Anarchist Studies - Softcover

Ruth (ed.) Kinna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1905007779 ISBN 13: 9781905007776

Publisher: Lawrence & Wishart Ltd

Synopsis

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that history looms large in this issue: Allan Antliff's examination of abstract art takes us back to the '30s and focuses on Herbert Read. Alexandre Christoyannopoulos provides an assessment of Tolstoy's Christian anarchism and its enduring relevance; Charles Thorpe and Ian Welsh take inspiration from Bakunin, in their analysis of anarchism, science and technology; and Ginger Frost examines ideas of free love in Edwardian England. I don't think this marks a 'return to the sages', as John Quail lamented in last issue, at least not in so far as any of the authors here are looking for answers or solutions or timeless truths or in the sense that they are re-treading familiar, well-worn ground.Rather, the historical bent of this collection reflects a far more complex and nuanced set of ideas: a desire to recover a long-neglected, poorly understood and badly misrepresented past; to discuss the parameters of anarchist thought (perhaps the relationship between anarchism and the anarchistic); to develop new concepts using the insights of past theory and/or to reflect on early experiments in anarchist living and the some of the problems of what's now called prefigurative politics or the politics of everyday life. Brian Martin asked what anarchist theory should be and where it should be going. Maybe, as part of this discussion, we need to reflect of the point of history and/or the kind of history we think is relevant to anarchist studies.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Chambers is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Glamorgan. He has published on various facets of religion including religion, politics and human rights. He is the author of Religion, Secularization and Social Change in Wales (University of Wales Press, 2005). He is currently engaged on research into recent Polish migration in Wales. Norman LaPorte is Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Glamorgan. He works on communism and related topics. His publications include The German Communist Party in Saxony, 1924-1933 (Peter Lang, 2003). He is writing a biography of the German communist leader, Ernst Thalmann. Ralph Darlington is Professor of Employment Relations at Salford University. He has written extensively on trade union organisation and activity in both historical and contemporary contexts, and is the author of The Dynamics of Workplace Unionism (1994); The Political Trajectory of J.T. Murphy (1998); Glorious Summer: Class Struggle in Britain, 1972 (with Dave Lyddon); and Syndicalism and the Transition to Communism: An International Comparative Analysis (2008). He is an executive member of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association and Secretary of the Manchester Industrial Relations Society. Kevin Morgan is Professor of Politics and Contemporary History at the University of Manchester. He has published widely on the left in Britain and in comparative perspective, relating communism to broader social, cultural and political movements in Britain and Europe. Chris Ealham teaches history at the University of Saint Louis (Madrid Campus). He is the author of Anarchism and the City: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Barcelona, 1898-1937 (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2010) and has published numerous articles on Spanish anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist movements. He is currently preparing a biography of Jose Peirats.

Review

'A fascinating study - pays homage to Cambria rather than Catalonia, and memorably so' Kenneth O Morgan, TLS 'Succeeds brilliantly in restoring the humanity of his true subjects, the volunteers - men formed by their time and place who consciously chose to express their commitment to a cause in the bravest way possible.' Dai Smith, Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: Lawrence & Wishart Ltd
• ISBN 10: 1905007779
• ISBN 13: 9781905007776
• Binding: Paperback