this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
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Anarchism

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Discuss anarchist praxis and philosophy. Don't take yourselves too seriously.


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I know there is the Anarquist FAQ, is it a good starting point?

I know for a fact that I have attention span issues, and I find it hard to make myself accountable to read it, so, do you have any advice about that as well?

If I ever get to finish what is currently on it, what should I do after section J? Read other books? If so, which ones?

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[–] Zombie@feddit.uk 1 points 15 hours ago

The FAQ is huge and reading it is as dry and boring as reading The Bible, The Silmarillion, or legal texts.

A good alternative is Now and After. It was specifically written to be more accessible than most political texts.

Berkman's work explains anarchist philosophy in terms that uninitiated readers can understand. The book's chapters are brief, and many of them begin with questions (e.g., "Is Anarchism Violence?", "Will Communist Anarchism Work?"). A number of the ideas he discusses are similar to those proposed in The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin, whom Berkman cites throughout. Berkman avoids the sort of jargon and technical language that is often used by political writers in favour of plain language. As he writes in his foreword:

Anarchist books, with few exceptions, are not accessible to the understanding of the average reader. It is the common failing of most works dealing with social questions that they are written on the assumption that the reader is already familiar to a considerable extent with the subject, which is generally not the case at all. As a result there are very few books treating of social problems in a sufficiently simple and intelligible manner. For the above reason I consider a restatement of the Anarchist position very much needed at this time—a restatement in the plainest and clearest terms which can be understood by every one. That is, an ABC of Anarchism.[11]

Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_and_After

Available to read or download in multiple formats, for free, here: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/alexander-berkman-what-is-communist-anarchism

It was written in the 1920s, so there's a bit of a dated feel to the informal writing style but it's fine.