The Anarchist Cookbook

Last updated

The Anarchist Cookbook
The Anarchist Cookbook front cover.jpg
Book cover
AuthorWilliam Powell
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Lyle Stuart
Publication date
January 1971

The Anarchist Cookbook, first published in 1971, is a book containing instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary telecommunications phreaking devices, and related weapons, as well as instructions for the home manufacture of illicit drugs, including LSD. It was written by William Powell at the apex of the counterculture era to protest against United States's involvement in the Vietnam War. Powell converted to Anglicanism in 1976 and later attempted to have the book removed from circulation. However, the copyright belonged to the publisher, who continued circulation until the company was acquired in 1991. Its legality has been questioned in several jurisdictions.

Contents

History

Creation

The Anarchist Cookbook was written by William Powell as a teenager and first published in 1971 at the apex of the counterculture era to protest against United States involvement in the Vietnam War. [1] [2] Powell gained inspiration for his text from his experiences with Vietnam veterans while living in New York City, during which time the pacifist movements of the 1960s began to take a more violent turn, having been responsible for over 100 politically inspired bombings. Powell began plans to become a writer but decided upon a political course when he was drafted into the Vietnam war, which inspired him to write "recipes" and later compile them into a "cookbook". [3] The initial vision of The Anarchist Cookbook was to post instructional flyers in New York City, including how to properly throw a Molotov cocktail and how to make LSD. These "recipes" were eventually adapted to make up an entire book. [4] From 1968 to 1970, Powell began researching in the "U.S. Combat Bookshelf" at the New York Public Library, including mainstream external texts such as The Boy Scout Handbook , and anarchist texts like Fuck the System by Abbie Hoffman. The initial manuscript was sent to Lyle Stuart in 1970. [3]

Powell stated The Anarchist Cookbook was initially designed as a book meant to provide education to "the silent majority" of the American population. He described that the book was not intended for extant political fringe organizations but was designed to galvanize a great societal change by inciting the general population. The ultimate goal of the text was to provide the general population with the skills and capabilities to organize against fascist, capitalist, and communist threats that he perceived. Powell stated: "The central idea to the book was that violence is an acceptable means to bring about political change," a sentiment that he would renounce later in life. [5] [3]

Author's remorse

Lyle Stuart, former publisher of The Anarchist Cookbook Lylestuart.jpg
Lyle Stuart, former publisher of The Anarchist Cookbook

After writing the book as a teenager, Powell converted to Anglicanism in 1976 and later attempted to have the book removed from circulation. [6] [2] In 1979, Powell left the US, traveling to the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia. He worked as a faculty member for international schools backed by the US. During this time, he began writing about pedagogy and conflict resolution. This led him to renounce his book and instead campaign for its withdrawal from publication. [3] He was unable to legally stop the publication of The Anarchist Cookbook because the copyright had been issued to the original publisher Lyle Stuart, and subsequent publishers that purchased the rights have kept the title in print. Powell publicly renounced his book in a 2013 piece calling for the book to "quickly and quietly go out of print". [7]

Powell had difficulty finding employment throughout his life, having described the book as "a youthful indiscretion or mistake that can haunt someone during their early years or even longer." [8] In 2011, Powell and his wife, Ochan Kusuma-Powell, founded Next Frontier: Inclusion, a non-profit organisation for children with developmental disabilities and learning disabilities; described it as a means to atone for writing the text. [8] William Powell died of cardiac arrest on 11 July 2016. [9]

Publication status

Powell originally sent the manuscript to over 30 publishers until Lyle Stuart bought the book and its copyright. Powell received royalties for the book, approximately $35,000 until he split with the company in 1976. [10] Despite Powell's protest against the continued publication of the text, the copyright of the book never belonged to its author, but to its publisher, Lyle Stuart Inc.. [2] The publisher agreed to publish the text as an attempt to defy efforts by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to obtain lists of people who checked out books that were deemed subversive. [11] Stuart kept publishing the book until the company was bought in 1991 by Steven Schragis, who decided to drop it. Out of the 2,000 books published by the company, it was the only one that Schragis decided to stop publishing. Schragis said publishers have a responsibility to the public, and the book had no positive social purpose that could justify keeping it in print. [12] The copyright was bought in 2002 by Delta Press (a.k.a. Ozark Press), [13] [14] an Arkansas-based publisher that specializes in controversial books, where the title is their "most-asked-for volume". [15] As of 2016, over two million copies of the book have been sold. [8]

Content summary

Foreword

The Anarchist Cookbook begins with a Foreword section, detailing the author's intentions for the text. At the time of writing, Powell believed that the United States was slowly declining towards communism, thus he found it necessary to write a book that guided people on revolution against this transition. He championed the idea of "bringing America back to where she was two hundred years ago", believing his revolutionary ideals to be reactionary, rather than proactive. [5] Powell begins with his vision for the book in how it is intended to educate and galvanize the public to make tangible change in their home countries. Powell states that fringe political organizations, such The Minutemen and The Weathermen, are not the intended audience, rather it is written for "the silent majority". Powell envisioned the United States people rebelling against what he deemed to be oppressive capitalistic ideals, and to a lesser extent, against fascist and communist movements. [5]

Content

Powell begins the content of his book by discussing anarchy and anarchist theory. Anarchy, by his definition, is a wide-scale mass uprising by the people, similar to that of civil disobedience through violence. [5] He believed that anarchy was the innate state of all individuals, and therefore human nature would drive people to participate in such practices. Powell believed that current expressions of politics, arts, music, and education all contained innate principles of anarchist ideals, thereby equating anarchism to individualism. This principle drives Powell's argumentation as he believed that the current political climate and the Vietnam war had undermined human values, therefore revolution based upon his perception of human dignity and freedom was what drove him to write the piece. He ends his introduction by warning of the seriousness that these recipes may have deadly consequences if used improperly. [5] The chapters of The Anarchist Cookbook include descriptions and detailed instructions in hand-to-hand combat, explosives, booby traps, drugs, tear gas, sabotage and demolition, surveillance, improvised weapons, and other topics related to anarchism. [3] [5]

Reception

At the time of its publication, one FBI memo described The Anarchist Cookbook as "one of the crudest, low-brow, paranoiac writing efforts ever attempted". [16] The book was reviewed by the Department of Justice, the White House, the FBI, and by both John Dean and Mark Felt, Richard Nixon's lawyer, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's associate director respectively. While having concerns about the text, the FBI concluded that it could not be regulated as it was published through mass media. [3] Furthermore, the FBI ruled that The Anarchist Cookbook does not incite "forcible resistance to any law of the United States" and is therefore protected under the First Amendment. [10] While much of the text was deemed to be inaccurate, the FBI concluded that the chapter on explosives "appears to be accurate in most respects". [10] Since its conception, the FBI has kept records of the book, releasing the bulk of its investigation file in 2010. [17] [18]

Anarchism

The anarchist collective CrimethInc., which published the book Recipes for Disaster: An Anarchist Cookbook in response, denounces the earlier book, saying it was "not composed or released by anarchists, not derived from anarchist practice, not intended to promote freedom and autonomy or challenge repressive power – and was barely a cookbook, as most of the recipes in it are notoriously unreliable". [19]

Media presence

Internet/media

Much of the publication was copied and made available as text documents online through Usenet and FTP sites hosted in academic institutions in the early 1990s, and has been made available via web browsers from their inception in the mid-1990s to the present day. The name varies slightly from Anarchist Cookbook to Anarchy Cookbook and the topics have expanded vastly in the intervening decades. Many of the articles were attributed to an anonymous author called "The Jolly Roger". [20]

Knowledge of the book, or copied online publications of it, increased along with the increase in public access to the Internet throughout the mid-1990s. Newspapers ran stories about how easy the text was to get hold of, and the influence it may have had with terrorists, criminals, and experimenting teenagers. [20]

Film

The book served as a central element of the 2002 romantic comedy The Anarchist Cookbook . [21] Repercussions from the book's publication, and the author's subsequent disavowal of its content, were the subject of the 2016 documentary film American Anarchist by Charlie Siskel. In the film, William Powell explains in depth his thoughts on the book and the consequences it had in his life. [22] It further explores the themes of responsibility and repercussions that decision can have on one's life. [23] Powell's death in 2016 received little media coverage until the release of American Anarchist, which was released a few months after his death. [8]

Legality

United Kingdom

Possession of The Anarchist Cookbook without reasonable excuse has been successfully prosecuted under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000. [24] [25] [26]

Notable incidents of alleged possession

See also

Related Research Articles

Peter Lamborn Wilson was an American anarchist author and poet, primarily known for his concept of Temporary Autonomous Zones, short-lived spaces which elude formal structures of control. During the 1970s, Wilson lived in the Middle East, where he explored mysticism and translated Persian texts. Starting from the 1980s he wrote numerous political writings under the pen name of Hakim Bey, illustrating his theory of "ontological anarchy".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cookbook</span> Book of recipes with instructions

A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Parsons</span> American labor organizer (c.1851–1942)

Lucy E. Parsons was an American social anarchist and later anarcho-communist. Her early life is shrouded in mystery: she herself said she was of mixed Mexican and Native American ancestry; historians believe she was born to an African American slave, possibly in Virginia, then married a black freedman in Texas. In addition to Parsons, she went by different surnames during her life including Carter, Diaz, Gonzalez and Hull. She met Albert Parsons in Waco, Texas, and claimed to have married him although no records have been found. They moved to Chicago together around 1873 and Parsons' politics were shaped by the harsh repression of the Chicago railroad strike of 1877. She argued for labor organization and class struggle, writing polemical texts and speaking publicly at events. She joined the International Workingmen's Association and later the Knights of Labor, and she set up the Chicago Working Women's Union with her friend Lizzie Swank and other women.

CrimethInc., also known as CWC, which stands for either "CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective" or "CrimethInc Ex-Workers Ex-Collective", is a decentralized anarchist collective of autonomous cells. CrimethInc. emerged in the mid-1990s, initially as the hardcore zine Inside Front, and began operating as a collective in 1996. It has since published widely read articles and zines for the anarchist movement and distributed posters and books of its own publication.

Christian anarchism is a Christian movement in political theology that claims anarchism is inherent in Christianity and the Gospels. It is grounded in the belief that there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answerable—the authority of God as embodied in the teachings of Jesus. It therefore rejects the idea that human governments have ultimate authority over human societies. Christian anarchists denounce the state, believing it is violent, deceitful and idolatrous.

<i>Joy of Cooking</i> Book by Irma S. Rombauer

Joy of Cooking, often known as "The Joy of Cooking", is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks. It has been in print continuously since 1936 and has sold more than 20 million copies. It was published privately during 1931 by Irma S. Rombauer (1877–1962), a homemaker in St. Louis, Missouri, after her husband's suicide the previous year. Rombauer had 3,000 copies printed by A.C. Clayton, a company which had printed labels for fancy St. Louis shoe companies and for Listerine mouthwash, but never a book. Beginning in 1936, the book was published by a commercial printing house, the Bobbs-Merrill Company. With nine editions, Joy of Cooking is considered the most popular American cookbook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irma S. Rombauer</span> American cookbook author (1877–1962)

Irma Rombauer was an American cookbook author, best known for The Joy of Cooking (1931), one of the world's most widely read cookbooks. Following Irma Rombauer's death, periodic revisions of the book were carried out by her daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker, and subsequently by Marion's son Ethan Becker. The Joy of Cooking remains in print, edited by members of the Rombauer–Becker family, and more than 18 million copies have been sold.

In the United States, anarchism began in the mid-19th century and started to grow in influence as it entered the American labor movements, growing an anarcho-communist current as well as gaining notoriety for violent propaganda of the deed and campaigning for diverse social reforms in the early 20th century. By around the start of the 20th century, the heyday of individualist anarchism had passed and anarcho-communism and other social anarchist currents emerged as the dominant anarchist tendency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyle Stuart</span> American publisher (1922–2006)

Lyle Stuart was an American author and independent publisher of controversial books. He worked as a newsman for years before launching his publishing firm, Lyle Stuart, Incorporated.

In the United States, domestic terrorism is defined as terrorist acts that were carried out within the United States by U.S. citizens and/or U.S. permanent residents. As of 2021, the United States government considers white supremacists to be the top domestic terrorism threat.

<i>The Anarchist Cookbook</i> (film) 2002 American film

The Anarchist Cookbook is a 2002 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Jordan Susman. The film follows a young honors student-turned-anarchist, Puck, and his group of anarchist friends living peacefully in a Dallas commune until a nihilist, Johnny Black, appears with a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook and completely destroys their way of life.

William Courtney Rodgers, also known as Bill Rodgers and Avalon, was an environmental activist, animal rights activist and a co-proprietor of the Catalyst Infoshop in Prescott, Arizona, US. He was one of six environmental activists arrested December 7, 2005 as part of the FBI's Operation Backfire. His charge was one count of arson for a June 1998 fire set by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) at the National Wildlife Research Center in Olympia, Washington. He was found dead in his jail cell on December 21, 2005. According to police, Rodgers committed suicide using a plastic bag.

Barricade Books is an independent publishing company specializing in non-fiction titles and featuring biography, memoir, including holocaust memoirs, and true crime and Mafia titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrorism in the United States</span> Systematic or threatened use of violence to create a general climate of fear

In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change. This article serves as a list and a compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts to commit acts of terrorism, and other such items which pertain to terrorist activities which are engaged in by non-state actors or spies who are acting in the interests of state actors or persons who are acting without the approval of foreign governments within the domestic borders of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted Kaczynski</span> American domestic terrorist (1942–2023)

Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, was an American mathematician and domestic terrorist. He was a mathematics prodigy, but abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a primitive lifestyle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haymarket affair</span> 1886 aftermath of a bombing in Chicago, US

The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, the Haymarket Square riot, or the Haymarket Incident, was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The rally began peacefully in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day, the day after the events at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, during which one person was killed and many workers injured. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police as they acted to disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing retaliatory gunfire by the police caused the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; dozens of others were wounded.

Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory and tendency within the anarchist movement that emphasizes insurrection as a revolutionary practice. It is critical of formal organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based on a political program and periodic congresses. Instead, insurrectionary anarchists advocate informal organization and small affinity group based organization. Insurrectionary anarchists put value in attack, permanent class conflict and a refusal to negotiate or compromise with class enemies.

<i>American Anarchist</i> 2016 American film

American Anarchist is a 2016 American documentary film written and directed by Charlie Siskel. The film centers on interviews with William Powell, author of the controversial 1971 book The Anarchist Cookbook. The film premiered out of competition at the 73rd edition of the Venice Film Festival.

Carol Publishing Group was an American publishing company. Lyle Stuart founded its predecessor around 1955. Steven Schragis bought Stuart's publishing business in early 1989, renaming it to Carol Publishing. Carol was a going concern from its 1989 sale to its bankruptcy in 2000; Kensington Books bought its assets after Carol liquidated. It was mainly known for salacious titles about celebrities.

References

  1. ↑ The Anarchist Cookbook LoC entry. LCCN   71127797.
  2. 1 2 3 Mieszkowski, Katharine (September 18, 2000). "Blowing up The Anarchist Cookbook". Salon.com . Archived from the original on June 1, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Dokoupil, Tony (February 20, 2011). "Sorry About All the Bombs". Newsweek. Archived from the original on March 17, 2022.
  4. ↑ Thompson, Tony (June 11, 2000). "Ban my bombers' guide, says author". The Observer . ISSN   0029-7712. Archived from the original on April 25, 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "'Power Must Be Taken': Excerpts From 'The Anarchist Cookbook'". The New York Times . December 22, 2017. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 30, 2019.
  6. ↑ Saner, Emine (December 18, 2013). "Why the author of The Anarchist Cookbook wants it taken off the shelves". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 26, 2016.
  7. ↑ "I wrote the Anarchist Cookbook in 1969. Now I see its premise as flawed". The Guardian. December 19, 2013. Archived from the original on January 18, 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Langer, Emily (March 30, 2017). "William Powell, author who later renounced his notorious volume 'The Anarchist Cookbook,' dies at 66". Washington Post . Archived from the original on April 30, 2019.
  9. ↑ Richard Sandomir (March 29, 2017). "William Powell, Anarchist Cookbook writer, Dies at 66". The New York Times . Archived from the original on July 31, 2017.
  10. 1 2 3 "William Powell: Angry Young Man Who Inspired Terrorists, Hijackers, and Crackpots Before He Became a Teacher of Children with Special Needs". The Washington Post. ProQuest   1892920338.
  11. ↑ "Arkansas publisher keeping controversial book on the shelves". KATV.com. August 2, 2017. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017.
  12. ↑ Smith, Dinitia (January 6, 1992). "The Happy Hawker: Tyro Publisher Steven Schragis's Genius for Promoting Schlock". New York . Vol. 25, no. 1. p. 46. ISSN   0028-7369. Archived from the original on May 15, 2020.
  13. ↑ "Arkansas publisher keeping controversial book on the shelves". KATV.com. August 2, 2017. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017.
  14. ↑ "The Anarchist Cookbook Turns 40". Wired. August 2, 2017. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017.
  15. 1 2 Dokoupil, Tony (December 17, 2013). "After latest shooting, murder manual author calls for book to be taken 'immediately' out of print". NBC News. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013.
  16. ↑ "The FBI on The Anarchist Cookbook". Reason.com. February 16, 2011. Archived from the original on October 13, 2021.
  17. ↑ "Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files on The Anarchist Cookbook, 1971–1999" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on March 9, 2018.
  18. ↑ "Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files on The Anarchist Cookbook, 1971-1999- Mirror" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on July 8, 2015.
  19. ↑ "CWC Books : Recipes For Disaster". November 23, 2007. Archived from the original on November 23, 2007.
  20. 1 2 Sankin, Aaron (March 22, 2015). "The Kernel". Kernelmag.dailydot.com. Archived from the original on January 9, 2017.
  21. ↑ "The Anarchist Cookbook Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on March 23, 2015.
  22. ↑ "American Anarchist Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on September 10, 2017.
  23. ↑ "The Long-Lasting Effects of Revolutionary Rhetoric Explored in Doc 'American Anarchist'". Los Angeles Times. March 23, 2017. ProQuest   1882781392.
  24. ↑ "Oliver Bel: Maths graduate jailed for owning bomb-making book". BBC . May 21, 2021. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022.
  25. ↑ "Cambridge graduate appears in court over possession of 'Anarchist Cookbook'". Varsity . April 14, 2021. Archived from the original on May 6, 2021.
  26. 1 2 "Ben John: Extremist ordered to read books is jailed". BBC . January 19, 2022. Archived from the original on January 19, 2022.
  27. ↑ United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Frank Stearns Giese, Defendant-appellant, 597 F.2d 1170 (9th Cir. 1979), justia.com. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  28. ↑ Evidentiary Use of a Criminal Defendant's Reading Habits and Political Conversations: United States v. Giese, Harvard Law Review, Vol. 93, No. 2 (Dec., 1979), pp. 419-429. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  29. ↑ "'Freedom of thought' on trial", ACLU-NC News, vol. 43, no. 3. April 1978. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  30. ↑ "Anarchist book legal". Edmonton Journal . December 15, 2002. p. A5. ProQuest   252946714. ...the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency says there is nothing to prevent [the book's] legal sale in Canada because it violates neither the hate law nor obscenity law.
  31. ↑ "Boy in court on terror charges". BBC News. October 5, 2007. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007.
  32. ↑ "Teenage bomb plot accused cleared". BBC News. October 23, 2008. Archived from the original on March 24, 2010.
  33. ↑ "County Durham terror plot father and son are jailed". BBC News. May 14, 2010. Archived from the original on May 14, 2022.
  34. 1 2 Recupero, Patricia R. (2021). "Homicide and the Internet". Behavioral Sciences & the Law. 39 (2): 216–229. doi:10.1002/bsl.2509. ISSN   1099-0798. PMID   33829527. S2CID   233183130.
  35. ↑ "Banned Books in Australia: A Selection". University of Melbourne. Archived from the original on February 3, 2016.
  36. ↑ "THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOK". Classification Board. Australian Government. October 31, 2016. Archived from the original on November 5, 2016.
  37. ↑ Gallagher, Ryan (October 28, 2017). "How the U.K. Prosecuted a Student on Terrorism Charges for Downloading a Book". Archived from the original on November 1, 2017.
  38. ↑ "Oliver Bel: Maths graduate jailed for owning bomb-making book". BBC . May 21, 2021. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022.
  39. ↑ "Cambridge graduate appears in court over possession of 'Anarchist Cookbook'". Varsity . April 14, 2021. Archived from the original on May 6, 2021.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.