Amazon ABC--Clio Category:  Reference Publisher: ABC-CLIO ISBN-10:  0874369827 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 242 Copyright: Aug 1 1999 Black-hatted, his coat concealing a deadly bomb, the anarchist skulks through history. In truth, anarchists are as diverse an anarch-feminists, ecoanarchists, Emma Goldman, Thomas Paine, Sacco and Vanzetti, and Emiliano Zapata. This encyclopedia charts history's most misunderstood social movement and covers political anarchy worldwide for the past 300 years. It examines the ancient roots of the movement, spotlights key individuals, and explores important organizations, events, laws, court cases, and theories. The Encyclopedia of Political Anarchy is more than a reference work. It tells the interesting story of sophisticated and complex social and philosophical forces that left their mark on the world--from the thirteenth-century Free Spirit movement against the oppressive power of the church in France to the present-day Zapatista National Liberation Army in Mexico. A reliable starting place for pursuing further research, the book answers such questions as: * What were the early catalysts of anarchy? * Who are the recent key players in anarchist circles? * What are their core concepts, beliefts, and terminologies? * Is there an anarchist orthodoxy? * What organizations played important roles in furthering anarchist ideals? * What is the relationship between communism and anarch? Excerpt Anarchy is perhaps history's most misunderstood social movement, primarily because adherents oppose authority of any kind; thus they have been stereotyped as people who foster disorder, lawlessness, terrorism, and irrational violence. However, most anarchists are convinced that people can live peacefully and cooperatively; they have searched for ways to develop a society based upon consensus rather than hierarchical structures and the rule of force. Since the eighteenth century, great writers have often sacrificed comfortable lives, positions of high esteem, the love of family and friends, and personal safety to sow the seeds and nurture the growth of an economic, political, and moral construct they believed would lead to a more perfect life for the masses of humanity.

Library Journal review
Anarchists see individuals as possessing the ability to create a society based on peaceful consensus rather than formal, top-down structures and use of force. Individuals from across the political spectrum, from Communists to libertarians, have embraced variations on anarch as part of their philosophy. The Gays give us the first English-language encyclopedia on the people, organizations, events, and ideas comprising political anarchy. Entries, which range from a single paragraph to several pages, cover topics from the Greek philosopher Zeno of Citium (considered to be the first anarchist) through Mikhail A. Bakunin, Peter Alexeyevich Kropotkin, the Haymarket Affair, the International Workers of the World, modern groups like Earth First!, and various anti-government and militia groups. All entries provide cross references plus a bibliography, including numerous references to web sites. The work opens with an excellent essay on anarchism and closes with a comprehensive bibliography and detailed subject index. Intended for students and general readers, this well-written work nicely complements the second edition fo The Encyclopedia of the American Left in covering libertarian and right-wing anarchist subject matter. Recommended for public and academic libraries.