What books are you reading?
What books are you reading?
I am reading "The Anarchic Order" by Anselme Bellagarrigue and "The Sociology of Pierre Joseph Proudhon" by Constance Margaret Hall.
I finished reading a bit ago The Accumulation of Freedom (I think that's the title, it is an AK book). Anarchist economics text. Very very good.
Thank you for the recommendation, I will make a note to check it out.
How's the book?
I'm enjoying The Anarchic Order. All three writings are available online from The Anarchist Library, but these translations are original and I like having a physical book sometimes. He was a contemporary of Proudhon and Stirner and was an early proponent of individualist anarchism, with similar arguments to Benjamin Tucker. I consider the anarchist manifesto in this book to be a better introduction to individualist anarchism than anything by Tucker. He is critical of Proudhon and lumps him in with other socialists, but doesn't engage in a detailed critique of specific other thinkers so I need to spend more time comparing his anti-statism to Proudhon's to understand why.
The Sociology of Proudhon is good, although I am only starting that. The biography of Proudhon was interesting, and explained his interest in theology that comes up a lot in his writings. Proudhon's ideas about history being essentially chaotic but guided centrally towards man's moral nature reminded me of something similar Albert Camus said in the Rebel.
Re-read of The Imperial Mode of Living, and Moorcock's Nomad of the Timestreams trilogy for kicks.
I recently started reading Joyful Militancy - Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times
Some of the ideas in the book really resonate with me :)
"The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andric which was written by a Yugoslav author back when that was still a country. It won the Nobel prize and chronicles the construction and destruction of a bridge that connected modern day Bosnia with Serbia. While it has been critiqued for being nationalist (particularly after the horrifying events of the 90s), I see it as a critique of the Balkan historiography (and literature critics fall on both sides of this argument).
It is darkly funny and captures the essence of Balkan life in a way that reminds me of Steinbeck--particularly his focus on framing the oppressed and working classes.
10/10
trigger warning: violence, sexual violence, racism.