Means and Ends is a new overview of the revolutionary strategy of anarchism in Europe and the United States between 1868 and 1939. Zoe Baker clearly and accessibly explains the ideas that historical anarchists developed in order to change the world. This includes their views on direct action, revolution, organization, state socialism, reforms, and trade unions. Throughout, she demonstrates that the reasons anarchists gave for supporting or opposing particular strategies were grounded in a theoretical framework—a theory of practice—which maintained that, as people engage in activity, they simultaneously change the world and themselves. This theoretical framework was the foundation for the anarchist commitment to the unity of means and ends: the means that revolutionaries propose to achieve social change have to involve forms of activity which transform people into individuals who are capable of, and driven to, both overthrow capitalism and the state and build a free society. The consistent heart of anarchism was the idea that anarchist ends can only be achieved through anarchist means. Cutting through misconceptions and historical inaccuracies, Baker draws upon a vast assortment of examples to show how this simple premise underpinned anarchist attempts to put theory into action.
Comments
No academic publisher?…
No academic publisher? Wonder why. Do we also have the permission of Dr. Anarchy/Zoe Baker to post this here?
adri wrote: No academic…
Imagine being an 'anarchist' and beliving in copyright
I don't believe in copyright…
I don't believe in copyright and make my material freely available, but as we don't live in an anarchist-communist society, AK Press has bills to pay (not least for printing).
I hope everyone who downloads this pdf will buy a print version from your local radical bookshop or from AK Press directly -- support anarchist publishers and bookshops.