Not bad, and a nice quick read and introduction (as the title implies). I would have preferred something a bit more objective though. ( )

This book is an essential read. In fact, I will go so far as to say this should be in the school syllabus, along with concepts like democracy
Anarchic thought is interesting and fascinating but is always doomed to uncertain success. The authorities are always arraigned against anarchists.
It is a misconception to believe that an anarchist is a wild-eyed person who goes around burning buildings and placing explosives under parliament buildings. This is not true.
An anarchist goes against authority, and in doing so fashions new, sometimes radical, philosophy.

In this excellent book, Collin Ward gives us a brief introduction to anarchism, then takes us through the thoughts of some of the key anarchist thinkers. He also brings us up to date with what is happening today, in this important area of "philosophical thought".

A must-read.

I think I tend towards anarchy ( )

According to Wikipedia the author of this brief tome, Colin Ward, is "one of the greatest anarchist thinkers of the past half century." If so, then it is time to despair for anarchism. I have long been interested in and mostly supportive of the ideas behind anarchism and am familiar with many of the basic ideas and principles. I was hoping this book would provide a more structured introduction and overview, as well as bring me up to date on the latest ideas and trends.

In the big picture, the book partially succeeded in doing that. But it was written in such a haphazard fashion and at such an elementary level that I don't feel I learned very much new or interesting from reading it (except perhaps the chapter on anarchist ideas regarding regionalism). On the other hand, if I came to this book knowing nothing about anarchism, I would give this book a 1. Ward makes too many assumptions about what his readers know and fails to explain the basics in a coherent fashion.

Also quite annoying is that instead of providing strong arguments for his positions, Ward falls into the "true believer" trap, arguing than any view of anarchism that doesn't fit his or all the bad stuff some anarchists believe or do is not "true" anarchism. He defends the failures of anarchism as a political movement on its not being truly applied or understood, blaming failure on everyone else but anarchists and their ideology. This polemic takes up a huge part of the book which would have been better spent explaining the ideas of great anarchist thinkers. The most interesting and useful parts of the book are when he does present the ideas of Godwin, Bakunin, Kropotkin et al.

Studying ideological models of society created by great minds is a useful exercise in both understanding and criticizing what is. These models provide important ideas and methods for improving one self and society. However, the flaw of such models is that they almost always assume some idealized form of human nature and try to explain all the ills of society on the fact that humans have been corrupted and misled from their ideology's Truth. In fact these models and ideals need to be treated as limited and approached skeptically. There is a great danger in taking ideologies too seriously and believing that adopting them wholesale will solve all human ills. This has been a recipe for disaster over and over in human history.

Considering that he invokes the Enlightenment as the source of anarchism, you would think Ward would take the more skeptical approach. But he is as fervent a believer in Anarchism as any fundamentalist, and that is the greatest flaw of the book.

In sum, look elsewhere if you want a more interesting, informative and balanced introduction to anarchism. ( )

I wanted to re-read some anarchist texts from my youth and thought I should start with a primer. An excellent little book that introduces the history and main theories without dwelling too long on them. ( )

This is a very wide-ranging look at many of the concerns of anarchists including education, federalism, sexuality, urban planning, and revolution. Unfortunately, being "very short", I'm not sure that it was necessary to try to cover all of these. Ward's primary purpose here seems to be to demonstrate the relevance and practicality of anarchism and its superiority as a political ideology in all of these areas. He did this reasonably well. I did not appreciate his dismissal of deep ecology as philosophy exclusively of the privileged who are obsessed with the noble savage, and I was equally disappointed, though not surprised, at the conspicuous omission of any mention of Zerzan, primitivism, or the critique of the megamachine. As if ignoring these things will make them go away. ( )

According to Uri Gordon, "the assumptions and sources for discussion" in Ward's book "remain [...] those of nineteenth and early-twentieth century anarchists". See Uri Gordon: "Anarchism And Political Theory: Contemporary Problems" p. 15-6. ( )