The floodgates of anarchy,

by Stuart Christie

Book by Christie, Stuart, Meltzer, Albert

Genres: Politics

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Stuart Christie was a Scottish anarchist writer and publisher. As an 18-year-old Christie was arrested while carrying explosives to assassinate the Spanish caudillo General Franco. He was later alleged to be a member of the Angry Brigade, but was acquitted of related charges. He went on to found the Cienfuegos Press publishing house and in 2008 the online Anarchist Film Channel which hosts films and documentaries with anarchist and libertarian themes.

Reviews

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flawed, yet compelling- conspiratorial, yet (occasionally) objective. The Floodgates of Anarchy distances itself from previous "anarchist" texts by rebelling not against the government contemporary of its publication, but the idea of all governments. While many consider Anarchists to be wholly against all governments, any reader who has encountered Irving Horowitz's anthology The Great Anarchists knows that this is not always the case, that an individual is often times labeled an anarchist by those who support the current mode of government whether or not the "anarchist" in question supports government at all. That being said, as whole-hearted as Christie and his co-author Metzler seem to be, the crux of the argument is based upon a false notion of a nostalgic past that can be re-obtained. Most of the points they raise are ponder-worthy, though a lot of these points fail to hold up as one analyzes the arguments implied by these claims. The reason for the 5 star review is from how much enjoyment I had dissecting the the rhetoric of the text and learning about how (some) anarchists think, but I understand other might give this text a lower review if they were looking for something to convince them to become anarchists through compelling, fool-proof arguments.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has moments of great insight. But those moments are lost in unfocused chapters and arguments that come from a place of ignorance. The book aims to address class struggle, but the author's understanding of class is flawed to say the least.

[Zachary Billot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Technical and dense at times with strong opinions and beliefs about utopian society. Arguments are not as compelling as they rightly could be and it leaves someone outside of the anarchic field a bit wanting

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting, but a little disappointing. Contains the original incarnation of the "political compass idea". The tone of this book is likely to inspire confirmed revolutionary anarchists, but bemuse and alienate everyone else.