Life and Ideas
The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
With the timely reprinting of this selection of Malatesta's writings, first published in English in 1965 by Freedom Press, the full range of this great anarchist activist's ideas are once again in circulation. Life and Ideas gathers excerpts from Malatesta's writings over a lifetime of revolutionary activity. The editor, Vernon Richards, has translated hundreds of articles by Malatesta, taken from the journals Malatesta either edited himself or contributed to. Through the selections Malatesta's classical anarchism emerges.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Despite the deep and rich history of anarchism, it can appear as a utopian novelty among radical sociopolitical movements, if it even registers with the public at all. This collection, a reprint of the 1965 original, seeks to reintroduce Italian activist and propagandist Errico Malatesta (1853 1932) as a thoughtful, compassionate, and fierce anarchist. As Richards (1915 2001) noted in his original introduction, "everybody recognizes Malatesta as the man of action but few realise how valuable, and original, and realistic were his ideas." The book is compiled from writings throughout Malatesta's life and organized around 27 topics, including writings on revolution, the working class, intellectuals, and science. The work includes typical anarchist fare in its overtures against "both State and property," but there are far more moments where Malatesta breaks the mold, revealing his deep compassion and his desire for solidarity among all peoples: "We want society to be constituted for the purpose of supplying everybody with the means for achieving the maximum well-being." Malatesta's writings offer a refreshing, undogmatic criticism of coercive power relations, and they point to the potential inherent to a society with neither oppressors nor the oppressed.
