Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction

Abstract This short book provides a new point of departure for our understanding of anarchism. It questions standard understandings of anarchy and anarchism as an ideology of chaos and disorder, and sheds new light on anarchism as a lived set of prefigurative practices, with a rich historical legacy. The book explores anarchist approaches to public health provision, education, work, law and order, and world politics, including topics of war and violence, federalism, and climate change. By locating the emergence of anarchist ideas in a global history of colonialism and imperialism, it links anarchism into struggles for freedom across the world, and argues that anarchism still holds value for thinking about new models of freedom and democracy today.