Demanding the Impossible

Demanding the Impossible
Peter Marshall

A fascinating and comprehensive history, 'Demanding the Impossible' is a challenging and thought-provoking exploration of anarchist ideas and actions from ancient times to the present day.Navigating the broad 'river of anarchy', from Taoism to Situationism, from Ranters to Punk rockers, from individualists to communists, from anarcho-syndicalists to anarcha-feminists, 'Demanding the Impossible' is an authoritative and lively study of a widely misunderstood subject. It explores the key anarchist concepts of society and the state, freedom and equality, authority and power and investigates the successes and failure of the anarchist movements throughout the world. While remaining sympathetic to anarchism, it presents a balanced and critical account. It covers not only the classic anarchist thinkers, such as Godwin, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Reclus and Emma Goldman, but also other libertarian figures, such as Nietzsche, Camus, Gandhi, Foucault and Chomsky. No other book on anarchism covers so much so incisively.In this updated edition, a new epilogue examines the most recent developments, including 'post-anarchism' and 'anarcho-primitivism' as well as the anarchist contribution to the peace, green and 'Global Justice' movements.Demanding the Impossible is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand what anarchists stand for and what they have achieved. It will also appeal to those who want to discover how anarchism offers an inspiring and original body of ideas and practices which is more relevant than ever in the twenty-first century.

PETER MARSHALL

Demanding the Impossible

A History of Anarchism

Be Realistic: Demand the Impossible!

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_28c53902-9d19-587a-b2af-aa4bc7d80e7d)

William Collins

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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers in 1992 Published by Fontana Press, with amendments in 1993

Copyright © Peter Marshall 1992, 1993, 2008

Peter Marshall asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780006862451

Ebook Edition © JULY 2012 ISBN 9780007375837

Version: 2018-12-06

PRAISE (#ulink_58365791-fafd-5467-bae9-119c08033906)

From the reviews of Demanding the Impossible:

‘Large, labyrinthine, tentative: for me these are all adjectives of praise when applied to works of history, and Demanding the Impossible meets all of them.’

GEORGE WOODCOCK, Independent

‘I trust that Marshall’s survey of the whole heart-warming, head-challenging subject will have a large circulation … It is a handbook of real history, which should make it more valuable in the long run than all the mighty textbooks on market economics and such-like ephemeral topics.’

MICHAEL FOOT, Evening Standard

‘Infectious in its enthusiasm, attractive to read … There is more information about anarchism in this than in any other single volume.’

NICOLAS WALTER, London Review of Books

‘Immense in its scope and meticulous in its detail … It covers every conceivable strand in the libertarian little black book.’

ARTHUR NESLEN, City Limits

‘A wide-ranging and warm-hearted survey of anarchist ideas and movements … that avoids the touchy sectarianism that often weakens the anarchist position.’

JAMES JOLL, Times Literary Supplement

‘There’s no mistaking the fact that Demanding the Impossible is timely … a gigantic mural in which every celebrated figure who has ever felt hemmed in by law and government finds a place.’

KENNETH MINOGUE, Sunday Telegraph

‘Peter Marshall, clearly a convinced impossibilist, has set himself a sisyphean task. His book is a kind of model of what it talks about – a sphere of near-structureless co-existence, a commune or “phalanstery” for all the friends of libertarianism from Wat Tyler to Walt Whitman to Tristan Tzara.’

LORNA SAGE, Independent on Sunday

‘Peter Marshall’s massive but very readable survey … deserves a wide readership.’

ANTHONY ARBLASTER, Tribune

‘The most compendious, most studied and most enlightening read of anarchist history.’

ANDREW DOBSON, Anarchist Studies

‘Excellent … a lively and heartening study.’

RONALD SHEEHAN, The Irish Press

‘Reading about anarchism is stimulating, funny and sad. What more can you ask of a book?’

ISABEL COLEGATE, The Times

‘Interest in anarchy … was reawakened by the publication of Peter Marshall’s massively comprehensive Demanding the Impossible.’

PETER BEAUMONT, Observer

DEDICATION (#ulink_f96ebed4-1b1a-5cdc-96e4-0c24ec6938d8)

For Dylan and Emily

CONTENTS

Cover (#u34ea3f3f-617d-5cb8-b3ae-56177701eb7a)

Title Page (#u8fc074e1-1aec-5b2f-9189-d8e267268f84)