Fields, Factories, and Workshops

2014 Reprint of 1902 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This work is a landmark anarchist text by Peter Kropotkin, and arguably one of the most influential and positive statements of the anarchist political philosophy. It is viewed by many as the central work of his writing career. It was first published in book form in 1898 in New York and London. Here Kropotkin shares his vision of a more harmonious way of living based on cooperation instead of competition. To a large degree, Kropotkin's emphasis is on local organization, local production obviating the need for central government. Kropotkin's vision is also on agriculture and rural life, making it a contrasting perspective to the largely industrial thinking of communists and socialists. Kropotkin's focus on local production leads to his view that communities should strive for self-sufficiency, the production of a community's own goods and food, thus making import and export unnecessary. To these ends, Kropotkin advocates irrigation and growth under glass and in fields to boost local food production. This work has been widely influential for anarchists and non-anarchist alike, and Kropotkin's deductions are as controversial and revolutionary today as they were when he formulated them.