Anarchy in Action

Anarchy in Action

Front cover of Anarchy in Action by Colin Ward (1973 Allen & Unwin edition)
Author	Colin Ward
Language	English
Subject	Anarchism
Genre	Political Science
Publisher	George Allen & Unwin and Freedom Press (UK), Harper & Row (US)
Publication date	1973
Publication place	United Kingdom
Pages	157 pp (first edition)
ISBN	0043210163
OCLC	714957
Dewey Decimal	335.83
LC Class	73169626

Anarchy in Action by Colin Ward explores anarchist thought and practice. It was initially published by Allen & Unwin in 1973, and was subsequently published in America and, in translation, in Dutch, Italian, Spanish and Japanese ^[1] A second edition was published by Freedom Press in 2008. ^[2] He explained, in its Introduction, that his book 'is simply an extended, updating footnote to Kropotkin's Mutual Aid.' ^[3]

The book is a seminal introduction to anarchism but differs considerably from other introductions by concentrating on the possibility of an anarchism rooted in everyday experience that is not necessarily linked to industrial and political struggles.^{[ citation needed ]}

Ward based his book on evidence from sociology, anthropology, cybernetics, industrial psychology, and from the experience of housing, town planning, education, work, play and social welfare. Ward argued for anarchist alternatives to the universal governmental and hierarchical systems of social organisation, including the welfare state. ^[4]

Quotation

"The argument of this book is that an anarchist society, a society which organizes itself without authority, is always in existence, like a seed beneath the snow, buried under the weight of the state and its bureaucracy, capitalism and its waste, privilege and its injustices, nationalism and its suicidal loyalties, religious differences and their superstitious separatism." ^{[5] [6]}

References

1. Ward, Colin (2008). "Introduction". Anarchy in action (Second ed.). London: Freedom Press. p. 9. ISBN   978-0-900384-20-2.
2. Ward, 2008.
3. Ward, 2008: 10.
4. Ward, 2008: 17-19, 134-152.
5. Ward, Colin (1973). "Preface". Anarchy in Action . London: George Allen & Unwin. p.  11. ISBN   0043210163.
6. "Colin Ward" . The Daily Telegraph . 2010-03-29. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

Bibliography

• Ward, Colin (2004). Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   0-19-280477-4.
• Ward, Colin, ed. (1991). Influences: Voices of Creative Dissent. Bideford: Green Books. ISBN   1870098439.
• Ward, Colin (2011). Autonomy, Solidarity, Possibility: The Colin Ward Reader. Oakland, CA: AK Press. ISBN   9781849350204.

Further reading

• Ward, Ben; Ward, Harriet; Worpole, Ken; Bradshaw, Ross, eds. (2011). Remembering Colin Ward: 1924-2010. Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications. ISBN   978-1907869976.