Book summary
Trama e riassunto di Anarchismo
- 7 min di lettura
- 9 key ideas
- Audio a breve
Seven thinkers, one word: a German lawyer sorts Godwin, Proudhon, Stirner, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Tucker and Tolstoi.
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Anarchismo in breve
Riassunto: 7 min di lettura
- Tempo di lettura
- Circa 5 h 50 min4 h 35 min fast, 6 h 55 min slow
- Durata
- 83.100 parole
- Livello nella biblioteca
- Medio longer sentences, everyday words
- Prima pubblicazione
- 1900by Paul Eltzbacher
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Quanto tempo ci vuole per leggere i classici · Aggiornato
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Anarchismo in short
Eltzbacher's book replaces slogans with sorted evidence. He picks seven thinkers that scholars accept, defines law, the State and property to fit every legal system, and questions each thinker in the same order. The thinkers speak in their own words.
What Anarchismo is about
Everyone has an opinion about anarchism, and almost no two people mean the same thing by it. Some think it means chaos. Others think it means a world without rulers, or without money, or without any rules at all.
What if a lawyer set out to sort the claims by reading the sources, one thinker at a time? That is the work of Paul Eltzbacher, a judicial assessor in Halle, writing around the turn of the twentieth century. He chose seven thinkers: Godwin, Proudhon, Stirner, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Tucker and Tolstoy. He put the same questions to each and let them answer in their own words. Then he laid the answers side by side, and the result surprises almost everyone.
A chi è rivolto. This book suits readers who like to see an argument built step by step, anyone curious about the thinkers behind anarchism, and those who enjoy clear definitions and comparisons.
The 9 key ideas
Key idea 1 · free to read
Define your terms and choose your witnesses
Eltzbacher opens with a problem. Ask ten people what anarchism teaches and you get ten answers. Some say it rejects law, others say society, others only the State.
To study anarchist teachings, you must first know which teachings count. That seems to need the very definition you are looking for. He solves it by asking whom the study is for: readers whose loose notions must be replaced with exact concepts. Then he takes the group of teachings that the greatest number of scholars recognize. When a scholar names a teaching as anarchist, that counts for more than any general definition. The result is seven names that nearly every account offers.
The path then has three steps. Define law, the State and property. Question each thinker on them, from his basis to his road to change. Then state the final concepts. Good thinking starts by deciding exactly what you are talking about.
- 2Inizia gratis per leggere
Law, the State and property get exact meanings
Eltzbacher first fixes his three key words so that they fit every legal system, not only one country's.
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Godwin grounds everything in the general welfare
William Godwin, born in 1756, trains as a preacher and then settles in London as an author.
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Proudhon replaces laws with contracts
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, born in 1809 in Besançon, begins as a printer.
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Stirner makes the individual his own measure
Max Stirner is the pen name of Johann Kaspar Schmidt, born in 1806 in Bayreuth.
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Bakunin reads history as a march toward freedom
Mikhail Bakunin, born in 1814 in Russia, leaves an army career for revolutionary plots across Europe.
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Kropotkin builds a world of free associations
Prince Peter Kropotkin, born in Moscow in 1842, serves among the Cossacks of the Amur, explores Siberia and becomes a geographer.
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Tucker and Tolstoy reach freedom by opposite roads
Benjamin Tucker, born in 1854 near New Bedford, Massachusetts, founds the paper Liberty in Boston in 1881.
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What the seven share and where the debate goes
Now Eltzbacher compares the seven on five points.
Read all 9 key ideas now
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Domande su Anarchismo
What is Anarchism by Paul Eltzbacher about?
It is a comparative study of seven thinkers, Godwin, Proudhon, Stirner, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Tucker and Tolstoy. Eltzbacher asks each the same questions about law, the State and property, then defines anarchism from what they share.
Who are the seven thinkers in Eltzbacher's Anarchism?
They are William Godwin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Max Stirner, Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Benjamin Tucker and Leo Tolstoy. Eltzbacher chose them because most scholars of his day counted their teachings as anarchist.
How does Eltzbacher define anarchism?
Within legal philosophy, he defines anarchism as a rejection of the State. That is the one thing all seven teachings share, though they differ on law, property, basis and the means of change.
Does Eltzbacher say anarchism means violence or chaos?
No. He shows that the seven disagree on violence. Godwin and Proudhon seek change within the law, Tucker and Tolstoy favour refusal without force, and only some accept force. He also argues that anarchism need not reject society.
Is Anarchism by Eltzbacher approachable for a general reader?
Yes, in its clear structure. Each thinker is treated in the same order, with short chapters, his own words and a brief biography. The closing chapters gather the comparison into tables that make the whole picture easy to see.
Cita questa edizione
Eltzbacher, Paul. Anarchism. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/anarchism.
Eltzbacher, P. (2026). Anarchism. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/anarchism (Original work published 1900)
Eltzbacher, Paul. Anarchism. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/anarchism.
@book{eltzbacher2026anarchism,
author = {Eltzbacher, Paul},
title = {Anarchism},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/anarchism},
note = {First published 1900}
}
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