Now and After (Preorder) The ABC of Communist Anarchism

A compelling work to be studied and applied to new conditions each generation.

An exposition of anarchism by one of its clearest thinkers. In a conversational style as thought provoking now as the day it was written, Berkman discusses society as it exists, the need for antiauthoritarian socialism, and the methods for bringing it about. In writing Now and After, he aimed to dispel misinformation about the aspirations of anarchists in the minds of average people. His secondary goal was to reexamine the international movement after the Russian Revolution, arguing that authoritarian methods cannot lead to liberty: indeed, means and ends must be aligned to ensure lasting equality and freedom.

The Working Classics Series revives lineages of radical thought from the history of the anarchist movement.

Praise for Now and After:

"Among the best introductions to the ideas of anarchism in the English language." —Stuart Christie, author of Granny Made Me an Anarchist

"A lucid and gifted writer with a firm and fluent command of the subject." —Paul Avrich, coauthor of Sasha and Emma

"All such people need a primer of Anarchism—an ABC, as it were, that would teach them the rudimentary principles of Anarchism and whet their appetites for something more profound. Now and After was intended to serve this purpose. That it has fulfilled its purpose no one who has read this little book will deny." —Emma Goldman, from the preface

Alexander Berkman (1870–1936) was a leading writer and participant in the twentieth-century anarchist movement. The young, idealistic Berkman practiced "propaganda by deed" attempting to assassinate Henry Clay Frick during the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892. While imprisoned, he wrote the classic tale of prison life Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist. After his release, Berkman edited Emma Goldman's Mother Earth and his own paper The Blast! When he was deported from New York City to his native Russia in 1919, and saw firsthand the failure of the Bolshevik revolution, Berkman dedicated himself to writing his now quintessential political primer, Now and After.

Emma Goldman (1869–1940) immigrated to the United States from Russia as a teenager before being deported in 1919 for her revolutionary activities. She spent her adult life writing, lecturing, and struggling on behalf of the anarchist ideal. Goldman edited Mother Earth and wrote numerous essays and books, including Living My Life and My Disillusionment in Russia.

Barry Pateman is a former Associate Editor at the Emma Goldman Papers. He is coeditor of Alexander Berkman's Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist as well as Emma Goldman's Anarchism and Other Essays and is a member of the Kate Sharpley Library Collective.