I've finished On Anarchism, (my introduction to Chomsky), in one brisk sitting. I was surprised by how casual and almost elementary it was. Chomsky didn't bury his message in academic jargon. In fact, he did quite the opposite, communicating wisely but plainly in a voice which was humanistic and socially-conscious. It was exciting reading excerpts from writers like Rocker, Bakunin, William Paul, Guérin, Rousseau, and even Orwell. These men added a rich and dimensional historical context to the subject of anarchism, (though I would have liked to have sampled Emma Goldman's perspective as well.) The book served as an excellent introductory text and I'm eager to explore it more deeply in the weeks ahead.
UPDATE: I was having difficulty sleeping so I set myself to the task of finding my next inspiring read. I performed a quick survey of anarchism lit metadata and happened upon the first English translation of
No Gods No Masters - a single-volume 700pp definitive anthology of unpublished documents, letters, debates, manifestos, reports, impassioned calls-to-arms and reasoned analyses of anarchism. It was published only once by the radical anarchist book publishing worker collective, AK Press.
I picked up a new copy - spanning 200 years of anarchist thought with bibliographic summaries for each writer for.17 with free shipping. I was glad to see that It includes writings by Emma Goldman, as I'm eager to get a female perspective on this area of political philosophy.
And I've already secured copies of the eBook and PDF versions of the edition for notetaking.
Best 1AM project in some time!
