Visions of Freedom: Critical Writings on Ecology and Anarchism

Description

Every ten years, notoriously eclectic thinker Brian Morris takes a year of sabbatical and launches out into another field about which he knows nothing. In the 1980s it was botany; in the 1990s, zoology; in the 2000s, entomology. The quintessential polymath, Morris has written on his incredible breadth of interests in wide-ranging essays, with subjects ranging from boxing to deep ecology to new-age gurus.   Collected here for the first time, Visions of Freedom brings together all of Morris’s concise yet diverse essays on politics, history, and ecology written since 1989. It includes book reviews, letters, and articles in the engaging and accessible style for which Morris is known. The thinkers he deals with are as diverse as Thomas Paine to C. L. R. James, from Karl Marx to Krishnamurti, from Max Weber to Naomi Klein. He also delves into the canon of classic anarchist thinkers like Kropotkin, Bakunin, Reclus, Proudhon, and Flores Magnon.   Taking a stance against the obscurantism of contemporary academic discourse, Morris’ writings demonstrate an interdisciplinary approach that moves seamlessly between topics, developing practical connections between scholarly debates and the pressing social, ecological and political issues of our times.    Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION CLR JAMES, 1909-1989 BOOKS ABOUT GREENS THE IGNOBLE ART TOWARDS A TRANSPERSONAL ECOLOGY A CRITIQUE OF ECOFEMINISM MARY DALY AND HER CRITICS CRITICAL REALISM: MARX AND THE MARKET UNITED? ON MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT A CRITIQUE OF LIBERAL SOCIAL THEORY THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF EXCHANGE THE NATURE OF ECOLOGY RAJNEESH: THE GOD THAT FAILED A NEW WORLD ORDER OR CAPITALISM REVAMPED GUSTAVE COURBET, 1819-1877 GUILD SOCIALISM RESTATED YET AGAIN THE CHIPKO MOVEMENT THE ECOLOGICAL WORLDVIEW THE GREEN REVOLUTION THE SHINING PATH CHRISTIANARCHY: MYSTICAL ANARCHISM, OR JUST PLAIN MYSTICISM? COLONIZATIONS FUNDAMENTALISM TOM PAINE—THE RADICAL LIBERAL THE ROLE OF THE INTELLECTUAL IN DEFENCE OF LITERACY UTOPIA IN THE AMAZON TAGORE AND NATIONALISM AMERICAN CIVILIZATION TOM PAINE—THE MAN OF REASON RUDOLF BAHRO: GREEN VISIONARY OR ECO-FASCIST? BEWARE OF GURUS PROUDHON AND ANARCHISM A NOTE ON THE ANARCHISTS OF ISLAM DEMANDING THE IMPOSSIBLE, 1999 RECLUS, KROPOTKIN AND SOCIAL ECOLOGY GLOBAL CAPITALISM AND ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP WEBER AND THE ANARCHISTS UTOPIAN VISIONS MYTHS OF MODERN INDIVIDUALISM BEYOND BOUNDARIES AGRARIAN SOCIALISM BEYOND GLOBAL CAPITALISM EQUALITY AND THE CAPTIVE STATE WAS NIETZSCHE AN ANARCHIST? IN DEFENCE OF MICHAEL BAKUNIN EARTH DEMOCRACY THE POLITICS OF THE ANARCHIST FEDERATION ISLAM AND ANARCHISM POSTSTRUCTURALIST ANARCHISM BAKUNIN: THE CREATIVE PASSION SACCO AND VANZETTI THE POLITICS OF EMPIRE FLORES MAGÓN AND THE ANARCHIST VISION OF FREEDOM ESOTERICISM: THE RELIGION OF EMPIRE KRISHNAMURTI AND ANARCHISM NAOMI KLEIN AND DISASTER CAPITALISM ECOLOGY AND CAPITALISM ECO-STATE SOCIALISM: THE GREEN PARTY MANIFESTO ANARCHISM IN THE ACADEMY, 2010 FORGOTTEN ANARCHIST-FEMINISTS THE ANARCHIST IDEA OF COMMUNISM THE LEGACY OF SAINT-IMIER KARL MARX—ANTHROPOLOGIST IN DEFENCE OF THE COMMONS THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ANARCHIST SOLIDARITY