For readers already familiar with anarchist critiques and alternatives, the book still offers a valuable introduction to contemporary black/feminist/queer/indigenous writers (mainly from the US), whose abolitionist stances against institutions and regimes of domination have gained anarchists’ appreciation in recent years. These include authors of both social commentary and science fiction, such as adrienne marie brown, bell hooks, Octavia Butler, Margaret Killjoy, Leanne Betosamotake Simpson, Monique Wittig, and many others on whose work Branson draws. Kropotkin and Colin Ward are also prominent, as are current anarchist writers such as Peter Gelderloos and Cindy Milstein. There is a helpful “further reading” section at the end of the book.

Unless it becomes a best-seller (why not?) we’ll never know how much Practical Anarchism has done to radicalise new people. The strawberry-banana colour scheme, and the respectful bracketing of anarchism’s confrontational side, may raise eyebrows – but they seem to be part a deliberate strategy of gentleness towards an imagined young (and probably American) reader who is still working their way out of identification with dominant systems, in an atomised society where collectivity is extremely rare. It is hard for me to judge how successful this is as a pitch, but Scott Branson deserves appreciation just for the attempt to write a gateway book in a previously unattempted genre.

Uri Gordon

Practical Anarchism: A Guide for Everyday Life can be purchased here.