Anarchy in Action

Colin Ward

ISBN 10: 0043210163 / ISBN 13: 9780043210161

Published by Allen & Unwin, W upstairs faded red, 1973

About this Item

Condition creasing to bottom and upper corner of cover. Readable. ref ZKVQ The argument of this book is that an anarchist society, a society which organises itself without authority, is always in existence. Through a wide-ranging analysis - drawing on examples from education, urban planning, welfare, housing, the environment, the workplace, and the family, to name but a few - Colin Ward demonstrates that the roots of anarchist practice are not so alien or quixotic as they might at first seem but lie precisely in the ways that people have always tended to organise themselves when left alone to do so. Size: 19.4 x 12.2 x 1.4 cm. Seller Inventory # 26870

Bibliographic Details

Title: Anarchy in Action

Publisher: Allen & Unwin, W upstairs faded red

Publication Date: 1973

Binding: Paperback

Condition: Used: Acceptable

About this title

Synopsis:

The argument of this book is that an anarchist society, a society which organises itself without authority, is always in existence. Through a wide-ranging analysis - drawing on examples from education, urban planning, welfare, housing, the environment, the workplace, and the family, to name but a few - Colin Ward demonstrates that the roots of anarchist practice are not so alien or quixotic as they might at first seem but lie precisely in the ways that people have always tended to organise themselves when left alone to do so.

Review:

"In "Anarchy in Action," Colin Ward set out his belief that an anarchist society was not an end goal . . . . Ward saw all distant goals as a form of tyranny and believed that anarchist principles could be discerned in everyday human relations and impulses. Within this perspective, politics was about strengthening co-operative relations and supporting human ingenuity in its myriad vernacular and everyday forms." "Guardian""

"It is difficult to match the empirical strength, the lucidity of prose, and the integration of theory and practical insight in the magnificent body of work produced by the veteran anarchist Colin Ward." --Prospect

"Colin Ward has never written a highly paid column for a national newspaper or been on the bestseller lists, but his fan club is distinguished, and his influence wider than he himself may know." --Times Literary Supplement

"In Anarchy in Action, Colin Ward set out his belief that an anarchist society was not an end goal . . . . Ward saw all distant goals as a form of tyranny and believed that anarchist principles could be discerned in everyday human relations and impulses. Within this perspective, politics was about strengthening co-operative relations and supporting human ingenuity in its myriad vernacular and everyday forms." --Guardian

"Anarchy, for Ward, was a system in which mutuality predominates; and in a series of books he explored 'anarchist applications, ' championing such groups as allotment-holders, prefab dwellers, amateur music-makers, squatters, DIY housebuilders and others who operate in the penumbra of the bureaucratic state." --Telegraph