Peter Kropotkin

Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) was a Russian revolutionary and geographer as well as the foremost theorist of the anarchist movement. His classic works include The Conquest of Bread; Fields, Factories and Workshops; Memoirs of a Revolutionist; Mutual Aid; and the essays contained in the collection Anarchism, Anarchist Communism, and The State.

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Praise

“Peter Kropotkin was a giant of socialist history whose tireless scientific, historical, and political scholarship and agitational writing united and fueled the transnational anarchist movement of the turn of the twentieth century. But this aristocrat turned revolutionary didn’t start there. Words of a Rebel sheds light on the young Kropotkin’s political transformation in the wake of the destruction of the First International. By including articles from Le Revolté, this volume traces Kropotkin’s political journey farther as he sewed the early seeds of anarchist communism and set an agenda for anti-authoritarian rebellion for years to come.”
—Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook and coeditor of Anarchist Education and the Modern School

“Words of a Rebel, Kropotkin’s first book, is significant not only for its place in the development of the thought of that towering figure, but also for the many insights it gives into the nature of the European revolutionary movement of his time. Most of the texts, which include several of his most famous essays, appeared originally in Le Révolté (1879–1882), the most important anarchist publication of the period, and other historically valuable documents are appended. These writings reveal Kropotkin as a deeply engaged revolutionary, and show him emerging as a major visionary social thinker.”
—John P. Clark, author of The Impossible Community and Between Earth and Empire

“Kropotkin’s Words of a Rebel is still one of the best introductions to anti-parliamentary socialism, communalism, revolutionary action, state repression, and the illusions of representative government.”
—Ruth Kinna, author of The Government of No One: The Theory and Practice of Anarchism

“Peter Kropotkin was one of the most important and underrated thinkers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who influenced mass movements all over the world from Russia to Switzerland to Japan, Spain, China, and beyond. This new edition of Words of a Rebel will undoubtedly bring his ideas to a new audience. And there is no one better placed than Iain McKay, with his encyclopedic knowledge and understanding of anarchism, to translate and put these ideas in context for modern movements.”
—Working Class History

“One hundred years ago, Peter Kropotkin’s death occasioned the last public gathering of anarchists in Russia for over six decades. Today his revolutionary yet commonsense ethics have come to life again, resurrected by the widespread embrace of mutual aid during the pandemic. But Kropotkin also still has much to say, always with gentle care and strong principles, about the twin disasters of capitalism and the state, and in contrast, the promise of liberatory transformation via confederal forms of self-organization. So don’t just mourn this dead anarchist; use the words of a rebel as inspiration to fight like hell for the living!”
—Cindy Milstein, author of Anarchism and Its Aspirations

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Praise

“The French Revolution erupted out of the remnants of the old world and set a dynamic precedent for new centuries of resistance. Multifaceted, contradictory, and compelling, the French Revolution cast an enormous shadow that influenced every radical faction of 19th century politics. Peter Kropotkin was perhaps the preeminent anarchist intellect of his generation, and so his book The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793 provides us with a fascinating exploration into the late 19th century anarchist vision of historical transformation. This saga of popular upheaval from below provides a fascinating mirror image of how Kropotkin and many of his comrades envisioned the coming revolution.”
—Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook and co-editor of Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader

“In this classic text, Kropotkin demonstrates how even struggles that falter can lay the groundwork for subsequent upheavals. The French Revolution may have succumbed to reaction, but it also gave birth to ideas that would define revolutions to come. A must-read for anyone struggling to put insurgency on the agenda once again.”
—AK Thompson, author of Black Bloc, White Riot

“The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793 constitutes a monumental achievement and is the best-known of all anarchist historical works. In it, Kropotkin perceptively analyzes the roots in the revolution of the fateful struggle between centralized authority and popular power that was to pervade modern political history. He argues that the prospects of the revolution depended on the achievement of communal self-determination and communalization of the land. His communist anarchist analysis of the revolution becomes increasingly relevant today, as attention turns to the history and politics of the commons.”
—John P. Clark, author of The Impossible Community: Realizing Communitarian Anarchism and Between Earth and Empire: From the Necrocene to the Beloved Community

“Kropotkin’s The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793 is an essential work of history from below, giving a nuanced account of one of the most important upheavals from the perspective of the masses of ordinary people who made it happen. It’s great to see it back in print.”
—Working Class History

“One hundred years ago, Peter Kropotkin’s death occasioned the last public gathering of anarchists in Russia for over six decades. Today his revolutionary yet commonsense ethics have come to life again, resurrected by the widespread embrace of mutual aid during the pandemic. But Kropotkin also still has much to say, always with gentle care and strong principles, about the twin disasters of capitalism and the state, and in contrast, the promise of liberatory transformation via confederal forms of self-organization. So don’t just mourn this dead anarchist; use the words of a rebel as inspiration to fight like hell for the living!”
—Cindy Milstein, author of Anarchism and Its Aspirations

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Praise

“N.O. Bonzo has created a rare document, updating Kropotkin’s anarchist classic Mutual Aid, by intertwining compelling imagery with an updated text. Filled with illustrious examples, their art gives the words and histories, past and present, resonance for new generations to seed flowers of cooperation to push through the concrete of resistance to show liberatory possibilities for collective futures.”
—scott crow, author of Black Flags and Windmills and Setting Sights

“Taking aim at both Social Darwinists and Romantic dreamers, Kropotkin’s classic text makes plain that the promise of liberation arises from our collective instinct to cooperate. In this new edition, lovingly illuminated by N.O. Bonzo, we can see the powerful amplifying effect of mutual aid firsthand.”
—AK Thompson, author of Black Bloc, White Riot

“The turn of the century world that inspired Kropotkin to write Mutual Aid may seem very distant to the readers of the 21st century. Yet the principles of reciprocal support that he and his comrades advocated have taken on a new significance in our era of austerity, isolation, climate crisis, and pandemic. With a fantastic stroke of transhistorical artistic wizardry, N.O. Bonzo simultaneously conjures up and re-imagines the visionary aesthetics of the early twentieth century anarchist movement to make Kropotkin’s appeal for cooperation feel as urgent as ever.”
—Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook and co-editor of Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader

“The illustrations in this new edition of Mutual Aid do justice to Kropotkin the polymath and to his magnum opus.”
—Lee Dugatkin, author of The Prince of Evolution

“This version of Mutual Aid beautifully illustrates what ‘mutual aid’ is all about! The cooperation evident on the pages between Kropotkin and N.O. Bonzo illuminates that the more we mutually support each other, the more we not only survive but also thrive—and soar to new heights of care and solidarity.”
—Cindy Milstein, coauthor of Paths toward Utopia: Graphic Explorations of Everyday Anarchism

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Praise

“Peter Kropotkin has been largely ignored as a utopian crackpot, but Brian Morris demonstrates in this wide-ranging and detailed analysis that Kropotkin addressed significantly and perceptively the major issues of the present day.”
—Harold B. Barclay, author of People without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchy

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Praise

“In this collection of essays, Kropotkin excels in his grasp of the state, its dynamics, and the social relations out of which it emerges, dovetailed with his radical vision for libertarian egalitarian social change. Including an informative foreword by Brian Morris on the great anarchist’s colourful life, and Kropotkin’s own extended analysis of the origins of anarchism, the book goes to the core of what makes Kropotkin’s work so stimulating: he is peculiarly capable, through detailed historical accounts and discussions of his own times, of somehow speaking to our own contemporary dilemmas and challenges.”
—Anthony Ince, coeditor of Historical Geographies of Anarchism

“This is one of the most excellent introductions to anarchism, putting paid to the usual objections to the system, synonymous as it has become, wrongly, with disorganisation and chaos.”
—Workers Solidarity

Reviews

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