It would not be an exaggeration to describe this book as the central work of Kropotkin’s writing career. In one way or another, it occupied more than twenty years of his life. It is a work of argument and suggestion rather than dogmatic statement, and the very tentativeness of this great book make its perceptions all the more relevant.
With at one time Kropotkin’s view of our future might have been regarded as a Utopian dream, today, as a result of the growing realization that the world’s resources of energy and raw materials are finite, that food is our most precious commodity and that people’s working lives are futile and stultifying, the lessons of this book, for both the rich world and the poor, are topical and hopeful.
In addition to a general introduction to the most significant aspects of Kropotkin’s life and thought, George Woodcock has prepared a comprehensive afterword to each essay, allowing the reader to fully see Kropotkin’s ideas in the context of the world a century later.
Is the 9th volume of the The Collected Works of Peter Kropotkin.
Table of Contents
Editor’s Introduction
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Chapter 1
The Decentralization of Industries
Editor’s Afterword to Chapter 1
Chapter 2
The Possibilities of Agriculture
Editor’s Afterword to Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Small Industries and Industrial Villages
Editor’s Afterword to Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Brain Work and Manual Work
Editor’s Afterword to Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Conclusion
Editor’s Epilogue