Summary
Colin Ward: Anarchism
Anarchism is a social and political ideology that, despite its history of defeat, appears again and again in a new form or in a new country. Therefore, another chapter should be added to his chronology, and another dimension to his field of interest. In 1962, George Woodcock wrote the book Anarchism (of 470 pages), which has since been continuously reprinted by Penguin Book and translated into many languages, and has probably become the most widely read book on the subject in the world. By the time of his death in 1995, Woodcock had also written a number of updated afterwords for his book. In 1992, Peter Marshall wrote a book of more than 700 pages entitled The Quest for the Impossible: A History of Anarchism (HarperCollins), which appears to have sold more copies than Woodcock's. The latter remarked with relief: "I now have a book to refer readers to when they ask me when I will update my Anarchism". Like all his other readers, I am very grateful to Peter Marshall for being able to summarize complex ideas and explore side currents in the history of anarchism.
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