I am happy to announce that the final book published in Kropotkin’s lifetime – Modern Science and Anarchy – is now available in English translation, namely 1913’s La Science Moderne et L’Anarchie. I would like to thank the comrades of AK Press for this finally happen, 105 years in the making. More details can be found on the UK and USA AK Press webpages.
I am happy to announce that the final book published in Kropotkin’s lifetime – Modern Science and Anarchy – is now available in English translation, namely 1913’s La Science Moderne et L’Anarchie. I would like to thank the comrades of AK Press for this finally happen, 105 years in the making. More details can be found on the UK and USA AK Press webpages.
An appendix to my introduction covers the history of the various parts of the book, for there are five parts plus two appendices. Most (but not all) of the book was published before, either as pamphlets or articles, but all are substantially revised – both in terms of the French texts as well as any previous English translations. The contents of the 2018 edition are as follows:
Preface (newly translated)
Part I: Modern Science & Anarchy
I. The Origins of Anarchy
II. The Intellectual Movement of the Eighteenth Century
III. The Reaction at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century
IV. Comte’s Positive Philosophy
V. The Awakening in the Years 1856–1862
VI. Spencer’s Synthetic Philosophy
VII. The Role of Law in Society
VIII. The Position of Anarchy in Modern Science
IX. The Anarchist Ideal and Previous Revolutions
X. Anarchy
XI. Anarchy (continued)
XII. Anarchy (continued)
XIII. Anarchy (continued)
XIV. Some Conclusions of Anarchy
XV. The Means of Action
XVI. Conclusion
Part II: Communism & Anarchy
I. Anarchist Communism (newly translated)
II. Authoritarian Communism—Communist Communities
III. Small Communist Communities—Causes of Their Failures
IV. Does Communism Imply the Diminishing of the Individual?
Part III: The State: Its Historic Role
Part IV: The Modern State
I. The Essential Principle of Modern Societies
II. Serfs of the State
III. Taxation: A Means of Creating the Powers of the State
IV. Taxation: A Means of Enriching the Wealthy
V. Monopolies
VI. Monopolies in the Nineteenth Century
VII. Monopolies in constitutional England–In Germany–Kings of the Era (newly translated)
VIII. War
IX. War and Industry
X. The Essential Characteristics of the State (newly translated)
XI. Can the State Be Used for the Emancipation of the Workers? (newly translated)
XII. The Modern Constitutional State (newly translated)
XIII. Is it Sensible to Strengthen the Current State? (newly translated)
XIV. Conclusions (newly translated)
Part V: Appendices
I. Explanatory Notes
II. Herbert Spencer: His Philosophy
This is the original text of the 1913 edition. Also, the material took a lot longer and far more work than I expected, as the existing translations of various chapters were almost always incomplete — this was a substantially expanded work compared to the original translations (some of which are in Direct Struggle Against Capital and elsewhere). I assumed that the already translated material would be close to French edition (not least, the 1912 version of Modern Science and Anarchism – namely, Part I of the book). Not the case at all, even with material translated close to or after the French edition was published.
So everything had to be revised, which means that this is a completely new translation beyond the chapters never before translated into English.
I should also mention all the tracking down of references and the footnotes needed for clarification – so the “Explanatory Notes” appendix is substantially larger than the original. I also indicated by footnote significant differences between the original English editions and the French book – somethings they added things which have no real equivalent in the 1913 version. Mostly fun and interesting, but still a task.
In short, essentially, the first “new” book by Kropotkin in English since Words of a Rebel was finally translated and published back in 1992 by Black Rose Books. Until now, ironically it was his first book was the last one available – now at least it is his final work which has finally been translated!
This means that we now in a position to have a better understanding of Kropotkin’s ideas based on the works he oversaw publication of during his lifetime. For there is a lot of interesting material in Modern Science and Anarchy which should be very interesting to any serious anarchist. It is interesting to compare Modern Science and Anarchy with Rudolf Rocker’s Anarcho-Syndicalism for is it now obvious that the first few chapters of the latter are summaries of the former. Rocker’s comments on the evolution of the State come from Kropotkin, for example. Then there is this passage from Part 1 (and which does not appear in the 1912 British-edition of Part 1, namely Modern Science and Anarchism) which sums up his politics well, shows the links with syndicalism and gives a snapshot why this book is important:
“the State, with its hierarchy of functionaries and the weight of its historical traditions, could only delay the dawning of a new society freed from monopolies and exploitation […] what means can the State provide to abolish this monopoly that the working class could not find in its own strength and groups? […] what advantages could the State provide for abolishing these same privileges? Could its governmental machine, developed for the creation and upholding of these privileges, now be used to abolish them? Would not the new function require new organs? And these new organs would they not have to be created by the workers themselves, in their unions, their federations, completely outside the State?”
As well as the original text of the book, I have also added “Supplementary Material” by Kropotkin related to the subjects raised in the 1913 edition:
Supplementary Material
Charles Darwin (newly translated)
Anarchy: Its Philosophy, Its Ideal
Co-operation: A Reply to Herbert Spencer (from Freedom, first time in book)
Letter to Comradeship (first time in book)
Organised Vengeance Called Justice (new translation)
The State: Creator of Monopolies (newly translated)
Most of this is newly translated or available in book form for the first time. “Anarchy: Its Philosophy, Its Ideal” is a complete version of the lecture originally published as “Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal.” The original translation was slightly abridged while the version in Fugitive Writings and Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings is missing just over a quarter.
Lastly, I have written an introduction plus other hopefully useful material:
Introduction: Reality Has a Well-Known Libertarian Bias
A Publication History
Further Reading
Notes on the text
Acknowledgements
The introduction discusses how Kropotkin’s arguments have held up and whether “Modern Science” still agrees with it (short answer, yes). I also cover where Kropotkin makes mistakes and indicates what the facts are (such as proclaiming Proudhon advocated “Labour Notes” plus certain aspects of his discussion on Individualist Anarchism). It is, I hope, a substantial and interesting read. Where the original texts first appeared is indicated in “A Publication History,” which I enjoyed tracking down – a bit of book archelogy, if you like. Incidentally, PM Press asked me to make Bibliographical notes for their edition of three Kropotkin pieces – Anarchism, Anarchist Communism, and the State.
Finally, here are the full advance blurbs from comrades praising the book:
Iain McKay’s definitive version of Modern Science and Anarchy is another welcome product of his continuing effort to broaden our understanding of Kropotkin’s ideas, recovering texts scattered and forgotten in the course of Kropotkin’s transnational activism. More than an exercise in Kropotkiana however, this work offers Kropotkin’s most concise exposition of the ideas that defined his life, focusing on anarchism’s interactions with the defining scientific and political currents of modern European history, and staking a claim for anarchism as a vital, and intellectually sophisticated, component of this story. – Matthew Adams, author of Kropotkin, Read, and the Intellectual History of British Anarchism
Finally – after all these years the definitive edition of Kropotkin’s Modern Science and Anarchy. Here we have not only a mature restatement of Kropotkin’s anarchist communism, but Kropotkin’s own history of anarchist ideas and movements, a survey of libertarian and anarchist currents throughout human history, as Kropotkin describes the perennial struggle between authority and liberty. But that is not all – the second half of the book, a series of essays selected by Kropotkin himself on the rise of capitalism and the state, contains some of Kropotkin’s best work, including "The State: Its Historic Role." Iain McKay is to be commended for so carefully editing and annotating one of Kropotkin’s most important books, well deserving a place alongside Mutual Aid and The Conquest of Bread. – Robert Graham, author of ‘We Do Not Fear Anarchy – We Invoke it’: The First International and the Origins of the Anarchist Movement and editor of Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas.
This new, definitive edition of Kropotkin’s Modern Science and Anarchy is an important addition to the literature on one of the most influential figures in the development of modern libertarian communism. Iain McKay’s introduction is a model of scholarship and succeeds not only in contextualising and explaining Kropotkin’s ideas, but also in addressing a number of misunderstandings and misrepresentations along the way. He also makes a convincing case for the book’s continuing relevance for present-day radicals. – David Berry, author of A History of the French Anarchist Movement, 1917 to 1945
This is a welcome new translation of a long neglected text by Peter Kropotkin. In the spirit of Kropotkin, the volume includes a highly knowledgeable and sympathetic – yet not uncritical – introduction by the editor, who also adds some clarifying footnotes to the original text. In Modern Science and Anarchy Kropotkin positions his anarchism in relation to Comte, Spencer and Hegel. Whilst Kropotkin’s enthusiasm for science (and indeed his somewhat mechanistic account of science) is dated, there is much more to the text than a simplistic paean to positivism. It rightly identifies anarchism as a product of oppressed peoples’ struggle rather than the outcome of specialist technical thinkers (though he also pays debts to Bakunin and Proudhon) and provides a concise and attractive account of anarchist communism and a still pertinent discussion of alternatives. This book will not only be of keen interest to specialists in science studies, political epistemology and the history of political ideas, but also to contemporary libertarian activists who will still find plenty of relevant, clearly explained material to engage with. – Benjamin Franks, author of Rebel Alliances: The Means and Ends of Contemporary British Anarchisms
I should note that at some stage I would like to do a revised translation of Words of a Rebel and include the various pre- and post-faces Kropotkin wrote (for the Russian and Italian editions). In addition, there would be a similar “Supplementary Material” section which would include various articles on the workers movement from Le Révolté which were not included in Words of a Rebel. This would help people better understand Kropotkin’s revolutionary ideas. Until I get around to that, I should note that much of this material can be found in Direct Struggle Against Capital (also published by AK Press).
Until I blog again, be seeing you…