Buried in Contemplation

I have often noticed online that when people ask for reading recommendations to understand anarchism, most of the suggestions they receive involve works by the early anarchists: Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Malatesta, Goldman, Rocker and so on. While I consider these anarchists absolutely essential reading, I do think that reading lists that consist solely of their names can give the unfortunate impression that anarchist thought has not progressed much beyond the early 20th century. As a partial corrective to this, I have compiled a reading list featuring texts that were written from the second half of the 20th century up to the present. I hope this gives the anarcho-curious reader a taste of the various ways in which anarchism has developed over the last seven decades.

This reading list is not intended to be comprehensive, and it is certainly not representative of the full range of recent/contemporary anarchist theory. However, I did do my best to not be overly restrictive: I have included works from a variety of anarchist traditions in the hopes of capturing – however imperfectly – some of the diversity of anarchist thought. I should add that I only included texts that I have personally read myself in this list. If you notice a number of omissions that strike you as egregious, it is most likely because I haven’t read those works, and not because I don’t think they are worth reading. Finally, I don’t necessarily agree with all or even most of the content of the works on this list – the fact that they’re included only means I found them interesting and worth engaging.

This list is organized into six broad sections:

• Overviews: General introductions to anarchist theory and practice
• Philosophy: Texts that focus on philosophical issues central to anarchism
• Anthropology: Studies in anthropology with a focus on social stratification, state formation and resistance to domination
• Analysis: Anarchist and anarchist-friendly analyses of the state, class, culture, technology and ecology
• Tactics: Studies of strategy and tactics developed over the years that characterize anarchist practice
• History: Histories of various anarchist movements and revolutionary movements more broadly, and the lessons we can draw from them

A few of the texts on this list were not written by anarchists or fellow travelers of anarchism, but have been included all the same because I think they contain insights anarchists will find valuable. Authors who do not claim the anarchist tradition in any form have an asterisk (*) next to their name. Among these non-anarchist authors, I have deliberately tried to exclude Marxists as far as possible, since I plan to make a separate Marxism Reading List in the near future. However, given the overlap between various anarchist and Marxist currents, minimal inclusion of Marxist theory was inevitable.

The texts here are of varying lengths – they include articles, essays, academic papers and books. The shorter reads can be anywhere from a page or two to ~50 pages, and are in Italics for the convenience of readers who may want to start small. This reading list is a work in progress, and I will likely make periodic additions to it. If you have any suggestions for improvement, criticisms, or general feedback, please feel free to drop a comment below this post.

Happy reading!

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 Overviews

• To Change Everything by Crimethinc
• Anarchy in Action by Colin Ward
• Anarchy Works! by Peter Gelderloos
• Two Cheers for Anarchism by James Scott

Philosophy

• In Defense of Anarchism by Robert Paul Wolff
• Philosophical Anarchism by John Simmons
• Anarchism and Authority by Paul McLaughlin
• The Philosophical Foundations of Property Rights by Alan Carter
• Anarchy and Democracy: Examining the Divide by Shawn Wilbur
• From Democracy to Freedom by Crimethinc

Anthropology

• Society Against the State by Pierre Clastres
• Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology by David Graeber
• How to Change the Course of Human History by David Wengrow* & David Graeber
• Cities Without the State in Early Eurasia by David Wengrow*
• The Art of Not Being Governed by James Scott
• Against the Grain by James Scott
• Journeys to the Edge by Peter Gardner*
• Anarchism, Individualism and South Indian Foragers by Brian Morris
• Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy by Karl Wilderquist* & Grant McCall*

 Analysis

• A Radical Green Political Theory by Alan Carter
• Marx: A Radical Critique by Alan Carter
• Who Rules South Africa? by Lucien van der Walt
• Debt by David Graeber
• Seeing Like a State by James Scott
• State and Revolution: Theory and Practice by Ian Mckay
• State Capitalism by Adam Buick* & John Crump*
• Socialism, Anarchism and Feminism by Carol Ehrlich­­­
• Anarchist Education by Judith Suissa
• Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici*
• Beyond Caste by Sumit Guha*
• Diagnostic of the Future by Peter Gelderloos
• The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert Paxton*
• Is Green Growth Possible? by Jason Hickel* & Giorgos Kalis*
• A Green New Deal Between Whom and For What? by Nicholas Beuret*
• We Are All Degrowthers, We Are All Ecomodernists by Kevin Carson
• The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand by Kevin Carson
• The Homebrew Industrial Revolution by Kevin Carson
• The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism by Fredy Perlman*
• Desert by Anonymous
• Post-Civ!: A Deeper Exploration by Usul of the Blackfoot
• Liberate not Exterminate by the Curious George Brigade
• Post-Left Anarchy: Leaving the Left Behind by Jason McQuinn

Tactics

• Tactics: Conceptions of Social Change, Revolution and Anarchist Organization by Dana Williams
• The Lure of Elections by Black Rose Anarchist Federation
• A Neglected Mechanism of Social Movement Political Influence by Kevin Young* & Michael Schwartz*
• The Failure of Nonviolence by Peter Gelderloos
• You Can’t Blow Up a Social Relationship by Libertarian Socialist Organization
• You Can’t Blow up a Social Relationship… But you can have fun trying! by Bob Black
• Against the Logic of the Guillotine by Crimethinc
• Social Anarchism and Organisation by FARJ
• Some Notes on Insurrectionary Anarchism by sasha k
• The Insurrectional Project by Alfredo Bonnano
• Anarchism and the National Liberation Struggle by Alfredo Bonnano
• Insurrectionary Mutual Aid by the Curious George Brigade
• The Desktop Regulatory State by Kevin Carson
• Anti-Anti-Antifa by A. M. Gittlitz

History

• Anarchism and the First International by Robert Graham
• Making Sense of Anarchism: Errico Malatesta’s Experiments with Revolution by Davide Turcato
• Lessons of the Spanish Revolution by Vernon Richards
• Anarchists Without Adjectives: The Origins of a Movement by Kevin Carson
• Cuban Anarchism: The History of a Movement by Frank Fernandez
• Hatta Shūzō and Pure Anarchism in Interwar Japan by John Crump*
• Anti-Imperialism by Ole Birk Laursen
• The Bolsheviks and Workers Control by Maurice Brinton*
• When Insurrections Die by Giles Dauve*