Peter Kropotkin

Conquest of Bread (Working Classics)

Anarchist Communism

A Factor of Evolution (Dover Value Editions)

Mutual Aid

In The Conquest of Bread, Peter Kropotkin describes how the revolution can achieve a free, egalitarian, and self-sufficient anarcho-communist society. In issuing his argument for this society, Kropotkin critiques the various economic systems, from pure capitalism to state-run socialism to collectivism. Additionally, he provides the reader with a history of the revolution, analyzing the failures and successes of past revolutions, including the French revolutions of 1789, 1848, and 1871. Throughout, Kropotkin emphasizes humanity's ability to cooperate and advance through mutual aid and science - abilities critical to the success of the revolution and post-revolution society. The Conquest of Bread is an important and enduring work of political theory and anarchist thought. This Dialectics annotated edition includes nearly 100 new historical and biographical footnotes and notes on the English translation from the original French text. Also included are nine historic lithographs, etchings, and woodblock prints depicting the periods discussed in the book. These notes and illustrations help to make The Conquest of Bread as relevant today as when it was first published. Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) was born a Russian prince but abandoned his title at the age of twelve. He escaped from his first imprisonment and lived the bulk of his life in exile. Though he was a skilled geographer, he is most known for being an important theorist of anarchism and anarchist communism.

The Conquest of Bread

Modern science and anarchy

An Appeal To The Young

Words of a Rebel

Origin and Development

Ethics

In Russian and French Prisons (The Collected Works of Peter Kropotkin, 6th V)

Peter Kropotkin was a Russian geographer, economist, activist, philologist, zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, writer and prominent anarchist.Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between workers. He wrote many books, pamphlets and articles, the most prominent being The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops, and his principal scientific offering, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. He also contributed the article on anarchism to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition.

El Apoyo Mutuo

Peter Kropotkin: Gegenseitige Hilfe in der Tier- und Menschenwelt »Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution«. Erstdruck 1902. Erste deutsche Ausgabe 1904 in der Übersetzung von Gustav Landauer. Neuausgabe. Herausgegeben von Karl-Maria Guth. Berlin 2018. Textgrundlage ist die Ausgabe: Kropotkin, Peter: Gegenseitige Hilfe in der Tier- und Menschenwelt. Autorosierte deutsche Ausgabe beorgt von Gustav Landauer. Unverkürzte Volksausgabe. Leipzig: Verlag von Theod. Thomas, 1908. Die Paginierung obiger Ausgabe wird in dieser Neuausgabe als Marginalie zeilengenau mitgeführt. Umschlaggestaltung von Thomas Schultz-Overhage unter Verwendung des Bildes: Peter Kropotkin um 1900, Edition Nadar. Gesetzt aus der Minion Pro, 11 pt.

Gegenseitige Hilfe in der Tier- und Menschenwelt

La Moral anarquista y otros escritos

Prince Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) was the most outstanding anarchist thinker of his time. His writings, which combine revolutionary fervor with intellectual rigor, were influential far beyond the bounds of the anarchist movement. No mere propagandist, Kropotkin aimed to provide anarchism with a scientific base through research of dominant tendencis in society. This text is a meticulously researched and argued outline for redirecting agricultural and industrial production in a world of shrinking resources and increasing human needs. More prophetic than utopian, this volume remains remarkably pertinent to economic conditions at the end of the twentieth century. The analysis of trends at work in the United States, Japan and China are of amazing predictive power.

Fields, Factories, and Workshops

The fourth in AK Press' Working Classics series, The Conquest of Bread is Peter Kropotkin's most extensive study of human needs and his outline of the most rational and equi-table means of satisfying them. A combination of detailed historical analysis and far-reaching utopian vision, this is a step-by-step guide to social revolution: the concrete means of achieving it, and the world that humanity's "constructive genius" is capable of creating. Includes a new introduction that historically situates and discusses the contemporary relevance of Kropotkin's ideas.

Mutual Aid explore the role of mutually-beneficial cooperation and reciprocity in the animal kingdom and human societies both past and present. Supporting the theory and foundation for anarchist communism, Peter Kropotkin presents an altruistic view of society, comparing it to the natural laws of biology and evolution. Kropotkin argued that it is our innate instinct for mutual aid - rather than mutual struggle - which enables societies to survive and flourish. From the earliest days of evolution through to medieval guilds, indigenous nomads and modern voluntary organisations, Kropotkin's vision of small-scale, ecologically sustainable, collective communities challenged the orthodoxies of his age, whether individualism or Marxism. Mutual Aid offers instead a radical, and prescient, rewriting of the whole of human history.

A Factor of Evolution

Although born into an aristocratic family who put heavy stock in class rank, Peter Kropotkin is now known as one of the first well-known advocates for anarchist communism. At thirteen, Kropotkin, the son of a prince, became disillusioned with the world of rank and status in which he lived and began exploring alternative realms of thought. His vocal dissention landed him in a Russian prison in 1874. In 1876, he was transferred to a military hospital from which he escaped and fled to western Europe. Through his work as a professional geographer, Kropotkin's ideas and writings about society came about through observing wildlife in Siberia. These observations were what caused him to write "Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution". First published cohesively in London in October of 1902, Kropotkin responded to ideas of Social Darwinism and illustrated the phenomenon of cooperation in nature. His conclusion was that cooperation and mutual aid are in fact the most essential components of survival in both human society and wildlife habitats.

In Mutual Aid, Peter Kropotkin attacks the use of Darwinism as a social theory, arguing that cooperation is as important as competition. Examining animals, indigenous societies, medieval cities, and the modern era, Kropotkin demonstrates the importance of cooperation to evolution and survival. This Dialectics edition includes Kropotkin's extensive notes. Each note is placed as a footnote at the bottom of the page in which it appears. Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) was born a Russian prince, but abandoned his title at the age of twelve. He escaped from his first imprisonment and lived the bulk of his life in exile. Though he was a skilled geographer, he is most known for being an important theorist of anarchism and anarchist communism.

One hundred years after his death, Peter Kropotkin is still one of the most inspirational figures of the anarchist movement. Every page of this new edition of his 1902 essay collection, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, has been beautifully illustrated by one of anarchism's most celebrated current artists, N.O. Bonzo.

An Illuminated Factor of Evolution

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a 1902 collection of anthropological essays by Russian naturalist and anarchist philosopher Peter Kropotkin. The essays explore the role of mutually-beneficial cooperation and reciprocity (or ""mutual aid"") in the animal kingdom and human societies both past and present. It is an argument against theories of social Darwinism that emphasize competition and survival of the fittest, and against the romantic depictions by writers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who thought that cooperation was motivated by universal love. Instead Kropotkin argues that mutual aid has pragmatic advantages for the survival of human and animal communities and, along with the conscience, has been promoted through natural selection. Mutual Aid is considered a fundamental text in anarchist communism.

Peter Kropotkin

Books

Your next favorite book is out there