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Anarchism Today
With all of the provocative, sometimes highly destructive acts committed in the name of anarchy, this enlightening volume invites readers to discover the true meaning of anarchism, exploring its vivid history and its resurgent relevance for addressing today's most vexing social problems.
In Anarchism Today , an acclaimed scholar and one of the world's foremost advocates for the anarchistic tradition cuts through common misconceptions and caricatures to explore what is perhaps the most poorly understood of all political theories.
As author Randall Amster explains, rather than being an anti-everything rationale for defiance and destruction, anarchism is in fact a coherent set of values and practices with a rich history and contemporary relevance. Passionate and provocative, Amster's book offers readers an expert's perspective on what anarchism really means, including its relationship to other political approaches, its careful balancing of individual liberty and a functioning society, and its controversial image as a wellspring of violence. Along the way, Amster addresses a number of current issues from the perspective of anarchism, including corporate globalization, environmentalism, warfare, nationalism, education, technology, alternative economics, criminal justice, and even spirituality. He concludes with a frank assessment of anarchism's impact and the role it can play in building a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world.
In Anarchism Today , an acclaimed scholar and one of the world's foremost advocates for the anarchistic tradition cuts through common misconceptions and caricatures to explore what is perhaps the most poorly understood of all political theories.
As author Randall Amster explains, rather than being an anti-everything rationale for defiance and destruction, anarchism is in fact a coherent set of values and practices with a rich history and contemporary relevance. Passionate and provocative, Amster's book offers readers an expert's perspective on what anarchism really means, including its relationship to other political approaches, its careful balancing of individual liberty and a functioning society, and its controversial image as a wellspring of violence. Along the way, Amster addresses a number of current issues from the perspective of anarchism, including corporate globalization, environmentalism, warfare, nationalism, education, technology, alternative economics, criminal justice, and even spirituality. He concludes with a frank assessment of anarchism's impact and the role it can play in building a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
24 people want to read
About the author
Randall Amster
12 books4 followersRandall Amster is an author, activist, and educator in areas including peace, ecology, homelessness, and anarchism. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1966, Amster has worked as an attorney, judicial clerk, professor, and academic administrator during his professional career. He presently lives in Arizona, where he teaches Peace Studies at Prescott College and writes for outlets ranging from academic journals to online news media.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 5, 2014
Scholarly and poetic, Randall Amster has masterfully written a comprehensive, critical and integrated analysis of dualities, explored through the lens of Anarchism Today. At the intersection of tension and interplay—within each of us individually, within groups of us interdependently, within the larger environment (natural, social and cultural) that we depend upon collectively—exists great potential for creating, experimenting and living the future we desire in the here and now. Contrary to the widely popular but wildly misinformed belief, anarchists harness the synergy of dualities to facilitate positive, continuous and vigilant cultural change—toward a free and equal existence for all.
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"[A]narchism is both critical and constructive, confrontational and compassionate, pragmatic and utopian, destructive and creative."
"Some anarchists seek to drop out, while others dig in; some refuse to participate, while others actively infiltrate; and some ignore the state, while others seeks to smash it. In all these cases, from the highly individualistic to the strongly coordinated, anarchists walk a fine line between autonomy and solidarity, seeking a productive balance of tensions that reflects anarchism's highest aspirations as a social theory."
"Whatever we make of the past, it is the challenge of the present that we must confront if the human experiment is to continue."
"Anarchism cannot solve all of our problems, but it does offer a way of looking at the world—and the people in it—as a complex system comprised of self-actualized units that are equally entitled to define the conditions of life and the course of history. Capitalists and statists have already pronounced the 'end of history' with the purported triumph of their paradigm, but anarchists maintain through their words and deeds that the future is yet to be written."
"The anarchist utopia is one of process and not place, open-ended, defined by its practices rather than a program… Anarchy is ordered chaos, the resiliency of diversity, the stability of change."
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"[A]narchism is both critical and constructive, confrontational and compassionate, pragmatic and utopian, destructive and creative."
"Some anarchists seek to drop out, while others dig in; some refuse to participate, while others actively infiltrate; and some ignore the state, while others seeks to smash it. In all these cases, from the highly individualistic to the strongly coordinated, anarchists walk a fine line between autonomy and solidarity, seeking a productive balance of tensions that reflects anarchism's highest aspirations as a social theory."
"Whatever we make of the past, it is the challenge of the present that we must confront if the human experiment is to continue."
"Anarchism cannot solve all of our problems, but it does offer a way of looking at the world—and the people in it—as a complex system comprised of self-actualized units that are equally entitled to define the conditions of life and the course of history. Capitalists and statists have already pronounced the 'end of history' with the purported triumph of their paradigm, but anarchists maintain through their words and deeds that the future is yet to be written."
"The anarchist utopia is one of process and not place, open-ended, defined by its practices rather than a program… Anarchy is ordered chaos, the resiliency of diversity, the stability of change."
November 5, 2014
This is a fairly comprehensive introduction to anarchist thought in the present era. While on the one hand it seems a bit dated (dwelling on debates over violence and primitivism), on the other hand it is surprisingly comprehensive. It reminded me a lot of Uri Gordon's "Anarchy Alive!"
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March 25, 2014Gave up a bit in. Not that it was badly written - it just made me very upset to think that the author and several others could in all seriousness hold these opinions
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews