The Conquest of Bread

Peter Kropotkin

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English

Binker North
04 November 2019

Political science & theory; Anarchism; Marxism & Communism; Political structure & processes; Stationery items

The Conquest of Bread is an 1892 book by the Russian anarcho-communist Peter Kropotkin. Originally written in French, it first appeared as a series of articles in the anarchist journal Le Révolté. It was first published in Paris with a preface by Élisée Reclus, who also suggested the title. Between 1892 and 1894, it was serialized in part in the London journal Freedom, of which Kropotkin was a co-founder.

In the work, Kropotkin points out what he considers to be the defects of the economic systems of feudalism and capitalism and why he believes they thrive on and maintain poverty and scarcity. He goes on to propose a more decentralized economic system based on mutual aid and voluntary cooperation, asserting that the tendencies for this kind of organization already exist, both in evolution and in human society.

The Conquest of Bread has become a classic of political anarchist literature. It was heavily influential on both the Spanish Civil War and the Occupy movement.

In 1886, Kropotkin, with the help of some prominent left-wing intellectuals, donors and sympathizers, was released from French prison. Fearful of the anarchist scare that was gripping continental Europe following the assassination of Alexander II and wishing to focus more time on composing theory and arguing for his revolutionary ideals, Kropotkin moved to London in the same year.[2] Following the death of Mikhail Bakunin in 1876, anarchists desired a prominent and respected theorist to explain their ideas and--after the splitting of the First International between Marxists and anarchists--Kropotkin wished to formally explain anarcho-communism in a way that would clearly differentiate the anarchists from the Marxists, but also help to correct what he saw as flaws in Bakunin's ideology of collectivist anarchism.[3] With this aim, Kropotkin spent a great deal of time in London writing multiple books and pamphlets, in-between his international speaking tours to the United States and Canada. It was during this time of rapid literary output that Kropotkin wrote The Conquest of Bread, which became his most well-known attempt to systematically explain the essential parts of anarcho-communism.

Kropotkin originally wrote the text in French and published in the French journal Le Révolté, where he served as the primary editor. Following its publication in France, Kropotkin published a serialized version in English in the London anarchist journal Freedom. The book would later be collected and published as a book in France in 1892 and in England in 1907.

By: Peter Kropotkin
Imprint: Binker North
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 11mm
Weight: 286g
ISBN: 9781989743362
ISBN 10: 1989743366
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 04 November 2019
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

"Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842[a] - 8 February 1921) was a Russian activist, writer, revolutionary, scientist, economist, sociologist, historian, essayist, researcher, political scientist, biologist, geographer[11] and philosopher who advocated anarcho-communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, he attended a military school and later served as an officer in Siberia, where he participated in several geological expeditions. He was imprisoned for his activism in 1874 and managed to escape two years later. He spent the next 41 years in exile in Switzerland, France (where he was imprisoned for almost four years) and in England. While in exile, Kropotkin gave lectures and published widely on anarchism and geography.[12] He returned to Russia after the Russian Revolution in 1917 but was disappointed by the Bolshevik state. Kropotkin was a proponent of a decentralised communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations of self-governing communities and worker-run enterprises. He wrote many books, pamphlets, and articles, the most prominent being The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops; and his principal scientific offering, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. He also contributed the article on anarchism to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition[13] and left unfinished a work on anarchist ethical philosophy. Pyotr Kropotkin was born in Moscow, into an ancient Russian princely family. His father, major general Prince Alexei Petrovich Kropotkin, was a descendant of the Smolensk branch, [14] of the Rurik dynasty which had ruled Russia before the rise of the Romanovs. Kropotkin's father owned large tracts of land and nearly 1,200 male serfs in three provinces.[15] His mother was the daughter of a Cossack general.[15] ""Under the influence of republican teachings"", Kropotkin dropped his princely title at age 12, and ""even rebuked his friends, when they so referred to him.""[16] In 1857, at age 14, Kropotkin enrolled in the Corps of Pages at St. Petersburg.[17] Only 150 boys - mostly children of nobility belonging to the court - were educated in this privileged corps, which combined the character of a military school endowed with exclusive rights and of a court institution attached to the Imperial Household. Kropotkin's memoirs detail the hazing and other abuse of pages for which the Corps had become notorious."