Debating Anarchism: A History of Action, Ideas and Movements

Description

This timely book introduces readers to anarchism's relationship to broader history, offering not only a history of anarchism in the modern period, but a critical introduction to debates on anarchist history. Attention thus far has been biased towards intellectual history and key thinkers such as Proudhon, Bakunin and Kropotkin, but these studies have neglected the social movements and spaces which have seen 'anarchy in action' and marginalised the role of women and voices beyond Europe and the United States. Debating Anarchism offers a different perspective, engaging with women's anarchist experiences and grounding recent historical work on anarchism in a global perspective. Interrogating anarchism as a concept, a movement and a social reality the author guides the reader through the origins of anarchism in the age of revolutions, assessing experiences of anarchy in Russia, Spain, India and beyond. Tracing the development of 'the beautiful idea' through the 20th century, Finn explores anarchism in the Cold War world through to postmodernity and the 21st century. This volume situates anarchism in the broader historiographies of the modern world, offering a unique starting point for students of history, politics and philosophy seeking to understand the abiding power of 'the beautiful idea' – a society without government. Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction. Everywhere and nowhere: The problem of anarchisthistoriography 1. Anarchy is order: The origins of ‘the beautiful idea’, c. 1840–72 2. Words versus deeds: Anarchism and syndicalism before the First World War, 1872–1914 3. European anarchisms?: Russia and Spain 4. Global anarchisms: Japan, India and beyond 5. The last anarchists?: Anarchism, decolonization and protest in the Cold Warworld, 1945–1989 Conclusion: Anarchism and history in a second anarchist moment Notes Index