
New Books in Political Science Alex Prichard, "Anarchism: a Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2022)
Feb 7, 2026
Alex Prichard, Associate Professor and scholar of anarchist thought, offers a fresh take on anarchism as a lived tradition. He covers definitions of authority, mutual aid, horizontality, and critiques of private property. Discussions range from anarchism’s global spread via colonialism and labor movements to its echoes in popular culture and contemporary protest tactics.
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Authority Without Sovereignty
- Anarchism denies any single final point of authority and seeks non-final, participatory forms of decision-making.
- Alex Prichard emphasizes mutual aid, horizontality, prefiguration and participatory authority as anarchist solutions.
Terror's Paradox: State Strengthening
- Late 19th–early 20th century 'propaganda by the deed' was visually prominent but numerically limited and often counterproductive.
- Prichard argues anarchist-linked violence helped justify stronger state security and institutions like passports and Interpol.
Kropotkin: Prince, Scientist, Mutual Aid
- Peter Kropotkin's background as a prince-turned-ethologist shaped Mutual Aid as a scientific observation of cooperation in nature.
- Kropotkin used medieval guilds and communal practices to argue mutual aid sustains human societies under scarcity.





