Description
Book SynopsisFar from fading away, anarchists dealt with major events such as the rise of Communism, the New Deal, atomic warfare, the black freedom struggle, and a succession of artistic avant-gardes. This book traces US anarchism as it evolved from the creed of poor immigrants militantly opposed to capitalism early in the twentieth century.
Trade Review"Points to a growing interest in the study of American anarchist history for readers of political and social history." -- Jessica Moran Library Journal "No matter how one feels about it, the current state of anarchism has represented something of a mystery: What was once a mass movement based mainly in working class immigrant communities is now an archipelago of subcultural scenes inhabited largely by disaffected young people from the white middle class. Andrew Cornell's Unruly Equality: U.S. Anarchism in the Twentieth Century supplies the first convincing account of that transition... Cornell's analysis serves as a much-needed check against the kinds of fairy tales that anarchists too often tell themselves about themselves. With its historical backing and its determined even-handedness, Unruly Equality simultaneously delivers a well-researched account of the 'transformation of the economic Left into the cultural Left' and offers an honest and nonsectarian assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each... Unruly Equality makes a real contribution to the history of American anarchism and may - if it is widely read and carefully considered - make a contribution to anarchism's future as well." -- Kristian Williams Toward Freedom "Andrew Cornell's Unruly Equality: U.S. Anarchism in the Twentieth Century comes as a precious gift. It is a sweeping, enthralling history of anarchism's march-really, more of a shuffle-across the mid-twentieth century in the United States. Throughout eight chapters and 300 pages of storytelling and analysis-all backed by another 70 pages of notes-Cornell explicitly attempts to demystify how the classical anarchism of Bakunin and Kropotkin morphed into the contemporary anarchisms we now know-from today's class strugglers and insurrectionists, to the anarcho-primitivists, and especially to the more intersectional anti-authoritarian current." -- Jeremy Louzao Institute for Anarchist Studies "Cornell's book is a perfect fit for a broad array of social and political leaders and thinkers, from young activists who grew up scrawling anarchy symbols on their lockers, to academics who study the means and motives of social change." -- Melissa Wuske Foreword "Unruly Equality makes a real contribution to the history of American anarchism... Cornell's book is... strong on the facts... [and] tells a forgotten story." Transcend Media Service The book is scholarly and highly readable... Highly recommended." -- T.S. Martin Choice
Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction PART I THE DECLINE OF CLASSICAL ANARCHISM 1. Anarchist Apogee, 1916 2. The Red and Black Scare, 1917-1924 3. A Movement of Emergency, of Defense, 1920-1929 4. The Unpopular Front, 1930-1939 PART II THE RISE OF CONTEMPORARY ANARCHISM 5. Anarchism and Revolutionary Nonviolence, 1940-1948 6. Anarchism and the Avant-Garde, 1942-1956 7. Anarchism and the Black Freedom Struggle, 1955-1964 8. New Left and Countercultural Anarchism, 1960-1972 Conclusion Epilogue: From the 1970s to Occupy Wall Street Notes Index
