Anarchism

A public lecture after an attack on the French Parliament led E. V. Zenker to investigate a political theory his audience barely understood. In Anarchism, he sets out to explain the movement's intellectual roots, doctrines and relationship to Socialism and Radicalism. His preface also describes the practical difficulty of finding its original writings, and his dissatisfaction with accounts built on slogans and secondhand claims.

The discussion combines history, political criticism and portraits of thinkers including Proudhon, Stirner and Bakunin. Questions of property, federation and economic organisation appear alongside the tensions between declared principles and revolutionary practice. Zenker assesses Bakunin's involvement with secret societies and introduces the Russian activist Sergei Netschajew. Readers interested in the history of political ideas can follow how an openly critical author attempts to distinguish competing theories and weigh their arguments.