The Conquest of Bread (Dover Books on History, Political and Social Science)

A perfect insight to late 19th century, he is basically discussing the problems of current economical problems and offering solutions with anarchist communist genre. Loved his way of reasoning, for example "after the revolution will you seize peoples belongings like coats ? What if one has 10 luxury coats and does not wants to share ? Will we force him to share his coats ? No ! Because coats are not a tool for production nor they are not properties like houses and lands. So They can stay ! Anyway after the revolution those highly luxurious ornamented coats won't look cool because of the peoples view of beauty and perception." So he is basically bringing one of the modern era design concepts into the field by stating that coats that are plainly designed to "function and perform will look better". A must read for every comrade out there.

This book stands boldly against what I was taught about how America functions. I was thrilled and scared and looking over my shoulder to make sure reading this book would not get me arrested or philosophically assaulted by my fellow Americans. Yes, take a moment and imagine a world system where everyone worked for the needs of everyone and profit was not the driver nor enslaver it now is. Thought provoking - empowering - frightening - convicting - exciting.

Most people cannot understand the language used in the book, so if you are not reading at a college level, this will be a tough read. I will say however that you can make someone (who doesn’t already have predisposition against such things) understand the entirety of why people are anti-capitalist (or anti-feudalist, looking at you Americans) by having them read just the first chapter. Those two pages swiftly disassemble the low level propaganda that unbigoted but media consuming people (media as in movies, books, art, commercials, etc; not including news) have subconsciously accepted.

Very well-written and readable, and reads like it's about current events. It's amazing how much these writers from 100+ years ago forecast about the present times. A must-read if you want to educate yourself out of the American Right vs. Far-Right bubble.

The text is really small and it seems like the print job on this wasn't great. That being said, this is a classic book in anarchist thinking and it should be read by anyone attempting to understand early anarchist thought before diving into the more modern anarchist thinkers like Bookchin or Chomsky.

Very well-written. Explains communism and anarchy in a way the average person could understand.

I've finally gotten around to reading this after years of putting it off. I guess I've become one of those "idlers" Kropotkin spoke of. This book was certainly enlightening, and I would consider myself already a subscriber to anarchist ideology. I've previously read Bakunin, Malatesta, and Goldman, now I can say I've read the Prince. Would highly recommend to anyone who has a basic understanding of socialism, and/or comes from the left. For those that don't I would recommend starting with "Markets, Not Capitalism" put out by Center For a Stateless Society (C4SS) to get a better grasp and shed some light on the pro-capitalist propaganda we've all been raised with and had reinforced into us by society. Cheers!

Kropotkin's explanation of Anarcho-Communism is considered a classic text and rightly so. Even though it was written over 120 years ago, it is still immanently readable and fascinating. While the concepts here have been explored by later authors it is still worth going back to Kropotkin's original text and reading his own words. I also recommend Kropotkin's Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution . They are long out of copyright and free digital versions are available here and elsewhere. You can't beat a free book. Especially one that will open your mind as effectively as Kropotkin.

Una gran obra clásica.

Great

Uma aula de Ciências Sociais. Um livro que nos mostra outra perspectiva sobre como poderíamos viver em sociedade. Leitura obrigatória para estudantes de Ciências Sociais.

Many books written by Revolutionary Left philosophers tends to have the tone and message of "I rebel because I can" or "All are equal but some are more equal that others" which I sadly fine with Bakunin and Goldman. Conquest of Bread is different. I provides not only a reason why people should take control of their life's and works but why it is better to work together, how it should be done, the benefits it provides all and is wrote with a level-headed and hopeful tone. Food, housing, education, luxury,production, all of it is discussed in the clearest manner and argues the pragmatic as well as the moral need for collective society. It also looks at the failures of previous revolts and what can be learnt from them as well as warning us plebs from blindly flowing a middle-class revolutionary (Robespierre, Paris Commune leaders etc) when any revolution must be the peoples, lead by the people for the people, not some vanguard which sadly came to dominant most socialist revolts from the 1910's onwards.

La police est pitoyable, absolument horrible. Si vous regarder la photo qui est inclus dans mon commentaire. vous pouvez voire que la police doit faire 9 (ou même encore moins) de taille. Lire plus de 1000 pages (le livre original faisait 1000 pages) comme ce n'est just pas possible, à moins que vous vouller terminer avec les lunettes. J'avais également commandé "The Wealth of Nations" de Adam Smith et le même problem de police est survenus. Probablement un problème à l'imprimerie. J'avai acheter un autre livre (Mutual Aid) [également imprimer par Amazon] et ce problem n'est pas survenu.