Hey, I get that it's a meme to recommend The Conquest of Bread, but I'd recommend instead of that, either Kropotkins's Mutual Aid, for a better work of his; either one of Malatesta's "An Anarchist Programme" or "Anarchy" as introductory texts to Anarchism. The Bread book lacks some context to it's arguments that are embedded in his other works.
I like the philosophy behind Kropotkin, but the history of Mutual Aid isn't great. Understandable because it's over a century old, but as far as medieval history his picture of European communes is off. They weren't models of democracy, bourgeoisie merchants and small business tyrants dominated civil positions in the Netherlands and Italy. Trade guilds were also very hierarchical and were a tool to exclude women from economic activity.
I think David Graeber does a better job at debunking "human nature" in Debt: The First 5000 Years.
Hey, I get that it's a meme to recommend The Conquest of Bread, but I'd recommend instead of that, either Kropotkins's Mutual Aid, for a better work of his; either one of Malatesta's "An Anarchist Programme" or "Anarchy" as introductory texts to Anarchism. The Bread book lacks some context to it's arguments that are embedded in his other works.
Mutual Aid is great for debunking bullshit appeals to "human nature"
I like the philosophy behind Kropotkin, but the history of Mutual Aid isn't great. Understandable because it's over a century old, but as far as medieval history his picture of European communes is off. They weren't models of democracy, bourgeoisie merchants and small business tyrants dominated civil positions in the Netherlands and Italy. Trade guilds were also very hierarchical and were a tool to exclude women from economic activity.
I think David Graeber does a better job at debunking "human nature" in Debt: The First 5000 Years.
Hell yeah Debt is actually one of the books I most frequently recommend to people.
I literally almost recommended Mutual Aid instead but second guessed myself at the last minute lol