Bread and Freedom

Author: [Russia] Kropotkin
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Features: 286 classic illustrations, a knowledge classic that has influenced every generation of scholars. Intellectual reading not only refers to its unique reading attitude and thinking style but also, more importantly, includes the choice of reading materials. Among the numerous contemporary publications, which have the highest knowledge value and are mainstream, many people can judge it very accurately. "The Illustrated Series of Cultural Greats," selected works of great figures who have had a significant impact on the construction of the human knowledge system, have always greatly enriched our minds, made human thought more vivid and wise, and have been regarded as the ideal library by every generation of scholars. These works are mostly large in volume and difficult to adapt to the unique habits of contemporary reading. Therefore, on the basis of concise compilation and accurate compression, the key knowledge points of the book are vividly supplemented in an illustrated form, highlighting the essential ideas of the original author while avoiding the academicism that puzzles many readers. All cutting-edge ideas can be easily understood, and all profound knowledge can become common sense today.
The intellectual history of the 20th century, from the mainstream point of view, can perhaps be described as follows: Husserl and Heidegger initiated phenomenology, Sartre proposed existentialism on this basis, Roland Barthes and Derrida pioneered semiotics and deconstruction, Freud and Jacques Lacan pioneered psychoanalysis, but the greatest intellectual mountain of the 20th century was Western Marxism, which spanned the entire century and became a prominent discipline that lasted a hundred years. The brilliant intellectual masters, such as Eagleton, Foucault, Althusser, Gramsci, Benjamin, and the Frankfurt School, etc., have erected the most prominent and luminous milestones in the intellectual history of the 20th century. In today's intellectual life, a scholar on the path to a doctoral degree or any intellectual who has drunk tea for years, if they are not involved in or discuss the above figures and knowledge, are the intellectual vacuum people of the 20th century.
Kropotkin (1842–1921) was an early Marxist and a famous anarchist thinker in Russia, born into a noble family in Russia, receiving a deep courtly feudal education in his youth. In 1872, while traveling in Switzerland, he was influenced by the then European revolutionary movement and Russian émigrés. In 1874, he was imprisoned for spreading revolution; in 1876, he escaped to Europe and began his life of exile. He dedicated himself to the theoretical research and writing of anarchic communism, with representative works such as "Words of a Rebel," "Fields, Factories, and Workshops," "Memoirs of a Revolutionary," "Mutual Aid," and "Bread and Freedom," proposing the theory of anarchic communism. These important classics of anarchic communism have had a huge impact and have been translated into many languages.
"Bread and Freedom" was written by the author in 1886, on the topic of French social reform. From the perspectives of politics and economics, he criticized the existing social system, analyzing and attacking representative democracy, law, and power. At the same time, he proposed the economic and political proposals of anarchic communism—such as abolishing private property, implementing communal ownership and economic equality, eliminating the state, canceling the government, abolishing law, and replacing the state of power with free associations, and replacing the force of law with the free will of association members, to improve social labor productivity through mutual aid and scientific methods.
The author of this book, like all Western Marxists, hates capitalism, is full of ideals of equality and abundance, and challenges the rulers. This book can be seen as a theoretical declaration of anarchic communism. Kropotkin was not a pure Marxist; he inherited the main ideas of Marx. The author believed that anarchic communism was the perfect path for humanity. Compiling this book may be a pleasant thing for those who stroll in the garden of knowledge after their meals and tea breaks.
Great Masterpiece: This is a cultural masterpiece that has had an extraordinary impact on the global intellectual community, one of the important works for enriching and perfecting the human knowledge system, and one of the essential reading materials for every contemporary intellectual to meet the lowest requirements of knowledge reserves.
Concise Compilation: Based on faithfulness to the original work, it is concisely compiled, fully highlighting the essential ideas and witty arguments of the original work, making reading both accurate and quick, and the reading habits of contemporary people's fast-paced life.
Illustrated Extension: Paintings and photographs selected from the ancient and modern human library greatly extend the knowledge of the entire book, making up for the limitations of readers in academic works, and for the first time making academic works more relaxed and enjoyable when facing mass reading.