This volume seeks to provide answers for the curios and critical about anarchist theory, history, and practice.

Modern anarchist movements have existed for over 150 years. The black flag of anarchy remains a symbol of political rebellion, particularly for restless or disenchanted young people. However, Keith Preston argues in this volume that anarchism has reached a crossroads as a political philosophy. He criticizes many contemporary anarchists as anachronistic, shallow, or even status quo in their thinking. It is Preston's contention that anarchist movements will have to grow intellectually and forge new strategic paths for themselves if they are to become politically relevant in the twenty-first century. Preston offers a substantive critique of not only his fellow anarchists, but of the condition of Western civilization itself. He recognizes the process of unprecedented centralization of political and economic power that is now taking place on a global scale. Preston's response is an unhesitating call for revolutionary action against this emerging global order. He likewise offers a critique of the inadequacies of the both the Left and Right and suggests this archaic model of the political spectrum should be discarded. It is Keith Preston's contention that anarchism should reclaim the position it held over a century ago, that of the premiere revolutionary movement throughout the world. Preston introduces his visionary tactic of "pan-secessionism" as a means of developing mutual cooperation between resistance movements with widely varying cultural and ideological values. Drawing upon an eclectic array of philosophical and historical currents, Keith Preston offers a revolutionary political vision of decentralized pluralism manifested as a world of self-managed communities.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, anarchism was the most feared revolutionary movement in the world. However, in the century anarchism was eclipsed by the rise of the modern totalitarian states, world wars, and the emergence of technocratic managerial economies. Meanwhile, anarchists have failed to provide alternatives to this dominant form of political economy. In this work, the anarchist theoretician Keith Preston places the blame for these failures on the shoulders of his fellow anarchists. He criticizes the contemporary anarchist movement for having degenerated into a fashionable youth culture that has lost the ferocity of historic anarchism. Instead, present day anarchists are more likely to serve as the lackeys of political correctness than the vanguard of revolution. Preston discusses the possibility of new directions for modern anarchists. These include the formation of strategic alliances for the purpose of overthrowing states, ruling classes, and empires by means of the visionary concept of pan-secessionism. He recognizes that anti-state revolutionaries will eventually need to achieve victory through "fourth generation warfare" i.e. an insurgency on the model of groups like Hezbollah or the Peoples War Group. Further, Preston argues that the social base of anarchism should not be fanciful intellectuals or privileged-class university students. Instead, the foundation of revolutionary struggle should be the "lumenproletariat" of the permanently unemployed, the dispossessed, the prisoner, the prostitute, and the homeless. Preston subsequently surveys a plethora of trends that provide a basis for anarchist optimism.

Anarchy. The word conjures images from fraternity house shenanigans to rioting and looting on the streets of important cities at its mention. For most civilized persons, with these mental images close at hand, Anarchy is something to be avoided at all costs. How can civilized society carry on with the threat of bombs and looting effectively slamming the brakes on human progress? In Volume IV of His groundbreaking series, David Mint explores the concept of Anarchy not as a menace, but as an ultimate given.

Most studies on Latin America tend to dismiss anarchism as a prelude to populist and socialist movements. This collection illustrates a much more vast, differentiated, and active anarchist presence in the region that evolved on simultaneous-transnational, national, regional, and local-fronts. Representing a new wave of transnational scholarship, these essays examine urban and rural movements, indigenous resistance, race, gender, sexuality, and social and educational experimentation. The contributors offer a variety of perspectives on anarchism's role in shaping ideas about nationalism, identity, organized labor, and counterculture across a wide swath of Latin America.

Political obligation refers to the moral obligation of citizens to obey the law of their state and to the existence, nature, and justification of a special relationship between a government and its constituents. This volume in the Contemporary Anarchist Studies series challenges this relationship, seeking to define and defend the position of critical philosophical anarchism against alternative approaches to the issue of justification of political institutions. The book sets out to demonstrate the value of taking an anarchist approach to the problem of political authority, looking at theories of natural duty, state justification, natural duty of justice, fairness, political institutions, and more. It argues that the anarchist perspective is in fact indispensable to theorists of political obligation and can improve our views of political authority and social relations. This accessible book builds on the works of philosophical anarchists such as John Simmons and Leslie Green, and discusses key theorists, including Rousseau, Rawls, and Horton. This key resource will make an important contribution to anarchist political theory and to anarchist studies more generally.