Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition

Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition rescues Peter Kropotkin's philosophy of anarchism from the neglect that it has suffered in mainstream histories of the social and environmental sciences.

Stressing Kropotkin’s intellectual strengths and philosophical integrity of anarchism, Jim Mac Laughlin counteracts the persistent misrepresentation of anarchism as a utopian creed or a recipe for social chaos and political disorder. Moving beyond most previous accounts of Kropotkin's anarchism, Mac Laughlin focuses less on the man and his political career, instead providing a sustained and critical reading of his extensive writings on the social, historical and scientific basis of modern anarchism.

The result is a thorough examination of a number of key themes in Kropotkin's philosophy of anarchism, including his concerted efforts to provide anarchism with an historical and scientific basis; the role of mutualism and mutual aid in social evolution and natural history; the ethics of anarchism, and the anarchist critique of state-centred nationalism and other expressions of power politics.