Anarchy After Leftism [Paperback]

Bob Black (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1890532002 | ISBN-13: 978-1890532000 | Publication Date: January 1, 1997

A reply to, and an assault on, Murray Bookchin's 'Social Anarchism Or Lifestyle Anarchism,' Bookchin himself, Bookchinism, and so called 'anarcho-leftism.'

Product Details

• Paperback: 178 pages
• Publisher: CAL Press (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890532002
• ISBN-13: 978-1890532000
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,945,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An incendiary rant against Bookchin, August 21, 2010

By 

Ashtar Command "Seeker" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anarchy After Leftism (Paperback)

Dare one write a positive review of anything written by Bob Black? Or a review at all? After all, Bob Black is the enfant terrible and bête noire of the North American anarchist scene. Countless are the accusations against this man. They are probably all true. Lev Chernyi has a point, warning the reader to stay away from this shadowy character...in a foreword to Black's own pamphlet. Those who want the other side of the story can access the new edition of Chaz Bufe's "Listen, Anarchist!" on the web.

WHAM! Was that an axe being gently rammed through my front door?

"Anarchy after leftism" speaks for itself. It's Black's response to Murray Bookchin's "Social anarchism or lifestyle anarchism". Black accuses Bookchin (whom he likes to call The Dean) of being a closeted authoritarian, city-statist and Marxist with a penchant for high tech and the Athenian polis. Black defends what he calls heterodox or post-leftist anarchism, apparently a kind of anti-work, individualist, and moderately primitivist form of anarchism. He also claims that Bookchin was once a real anarchist, who later backslided into moralistic, crypto-authoritarian, anti-hippie positions, which occasionally resemble those of the Neo-Cons.

As an outsider to the conflict, I find it to be richly and fecundly entertaining. But no, I would probably not go along well with Black. I'm no anarchist. But then, why are the social anarchists so incensed at the lifestyle anarchists in the first place? Why not simply avoid them and go on with whatever it is social anarchists are doing? The only explanation I have for the obsession with "lifestyle anarchism" is that social and lifestyle anarchists belong to the same social milieu. What's keeping these people together? Lifestyle, perhaps?

But I'm digressing. Black's incendiary rant might be of some interest to those wanting to find out how other anarchists reacted to Murray Bookchin. Another critical pamphlet of Bookchin is David Watson's "Beyond Bookchin". To the general public, of course, this entire conflict is like seagull droppings on the ocean shore. And now, I'm off to my private little opium factory!

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bob Black is aptly named, July 19, 2005

By 

A. Perry "aperry_10030" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anarchy After Leftism (Paperback)

Having read several Bob Black's books, I must say that this is one of his finest. He is the most intelligent of the anarchist writers out there. He makes an incredible argument against social ecology and Murray Bookchin as the "Left that Was". In order for Anarchy to have a decent shot-we (anarchists) need to leave the left behind. I also highly recommend his "Abolition of Work" as the definitive word on no-work philosophy. Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Black obliterates academic pseudo-anarchism with wit, verve and logic, June 20, 2011

By 

James M. Beach "writer, musician, photographe... (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anarchy After Leftism (Paperback)

To be brief, Black utterly obliterates Bookchin.

If you are interested in anarchism as an actual political philosophy, and not just as the booga-booga-fnord code word for nihilism that the nightly news have turned it into, I consider this a must read. I'd also heartily recommend "The Abolition of Work and other Essays", "Friendly Fire", and whatever else you can get your hands on.

If Anarchist writing was jazz, then Bob Black would be Miles Davis and everyone else would be various forms of muzak.