Anthropology, Ecology, and Anarchism ― A Brian Morris Reader

Over the course of a long career, Brian Morris has created an impressive body of engaging and insightful writings—from social anthropology and ethnography to politics, history, and philosophy—that is accessible to the layperson without sacrificing analytical rigor. But until now, the essays collected here, originally published in obscure journals and political magazines, have been largely unavailable to the broad readership to which they are so naturally suited. The opposite of arcane, specialized writing, Morris’s work takes an interdisciplinary approach that offers connections between various scholarly interests and anarchist politics and thought. There is a long history of anarchist writers drawing upon works in a range of fields, and Morris’s essays both explore past connections and suggest ways that broad currents of anarchist thought will have new and ever-emerging relevance for anthropology and many other ways of understanding social relationships.

Brian Morris is professor emeritus of anthropology at Goldsmiths College, London. He is the author of The Anarchist Geographer: An Introduction to the Life of Peter Kropotkin; Bakunin: The Philosophy of Freedom; Ecology and Anarchism: Essays and Reviews on Contemporary Thought; Kropotkin: The Politics of Community. Peter Marshall is a philosopher, historian, biographer, travel writer, and poet. He has written 15 highly acclaimed books, including the landmark history of anarchism Demanding the Impossible. His circumnavigation of Africa was made into a six-part TV series and his voyage around Ireland into a BBC Radio series.