No Gods No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism

by Daniel Guérin (Editor), Paul Sharkey (Translator)

The first English translation of Guérin’s monumental anthology of anarchism, published here in one volume. It details a vast array of unpublished documents, letters, debates, manifestos, reports, impassioned calls-to-arms and reasoned analysis; the history, organization and practice of the movement—its theorists, advocates and activists; the great names and the obscure, towering legends and unsung heroes.

This definitive anthology portrays anarchism as a sophisticated ideology whose nuances and complexities highlight the natural desire for freedom in all of us. The classical texts will re-establish anarchism as both an intellectual and practical force to be reckoned with. Includes writings by Emma Goldman, Kropotkin, Berkman, Bakunin, Proudhon, and Malatesta.

Daniel Guérin was the author of Anarchism: From Theory to Practice.

In Oakland, California on March 24, 2015 a fire destroyed the AK Press warehouse along with several other businesses. Please consider visiting the AK Press website to learn more about the fundraiser to help them and their neighbors.

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Nonfiction, History, Anarchism, Anthologies, Essays

700 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Daniel Guérin was a French anarcho-communist author, best known for his work Anarchism: From Theory to Practice , as well as his collection No Gods No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism in which he collected writings on the idea and movement it inspired, from the first writings of Max Stirner in the mid-19th century through the first half of the 20th century.

He is also known for his opposition to Nazism, fascism, Stalinism and colonialism, in addition to his support for the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) during the Spanish Civil War, and his revolutionary defence of free love and homosexuality.

Reviews

[Essareh · Rating 4 out of 5]

«نه خدا، نه ارباب؛ تاریخچه‌ی آنارشیسم»
ترجمهٔ رضا اسپیلی
نشر الکترونیکی روزگار


تاریخچهٔ خیلی مختصر آنارشیسم. برای منِ بی‌اطلاع، همین نود صفحه کلی چیز برای یادگرفتن داشت.

اول بگم که تمام ماجراهای تاریخی آنارشیسم برام یادآور یه فیلم* بود که چندسال پیش دیدمش. دربارهٔ نحوهٔ ارتباطش نمی‌گم که اسپویل نشه. فقط اینکه اون هم براساس یه اتفاق واقعیه.
*Bomb City 2017

مترجم توی مقدمه می‌گه ما فقط نظرهای مخالف آنارشیسم رو شنیدیم، چون خود آنارشیسم به نوعی تابوئه. این کتاب هم طرفدار آنارشیسمه. خلاصه که اگه منبع بی‌طرف می‌خواید، شاید مناسب نباشه. (جدا از این بحث که اصلاً می‌شه بی‌طرف نوشت یا نه.)

کل کتاب به جریان‌ها و اشخاص اساسی می‌پردازه. یه‌سری اطلاعات دیگه هم می‌شه ازش گرفت؛ مثل تفاوت سه جریان رفرمیسم، مارکسیسم و آنارشیسم.

عنوان کتاب برگرفته اولین روزنامهٔ فمینیستی تاریخه که در این‌جا هم ازش صحبت می‌شه: نه خدا، نه ارباب، نه شوهر.

اون وسطا یه اسمی هم از انقلاب مشروطهٔ ایران میاد که توضیحی نداره؛ اما‌ قلقلکم می‌ده که برم ببینم آیا اینا واقعاً به‌هم ربط دارن یا نه.

توی صفحه‌های اول یه موقعیت رو تصویرسازی می‌کنه که توش دیوارنوشتهٔ «فاک د سیستم» هست. یه آهنگ* با همین اسم داریم که خودم خیلی دوستش دارم. اگه سلیقه‌تون سمت متال و این چیزا باشه، شاید شما هم یه آنارشیست درون داشته باشید.
*Fuck the System by System of a Down

در کل انگار که خیلی بیشتر از تصورم با آنارشیسم سروکار داریم. مثلاً توی کتاب دربارهٔ کسی نوشته بود که دزدی می‌کرد ولی نه برای جیب خودش. خب، این یادآور رابین هودیه که خیلیامون باهاش بزرگ شدیم.


پ‌ن: خوندنش هم‌زمان شد با رسیدن به بخش «عدل» توی اخلاق نیکوماخوس. ارسطو عدل رو از برترین فضیلت‌ها می‌دونه و تعریف اولش اینه که عادل به قوانین و برابری شهروندان احترام می‌ذاره. برام جالبه که ارسطو قانون رو ضامن رعایت حقوق دیگران می‌دونه و آنارشیسم اون رو سلب‌کنندهٔ آزادی.
یه نقل قول از کتاب:
«آزادیِ بسیار بدون برابری جنگل است، برابریِ بسیار بدون آزادی زندان است. نه جنگل می‌خواهیم و نه زندان.»

[Ollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a fan of anarchist history and theory, I’ve always looked for the all-encompassing go-to book on the subject. The anarchist bible, if you pardon the blasphemy. I think I might have found it in No God No Masters.
Now this book is no obscure collection either. I think it ranks high on lists of must-reads for those interested in Anarchism, so I don’t know why I’m just now picking up this book. I’m a slow learner I guess.
In this book, Guerin proceeds to not just collect the essential writings of who’s who in anarchist history, but also puts events affecting the anarchism into perspective. In other words, No Gods No Masters doesn’t just deliver the writers (mostly men, go figure), but also the events that shaped the movement.

There are so many familiar figures and people I’ve wanted to read that this massive volume became actually quite enjoyable once I committed to reading its almost-700 pages. Here Guerin collects Stirner, Proudhon, Bakunin, Guillaume, Kropotkin, Malatesta, and even Durruti , just to name a few. Some make perfect sense as they help develop to political thought behind anarchism, others focus more on their experiences and military approach, and others I’m unsure as to why they’re included (they seem a bit redundant). Also, I just want to say that Proudhon is as impossible to read as ever (relax, Colin Ward thinks the same), with long complex paragraphs that just plain ramble on. How anyone made sense of him who isn’t a hardcore political theories I’ll never know.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are the major events discussed like the Paris Commune, the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian revolution, Kronstadt, and the Spanish Revolution. All essential if we are to understand what makes anarchism tick.

Like I said, some of these writings are tedious and repetitive, but maybe that’s the point. Anarchism itself aims to improve itself as much as it can. No Gods No Masters isn’t perfect. But it’s pretty damn close.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an anthology of anarchist writing from around the 1830s to WWII and the quality of the selections in it vary greatly. Hodge-podged together you get a pretty good idea of early anarchist theory and also how the anarchists included hardly agreed on what anarchism is, not unlike republicans, democrats, communists, socialists, libertarians, etc... The book starts with Nietzsche's contemporary Max Stirner an interesting dude with a whiff of Ayn Rand in him who was all about the individual, (trivia: Nietzsche worried that people would think he was ripping off Stirner's ideas). There are also writers who are pretty much straight up commies, even justifying the dictatorship of the proletariat. Others predicted the disaster of the USSR in the early days of the revolution. The selections by Emma Goldman and Mikhail Bakunin were enjoyable. Aside from the political philosophy, there is some super interesting and not well known history in here as well. Anarchists rebelling against Lenin and Trotsky in Kronstadt and the Ukraine, anarchists taking part in government to fight the fascists in Spain, and other events that aren't in most textbooks are included. I wish the theory sections weren't so utopian and got down to how anarchism in practice could actually function since the history sections show that it hasn't yet ended well in practice (lots of martyred anarchists). Overall, it was a pretty dry read with occasion bright spots, but worth your time if you are into flying the black flag.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent anthology of writings on anarchism by Stirner, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Malatesta (a personal favorite), Voline, Goldman, Makhno, and others. This is libertarian socialism in its various incarnations being described by its most eloquent defenders. I think the major power of a work like this is to help understand the discourse on anarchism in its historical context. Seeing the relation of the development of ideas like collectivism, anarcho-communism, and revolutionary syndicalism with real-world events happening concurrently has helped me to better understand both the significance and value of the various strains, as well as why it's idiotic to propose late 19th/early 20th c. programmes for a post-industrial, post-modern, post-deconstructivist, post-everything world.

I'll say also that I don't believe I had fully grasped the weight of ideas like revolutionary self-organization and mutual aid before hearing them outlined by Kropotikin, Malatesta, and Voline. I particularly enjoyed reading Makhno's account of his meeting with Lenin, and Voline's "The Unknown Revolution".

Not a quick or a necessarily easy read, but the rewards for plodding through this tome are pretty outstanding.

[Malvina Buffet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vraiment, on voit que c'est un livre daté car il n'inclut pas assez de théoriciennes de l'anarchisme et pourtant il y en a

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on Anarchism. If you want to get an overview of many anarchist thinkers, this is the one.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't honestly say that I liked reading this. I actually really hate reading stuff like this but that's my own fault because I should've known better. Anthologies are always mind-numbingly repetitive with little more than a bunch of vague generalizations and inspirational speeches and shit. Probably should have gone with something like Demanding the Impossible instead. Some stuff is still interesting though like the arguments between advocates of a "workers' state" and those advocating a "federation of communes" and using socialism as a transitional phase or just diving head first straight into anarchism. It's also kind of interesting to see how all these people influenced each other, how the ideas evolved, the mistakes they made, and the lack of corrections made to those mistakes (if you follow modern anarchism at least. The book only goes up to the 1930's). It seems like nobody could ever really agree on what "true" anarchism is. Today most people treat it as a synonym for things like chaos, violence, individualism, disorder, nihilism, etc. But most people who explicitly label themselves as anarchists actually advocate something closer to what everyone else generally associates with socialism, just more decentralized, sometimes pushing the idea of commons too far even, at least in my opinion, due to their wariness of private property. Technically it's just egalitarian, non-hierarchical living arrangements with no official authority, which should lead to a criticism of the level of technology and scale of modern societies but somehow people keep missing that. It doesn't make sense to me how so many self-proclaimed anarchists can expect to achieve their goals without smaller-scale and simpler societies. When you look at where these technologies come from and the coordination and coercion required for so much industry and long distance trade it should be obvious that we can't get rid of hierarchies, inequalities and injustices without also getting rid of cellphones, the internet and chocolate mocha lattes in New York. This is all more of a criticism of "anarchists" I've dealt with than of this book though. This isn't the type of book you should rate based on how much you agree with the contributors. As a collection of some early writings from the big names in the anarchist movement there's not really much to complain about.

[g · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this anthology together with Carl Schmitt's Political Theology dramatically changed my experience with anarchist authors of 19th and 20th century. Proudhon, very much like Schmitt, recognizes the legal paradoxes of liberalism and puts together a thorough criticism that reminds one of Schmitt's comments on democracy. Given the opposing assumptions that Proudhon and Schmitt begin with in their understanding of human nature -Schmitt follows Hobbes and believes that human nature is evil, whereas Proudhon would like to believe that humans are naturally good, and would be able to cooperate- they reach two very different conclusions as to what the best method of governance would be - dictatorship or anarchy?

While anarchy is strictly opposed to the transcendentalization of any figure, and calls for an immanent system of governance where everyone will be equal (could be argued that equality becomes the transcendent value in this case) Schmitt argues that what we should strive for is a new transcendental figure, a God with human qualities.

[Josiah Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great anthology of some unpublished and smaller pieces from early anarchism. This is not a good anthology for someone trying to start or get into anarchism as this is better as a companion guide through history and particular instances and feelings in anarchism at the early points in time of anarchism. A lot of focus on communism and communist ideas on anarchism as Guerin was an Anarcho-communist. Again this is a great supplemental guide through some of the most important figures in anarchism. If you need a place to stay with anarchism, go straight to the main texts of anarchism such as Emma Goldman, The Conquest of Bread, Mutual Aid etc.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oof! A gratifyingly chunky tome containing some great stuff from Bakunin and Proudhon (which was why I bought it), and introducing me to some writers that I really enjoyed: Voline, Goldman and Guillame. But the anthology isn't well put together- for example, very little from Voline's own pen, but stacks of stuff written about Voline's imprisonment by lesser lights. Guerin's commentary is also a bit sloppily written, but I'm not sure if this is him or the translation.
A useful pick'n'mix if you know what you're looking for, but patchy if you're looking to read a whole anthology.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is an anthology, so the writing quality varies a lot between parts and some of it is a chore to get through. However, this is a really good intro the anarchist history and thought. And I learned about some things I knew nothing about before. I also marked the hell out of the book, especially the Proudhoun and Bakunin parts.

[Corvus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't judge a book by it's cool cover. Over 700 pages and Guerin didn't even think to feature any anarchist women in his book (despite a few essays being included), but devoted around 100 pages to the misogynistic and anti-semitic Proudhon. There are some good things in here, but if you use it as a primer for well-rounded anarchist thought, you will be sorely missing out.

[Mikey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am setting this book aside for the moment because my brain is going to explode if i read anymore dry-ass anarchy essays. But it is pretty sweet.

[Lola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good selection of articles. But a bit strange. Some important Anarchist papers are missing while others are just not relevant....

[Chris Connor]

Essays:

“Revolution and Reaction” - Errico Malatesta
“Anarchy” - Errico Malatesta

First essay lays out his various definitions of revolution and how organizing without authority is possible, natural, and essential.

“Organization is only the practice of cooperation and solidarity, the natural and necessary condition of social life, an ineluctable fact of forcing itself upon everyone, upon human society generally as well as upon any group of people with a common aim to strive for.”

There is a lot of mention of absolutely no authority of any sort. I forget where I’ve read this, but I saw a component of anarchy that proposes that there should be no “arbitrary authority.” Meaning, a doctor who has studied extensively will have a natural authority on the subject over someone who hasn’t. The difference lies in the ability of an individual to freely associate with said authority. One would be free to associate and accept a certain individual’s authority while all the while having the option to disassociate at any time. I find this definition more nuanced and reflecting reality rather that no authority whatsoever. Though I also admit, I might be arguing semantics.

Second essay explains what anarchism is and why it’s desirable. Why there should be no need for governments when they have only proved to uphold the privilege and rights of a few.

“Abolition of government does not and cannot signify destruction of the social bond. Quite the opposite: the cooperation which today is forced and which is today directly beneficial to a few, will be free, voluntary and direct, working to the advantage of all and will be all the more intense and effective for that.”

[Kit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never actually fully finished this book, but during the first person of time, I was reading part two (released separately), and then I read part one and bits of part three later when I got the whole collection in one book.

I was really interested in the writings of Bakunin when I read this. But even still, much of this is tough to read for a couple of reasons:
1) it’s mostly old, dead, white men—reading them has its value, but it’s definitely important to read more contemporary anarchists who are BIPoC or Queer or Trans. Rounding out the concepts and the ways that people of different backgrounds relate to anarchy.
2) it’s old and it shows.

[José · Rating 3 out of 5]

From a layman's perspective, with only a passing interest in the subject, this book is a heavy tome. I took a while to finish reading it but the content is top-notch. I felt some parts of it are a bit dry and serve more to give context and historical evidence of the movement, which probably targets a different audience than myself.
It gives a very good overview of the evolution of anarchism throughout the years and provides highlights of the thought of some key figures/moments in the movement and introduced me to others I've never heard about. There are some takeaways that I'll keep from this and overall I would say it was definitely worth the time spent.

[Papilina Jefferson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE this book

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of interest, but too light on theory to be properly billed "an anthology of anarchism."

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of the writings of different anarchist thinkers. Some may seem quite radical upon first glance, but deeper critical reasoning reveals a common critique of our institutions.

[Doug Brunell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential reading for those interested in anarchist history. An excellent overview of the theory.

[Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 4-star reading experience from cover to cover, but a 5-star selection of material for an anthology

[Mohammed Khogir · Rating 4 out of 5]

A prodigious work detailing the evolution of anarchism. I have always been interested in the question of social justice and felt a kindred spirit with Marxism but i could not bring myself to accept its authoritarian principle. Then i fell upon some of Peter Kropotkin's books on anarchy and i was deeply enamoured by the spirit of comradery and fraternity explicit in anarchist thoughts. This anthology of anarchism by Guéren served to deepen my respect for anarchists and their endeavour towards the liberation of the masses from all forms of oppression. This book is not a historical record of anarchy but rather a record of anarchism as a school of moral, economical, political, and social philosophy as seen through the writings of its most prolific thinkers. The book delineates the progression of anarchist thought and its different hues of collectivism, syndicalism and communism. In addition, in volume's 3 and 4 Guérin lists examples of anarchy in practice to vindicate anarchism of its critiques claims of non-applicability, utopianism, and disorganization.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good, but hard to recommend unless you have at least a passing interest in anarchism and the patience to read political philosophy. However, it's not all just philosophy and propaganda - most of these authors were also actors in the revolutions and social movements of the 1800 and 1900s. The historical context of all of these essays is really interesting, and I think it gets especially good when it comes to addressing anarchism during and after the Russian revolution. It's hard to tell if that's because of the mythological power of the revolution, which is always extremely engrossing to me, but, regardless, it's fascinating to see how contemporaries of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin, viewed Communism and its effects.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice compilation of excerpts from a number of libertarian thinkers. "Volume One" features works of Max Stirner, P-J Proudhon, and Mikhail Bakunin. Volume 2? More Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, and James Guillaume . Volume 3. Errico Malatesta, Emile Henry, French anarchists in trade unions, Voline, the Spanish Collectives, and so on. Volume 4 features Nestor Makhno, a discussion of Kronstadt, anarchism and the Spanish Civil War, Durrutti and his thugs.

All in all, a fairly detailed introduction to the literature.

[Pippypippy Madden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dry as toast, and the translations are sometimes really weird, but overall, I think it is an important collection of writing by anarchists. In general, you can't go wrong with Bakunin and also Kropotkin. I particularly enjoyed the short selection from Emma Goldman's recollections of Kropotkin, upon his death.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

As you might expect from an anthology of anarchism, the organization of essays, squibs, etc. is a little loose. You need to have the main texts (such as they are) to make sense of No Gods, No Masters, although there is some difficult to find stuff in here too. In short, a hodge-podge, but good and nourishing nevertheless.

[Parappadarappa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great compilation. There's a two book version of this, but I prefer this one. Great introduction to classical thinkers, has long excerpts from the main books (Property is theft, ego and its own, etc) Even includes malatesta if i remember correctly, durruti or something on spanish civil war, etc.

[Mehdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a collection of important texts from the anarchist tradition, but as was I think said in a review above, the choice of the texts (mostly influenced by their rarity, I precise) still is questionable for a few ones. Anyway this book can be considered as a must-have on an anarchist bookshelf.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic collection of revolutionary, anarchist thought