Anarchy Works

this is a four star book. it's good, the author has clearly done their work, it's nuanced and it presents good theory. hold all of that in mind because now i'm gonna be negative.

due to the nature of the work, pretty much all given examples are simplified, and some of them (or at least those i know well enough to notice) have occasional omissions or errors. this however doesn't hurt the conclusion, especially since the conclusion is nuanced - not "humans are anarchists" but "humans can do anarchism", not "anarchism always works" but "anarchism can work". (for the curious folks, the specific examples i'm thinking of are the Israeli Kibbutzim, Wikipedia and the island of Rapa Nui.) the weakest chapter by far, at least in my opinion, is chapter 4 - environment, though possibly the fact i've recently read "The Solutions are Already Here" (a five star book specifically about anarchism and the environment) plays a factor. the strongest, by contrast, is the first, possibly due to being the most nuanced. to me, of all chapters, it is the one that best speaks the important message of this book: anarchy works, we just have to choose it. perhaps my biggest issue with the book is the one i least know how to fix - that it sits in the uncomfortable space of intending to convince while by its very nature being mostly read by those already convinced. that is sadly the nature of almost every theory book under the sun, anarchist or not, and the ways to deal with it are either acknowledge this fact and aim it only at those already within the movement (as even those already in on an idea still always benefit from theory), or ignore it and hope your book becomes a gateway for at least some newcomers, somehow. this book did what to me seems the more common choice among anarchist, and chose the latter.

despite all my criticisms, this is a good book. even those who already read a bunch of theory like me can benefit from the new outlooks and varieties of anarchism offered by this book. there's better books talking specifically about anarchist organising, about anarchist economies, about anarchist ecology, about anarchist history throughout the world. but this one does a good job talking about them all at once. this is a four star book.

I picked up this book because I thought, based on the chapter names, that it would have sketches of how things would work in an anarchist society. Instead I got, mostly, a really long list of examples and stories, that don't answer the questions promised in the chapter names, but only hint at that an anarchist way is possible. I often found the book being too romantic, even though it tries not to be (no less in the few stories where I had prior knowledge), and I think its main usefulness is to convince people who are on the fence about anarchism, that it is not utopian. For me, already convinced that the inevitability of the status quo is bullshit, and looking for more concrete ideas about how society could be organized in a better world, it wasn't that useful.

This compilation of essays on topics about society and history and the ways we can, and have, organised without hierarchy or oppressive power strictures is a beautiful piece of work.
It is inspiring and earnest and a great road map to anarchist ideas, mutual aid and consent as basis of our relationships and interactions with each other.
It might feel utopian or too idealistic, but for me it's been a breath of fresh air. A reminder that this longing for a more just, more free society is shared. This book makes a compelling case for radical ideas like societies with no prisons or no police forces.
I will definitely return to this one.
Inspiring.