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.

Mike Finn is Senior Lecturer in History at University of Exeter, UK, where he works on the history of anarchism and left politics. He was educated at Liverpool, Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard where he was a Kennedy Scholar, and is a past winner of the Palgrave/Times Higher Education Humanities and Social Sciences writing prize.

So skillful is Finn's historical synthesis that Debating Anarchism becomes a work original research in its own right. This book will undoubtedly become an essential introduction to the history of anarchist ideas and movements. * Matthew Adams, Lecturer in Politics, History and Communication, Loughborough University, UK * Debating anarchism: a history of action, ideas and movements is a meticulously researched, rigorous and fascinating history and theory of anarchism. From its radical beginnings to our current times, Mike Finn gives us, finally, a full understanding of anarchism in theory and practice. This is an important and necessary book. * Dr. Dana Mills, Lecturer in Poltiics, Vrije Univeristeit, Amsterdam, author of Rosa Luxemburg (Reaktion, 2020) * Debating Anarchism is a panoramic examination of anarchism's shifts and fortunes from the nineteenth century to modern times. Mike Finn's 'anarchist squint' counters the marginalisation of anarchism in European and global histories. His compelling narrative combines impeccable scholarship with crisp, clear analysis to show that the recovery of anarchist history is an important, subversive activity. * Ruth Kinna, Professor of Political Theory, Loughborough University, UK *