always and necessarily imperfect, and that, comparing what it has discovered with what remains to be discovered, we may say that it is still in its cradle. So that were we to try to force the practical life of men, collective as well as individual, into strict and exclusive conformity with the latest data of science, we should condemn society as well as individuals to suffer martyrdom on a bed of Procrustes, which would soon end by dislocating and stifling them, life ever remaining an infinitely greater thing than science.
Chapter 8
Lysander Spooner is one of my favorite anarchist thinkers, and I previously serialized his open letter to Grover Cleveland. This chapter is the essay No Treason No. VI: The Constitution of no Authority, a remarkable argument against every case for the legitimacy of the Constitution of the United States of America. While his aim is to dismantle the presumption of authority for that specific document, his arguments are applicable to any government constitution, and his conclusion is unequivocal.
But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain—that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.
Chapter 9
As noted at The Anarchist Library page for this essay, "This book has been reproduced for academic purposes only. The reader is cautioned against the actual construction & use of the devices described. Such activities would be in violation of local, state laws, and may result in personal injury or death." Johann Most advocated propaganda of the deed and literally wrote the book on building bombs to carry out such activities. This is the introduction to "The Science of Revolutionary Warfare" describing the reasons why the anarchist might have occasion to make explosives. This excerpt does not include any directions, but if you're curious, the link includes more descriptions.
Do I even need to say it? Don't try this at home, kids.
Chapter 10
Louis Lingg, mentioned regarding the title of chapter 1, was one of the people convicted in the Haymarket aftermath. He was apparently a bomb-maker, but evidence of his responsibility in that event was circumstantial at best. Of those convicted, he was one of the few to escape the noose. Another escaped capture, but Lingg committed suicide by blasting cap instead. It was not quick or painless. The chapter is his defiant statement in court prior to sentencing.
Chapter 11
Benjamin Tucker was not only a writer, but also publisher of many other writers in his periodical Liberty. This chapter is his own essay, State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree, and Wherein They Differ, wherein he draws the distinctions between anarchistic socialism and state socialism. I have seen those on the right lump together these two conflicting ideas just as much as the left likes to conflate laissez-faire capitalism and fascism. Distinctions matter.
Chapter 12
Peter (or Petr or Pyotr) Kropotkin was an anarchist and communist who disagreed with much of Marxist dogma. He saw the government as part of the plundering class, unavoidably in cahoots with the capitalists of land and industry. His vision was not some new communist man, but a society where people of today would be free to work and trade as they saw fit, believing the inevitable result of such anarchism would be communism. This chapter excerpts from The Conquest of Bread, arguably Kropotkin's most famous work. I don't claim expertise in his essays, but his analysis here strikes me as far more coherent than that in Marx's Capital, which I suppose I need to get back to discussing eventually. Kropotkin makes so much more sense in these few pages than Marx in the entire first section of his magnum opus!
Chapter 13
Leo Tolstoy is better known to most for his fiction, but he was also an anarchist and pacifist due to his faith, and this guided his exploration of philosophy. Chapter 13 of this book consists of chapters 13-15 of The Slavery of our Times.
The cause of the miserable condition of the workers is slavery. The cause of slavery is legislation. Legislation rests on organized violence.
So begins this exploration of several key questions: What are governments? Is it possible to exist without governments? How can governments be abolished? What should each man do? This is, to me, one of the most challenging chapters because it requires self-reflection and choice of action in response to the ideas it presents and the preconceptions it challenges.
Chapter 14
Alexander Berkman's essay Prisons and Crime explores government definitions of crime and the stated aims versus the real effects of its punishments and penalties. The absurdity of what we have accepted as "justice" is laid bare in just a few pages, and should be recognized as an insult to any rational individual.
Chapter 15
In the United States, we are taught that our core societal principles are embodied in the Constitution and the government it forms. According to Voltairine de Cleyre, we should instead recognize Anarchism and American Tradition. Her intellectual path is difficult to sum up easily, and Wikipedia barely scratches the surface, but why not start by diving into this exploration of the American culture of independence in opposition to political authority?
Chapter 16
De Cleyre's contemporary Emma Goldman was, like Benjamin Tucker above, a publisher in addition to a philosopher. She was much more inclined toward socialism than individualism, and clashed with de Cleyre on many matters, but by all accounts they respected one another despite disagreements. Her chapter is "Minorities Versus Majorities" from Anarchism and Other Essays, wherein she challenges everything from the entertainment media of her time to politicians for striving to appeal to the least common denominator of the greatest mass of people. Money and power alike incentivize stagnation and corruption.
Chapter 17
From Goldman's periodical Mother Earth, but without her consent due to absence on other business, we see a return to the topic of dynamite. The article by that title appeared in the July 1914 issue, authored by one Charles Robert Plunkett. When many others sought the path of pacifism, civil disobedience, and other forms of non-violent resistance, his conclusion was simple.
Off with the mask! This is war. Violence can be met only with violence. "If they attack us with cannon, we will attack them with dynamite"—and, whenever possible, let us attack first. To oppression, to exploitation, to persecution, to police, jails, militia, armies and navies, there is but one answer—DYNAMITE!
Needless to say, this conflict of tactics and philosophy remains to this day.
Chapter 18
There is quite a leap from 1914 to 1970 for this chapter excerpted from The Market for Liberty by Morris and Linda Tannehill. This is also the first entry from an explicitly market-based philosophy. Where other writers tended to advocate some form of post-capitalist communal or mutualist structure, this essay explores how property rights and market processes resolve conflicts and undermine the political class. Hearkening back to prior chapters, we can see the topic of consent versus coercion, the minority versus the minority, the nature of justice, and the individual versus the crowd echoed again in this analysis from another angle. After addressing a number of criticisms levied against laissez-faire, it concludes,
The objection that a tyrant might take over is actually a devastating argument against government.
Chapter 19
The Machinery of Freedom, by David Friedman, continues the theme of exploring how the market process and individual liberty address problems purportedly solved by political means. From "Part III: Anarchy Is Not Chaos," this book borrows "The Stability Problem" and "National Defense: The Hard Problem." This explores the concern that anarchy is unstable, and addresses the concern of defense as a public good requiring a political monopoly. A decentralized system, he concludes, is much more resilient, even if all you seek is a utilitarian answer to such objections.
Chapter 20
Reproduced in its entirety is Murray Rothbard's *Anatomy of the State, a searing indictment of popular political thought beginning with "The State is Not," re-framing politics in light of "What the State Is," explains "How The State Preserves Itself," describes "How the State Transcends Its Limits," "What the State Fears," and "How States Relate to One Another," and concludes with "History as a Race Between State Power and Social Power," followed by copious footnotes. This is absolutely a must-read treatise for anyone who remains convinced that government can be somehow redeemed.
Chapter 21
The Myth of the Rule of Law by John Hasnas is the penultimate chapter of this book. It demolishes the perception that we live under rule of law by detailing the lawlessness inherent in observed history. Governments flout their own laws as they see fit. A tug-of-war for political power becomes more contentions the more laws there are. Busybodies externalize the cost of their desired interventions though government. Monopoly promotes abuse, and contrary to popular conception, justice needs to be a market service like any other to free it from those perverse political incentives.
Chapter 22
Michael Malice claims the final word in his own book, which can be excused when that final word is Why I won't Vote This Year—Or Any Year. Democracy is still an article of faith on the state religion, and it needs to be challenged. This is a short and sweet counterpoint.
Conclusion
If pretty much everything in the book can be found online, do you need to buy the book? Of course not. But should you buy it anyway? Maybe.
This is a well-curated collection of essays covering the broad scope of anarchist thought from a variety of viewpoints. There are communists and laissez-faire capitalists, pacifists and terrorists, philosophers and activists, Utopians and realists. A book is also much easier to share than a long page of web links to longer works. I may try to persuade my library to add my copy to our collection, too.
Whether you consider yourself an anarchist or not, why do you agree or disagree with a given position? Are you sure you understand what you claim to oppose? How do you investigate and support or refute it? Reading outside your particular anarchist milieu will also enhance your understanding, even if you still disagree after exploring the ideas in question.
Prior Toolbox Posts
Propaganda of the Deed
Agorism
