Bloomsbury Academic Debating Anarchism: A History of Action, Ideas and Movements (Debates in World History)

Review 'So skilful is Finn's historical synthesis that Debating Anarchism becomes a work of original research in its own right. This book will undoubtedly become an essential introduction to the history of anarchist ideas and movements.' --Matthew Adams, Loughborough University, UK Product Description This timely book introduces readers to anarchism's relationship to broader history, offering not simply a history of anarchism in the modern period, but a critical introduction to debates on anarchist history. Attention thus far has been biased towards intellectual history and key thinkers such as Proudhon, Bakunin and Kropotkin, but these studies have neglected the social movements and spaces which have seen 'anarchy in action' and marginalised the role of women and voices beyond Europe and the United States.Debating Anarchism offers a different perspective, engaging with women's anarchist experiences and grounding recent historical work on anarchism in Africa and Asia. Interrogating anarchism as a concept, a movement and a social reality the author guides the reader through the origins of anarchism in the age of revolutions, assessing experiences of anarchy in Russia, Spain, India and beyond. Tracing the development of 'the beautiful idea' through the twentieth century, Finn explores anarchism in the Cold War world through to postmodernity and the twenty-first century. This volume situates anarchism in the broader historiographies of the modern world, offering a unique starting point for students of history, politics and philosophy seeking to understand the abiding power of 'the beautiful idea' - a society without government. About the Author Mike Finn is Senior Lecturer of History at University of Exeter, UK, where he teaches modules on understanding the modern world, the liberal arts and the history of anarchism. He was educated at Liverpool, Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard where he was a Kennedy scholar. A past winner of the Palgrave/Times Higher Education Humanities and Social Sciences writing prize, he is Associate Editor of Civic Sociology.