Books by Peter Kropotkin
“Kropotkin was a revolutionary and an anarchist theoretician. One reason I chose this book was to highlight the anarchist strand of abolitionist thought, which opposes all forms of government. Also with Kropotkin, this is a person who spent two years in a Russian prison, and three years in a French prison. He’s drawing on that experience in addition to his broader theoretical point of view as a communist and a person who supports decentralized communities…He is a kind of communist, one that favors fairly small communities of workers sharing the work and sharing the product of that work in an equitable way, consciously attending to each other’s needs. It’s not a community of strangers. It’s not mass society. So it’s a particular way of thinking about what it means for us to live with one another in a way that’s just and humane.” Read more...
The best books on Prison Abolition
Tommie Shelby, Philosopher
“For a long time I thought this entry on anarchism in the Britannica was quite dull. But the more I read it, the better I think it is.” Read more...
Ruth Kinna, Philosopher
Interviews where books by Peter Kropotkin were recommended
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1
'Anarchism', in the Encyclopaedia Britannica
by Peter Kropotkin -
2
Gates of Freedom: Voltairine de Cleyre and the Revolution of the Mind
by Eugenia C. DeLamotte -
3
The Slavery of Our Times
by Leo Tolstoy -
4
Autonomy, Solidarity, Possibility: The Colin Ward Reader
by Chris Wilbert, Colin Ward & Damian F. White -
5
Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870-1940
by Lucien van der Walt & Steven Hirsch
The best books on Anarchism, recommended by Ruth Kinna
The best books on Anarchism, recommended by Ruth Kinna
Sometimes vilified, often misunderstood, rarely taught in universities, anarchism is a political philosophy and social movement that’s far removed from today’s mainstream politics. But it was and remains a powerful motivator. Political theorist Ruth Kinna talks us through the best books to read to get a better understanding of anarchism.
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1
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy -
2
Life and Fate
by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler -
3
The Brothers Karamazov
by Fyodor Dostoevsky -
4
The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov
by Vladimir Nabokov -
5
A Hero of Our Time
by Mikhail Lermontov & translator Vladimir Nabokov -
6
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
by Nikolai Leskov
Books by Russian Authors
Books by Russian Authors
From the Enlightenment onwards, Russian authors have produced a vast and influential literary canon, including historic epics, absurdist classics, and tortured reflections on the human condition. Russia’s political turmoil also led to the writing of many moving memoirs and political works that sought to find solutions in spite of censorship and, for some authors, exile.
The best books on Prison Abolition, recommended by Tommie Shelby
With almost two million people in prison in the US on any given day, it’s clear that something is going badly wrong. The question is what to do about it. Harvard philosopher Tommie Shelby talks us through five books by thinkers of the past 150 years who have argued that abolishing prisons is the only solution.
