Editing Anarchy in Action

{{Short description|1973 book by Colin Ward}}
{{Infobox book
<!-- |italic title = (see above) -->
| name             = Anarchy in Action
| image            = Anarchy in Action - Colin Ward - 1973.jpg
| caption          = Front cover of ''Anarchy in Action'' by Colin Ward (1973 Allen & Unwin edition)
| author           = [[Colin Ward]]
| cover_artist     = 
| country          = United Kingdom
| language         = English
| subject          = [[Anarchism]]
| genre            = [[Political Science]]
| publisher        = [[Allen & Unwin|George Allen & Unwin]] and [[Freedom Press]] (UK), <br> [[Harper & Row]] (US)
| pub_date         = 1973
| pages            = 157 pp ''(first edition)''
| isbn             = 0043210163
| oclc             = 714957
| dewey            = 335.83
| congress         = 73169626
}}

'''''Anarchy in Action''''' by [[Colin Ward]] explores [[anarchism|anarchist]] thought and practice. It was initially published by [[Allen %26 Unwin]] in 1973, and was subsequently published in America and, in translation, in Dutch, Italian, Spanish and Japanese<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ward |first1=Colin |title=Anarchy in action |date=2008 |publisher=Freedom Press |location=London |isbn=978-0-900384-20-2 |edition=Second |chapter= Introduction |page=9}}</ref> A second edition was published by [[Freedom Press]] in 2008.<ref>Ward, 2008.</ref> He explained, in its ''Introduction'', that his book 'is simply an extended, updating footnote to [[Peter Kropotkin|Kropotkin's]] [[Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution|''Mutual Aid'']].'<ref> Ward, 2008: 10.</ref>   

The book is a [[wikt:seminal#Adjective|seminal]] introduction to anarchism but differs considerably from other introductions by concentrating on the possibility of an anarchism rooted in everyday experience that is not necessarily linked to industrial and political struggles.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} 

Ward based his book on evidence from [[sociology]], [[anthropology]], [[cybernetics]], [[industrial psychology]], and from the experience of [[housing]], [[town planning]], education, work, play and [[social welfare]]. Ward argued for anarchist alternatives to the universal governmental and [[Hierarchical_organization|hierarchical systems]] of [[social organisation]], including the [[welfare state]].<ref>Ward, 2008: 17-19, 134-152.</ref>

== Quotation ==
"The argument of this book is that an anarchist society, a society which organizes itself without authority, is always in existence, like a seed beneath the snow, buried under the weight of the [[State_(polity)|state]] and its [[bureaucracy]], [[capitalism]] and its [[Capitalism#Criticism|waste]], [[Social_privilege|privilege]] and its injustices, [[nationalism]] and its suicidal loyalties, religious differences and their superstitious separatism."<ref>{{cite book|title=Anarchy in Action |url=https://archive.org/details/anarchyaction00ward |url-access=limited |date=1973 |publisher=[[George Allen & Unwin]] |isbn=0043210163 |first=Colin |last=Ward |page=[https://archive.org/details/anarchyaction00ward/page/n8 11] |chapter=Preface |author-link=Colin Ward |location=London }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Colin Ward |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/7535946/Colin-Ward.html |accessdate=2023-01-24 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=2010-03-29 |url-access=subscription|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last=Ward |first=Colin |title=Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction |date=2004 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=0-19-280477-4 |author-link1=Colin_Ward}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Ward |editor-first=Colin |editor-link1=Colin_Ward |title=Influences: Voices of Creative Dissent |year=1991 |publisher=Green Books |location=Bideford |isbn=1870098439}}
* {{cite book |last=Ward |first=Colin |author-link=Colin_Ward |date=2011 |title=Autonomy, Solidarity, Possibility: The Colin Ward Reader |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z06BRQAACAAJ |location=Oakland, CA |publisher=[[AK Press]] |isbn=9781849350204}}
== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Ward |editor-first1=Ben |editor-last2=Ward |editor-first2=Harriet |editor-last3=Worpole |editor-first3=Ken |editor-link3=Ken_Worpole |editor-last4=Bradshaw|editor-first4=Ross |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cglOCgAAQBAJ |title=Remembering Colin Ward: 1924-2010 |year=2011 |publisher=Five Leaves Publications |location=Nottingham |isbn=978-1907869976}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Anarchy In Action}}
[[Category:Books about anarchism]]
[[Category:Anarchism and education]]
[[Category:British non-fiction books]]
[[Category:1973 non-fiction books]]


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