Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction by Ward, Colin
Writing with a clear leftist slant, Ward provides an informative survey of some of the leading anarchist theoreticians and briefly describes some interesting attempts to apply theory to select institutions, such as schools and urban gardens on a small scale. What the book lacks however, and what was most disappointing to me, was the short shrift Ward gave to individualist or right leaning anarchism as opposed to communalist variants. He barely discusses Stirner, who Marx took quite seriously as a threat to his promotion of communism and also downplays the contributions and efforts by Tucker and Spooned. He seemingly assumes leftist critiques of Capitalism, including claims of exploitation and environmental harm and scarcity are true –as if they were self-evident or revealed truths, sans the need to provide evidence for his claims. There is a rich literature refuting claims of inevitable scarcity, resource decline, and preferences for individual/autonomous/