Audiobook8 hours
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
Written by Pyotr Kropotkin
Narrated by Peter Kenny
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this audiobook
Pyotr Kropotkin (1842-1921), one of the most individual political figures of his time, is best known as an influential anarchist communist. But he was also a scientist, geographer and philosopher, a man who, having grown up on his aristocratic father's extensive country estate in Russia, had a deep understanding of and love for animals (wild and domesticated), the countryside and wildernesses. And all this was underpinned by a life committed to work for the good of humanity.
Though his two best-known works, The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops, are revolutionary economic texts, Mutual Aid, a collection of essays published in 1902, is a jewel of another kind. In it, Kropotkin argues that Darwin's views on evolution and the survival of the fittest show only one aspect of life on planet Earth. Taking a kindlier - but equally scientific - look at the existence and growth of societies, both animal and human, Kropotkin takes great pains to demonstrate that the principal of mutual aid is just as important a feature in life on Earth - in fact, even more important.
In this most engaging, absorbing and even endearing book, Kropotkin shows that societies evolve and develop better though the principle of mutual aid than by challenge, conflict and conquest. His chapter headings provide the overview: 'Mutual Aid Among Animals', 'Among Savages', 'Among the Barbarians', 'In the Medieval City', and 'Amongst Ourselves'. His positive and uplifting conclusion is clear: ‘In the practice of mutual aid, which we can retrace to the earliest beginnings of man, mutual support - not mutual struggle - has had the leading part. In its wide extension, even at the present time, we also see the best guarantee of a still loftier evolution of our race.'
This humane attitude was the driver behind his politics, because Kropotkin the scientist was also very much a political personality. But Mutual Aid is endlessly entertaining and informative because it contains thousands of well-documented examples of his thesis, whether drawn from colonies of ants and bees, or ‘mutual protection among small birds; or rodents and ruminants; Bushmen, Eskimos, Caucasian mountaineers; village life in Switzerland, Germany; or from the history of Guilds and trade unions.' Mutual Aid - A Factor of Evolution is a classic that should be far more widely known and appreciated.
Though his two best-known works, The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops, are revolutionary economic texts, Mutual Aid, a collection of essays published in 1902, is a jewel of another kind. In it, Kropotkin argues that Darwin's views on evolution and the survival of the fittest show only one aspect of life on planet Earth. Taking a kindlier - but equally scientific - look at the existence and growth of societies, both animal and human, Kropotkin takes great pains to demonstrate that the principal of mutual aid is just as important a feature in life on Earth - in fact, even more important.
In this most engaging, absorbing and even endearing book, Kropotkin shows that societies evolve and develop better though the principle of mutual aid than by challenge, conflict and conquest. His chapter headings provide the overview: 'Mutual Aid Among Animals', 'Among Savages', 'Among the Barbarians', 'In the Medieval City', and 'Amongst Ourselves'. His positive and uplifting conclusion is clear: ‘In the practice of mutual aid, which we can retrace to the earliest beginnings of man, mutual support - not mutual struggle - has had the leading part. In its wide extension, even at the present time, we also see the best guarantee of a still loftier evolution of our race.'
This humane attitude was the driver behind his politics, because Kropotkin the scientist was also very much a political personality. But Mutual Aid is endlessly entertaining and informative because it contains thousands of well-documented examples of his thesis, whether drawn from colonies of ants and bees, or ‘mutual protection among small birds; or rodents and ruminants; Bushmen, Eskimos, Caucasian mountaineers; village life in Switzerland, Germany; or from the history of Guilds and trade unions.' Mutual Aid - A Factor of Evolution is a classic that should be far more widely known and appreciated.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 6, 2019
ISBN9781004133697
More audiobooks from Pyotr Kropotkin
The Conquest of Bread Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFields, Factories, and Workshops: Industry Combined with Agriculture and Brain Work with Manual Work Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Mutual Aid
Related audiobooks
Humankind: Solidarity with Nonhuman People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mismeasure of Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Debt - Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Spectre, Haunting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5God and the State Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emancipation of the Working Class Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Future is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anarchy: Unabridged Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Philosophy of Social Ecology: Essays on Dialectical Naturalism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet – and What We Can Do About It Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRed Valkyries: Feminist Lessons From Five Revolutionary Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reform or Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Overcoming Capitalism: Strategy for the Working Class in the 21st Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Conquest of Bread Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo More Heroes: Grassroots Challenges to the Savior Mentality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anarchism and Other Essays (Version 2) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Participatory Economy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSlow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Jean Baudrillard's Symbolic Exchange and Death (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnarchism and Other Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fully Automated Luxury Communism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wage Labor And Capital Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFascism: What It Is and How to Fight It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEverything, All the Time, Everywhere: How We Became Postmodern Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Economics For You
Economics 101: How the World Works Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marvel Comics: The Untold Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why the Rich Are Getting Richer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freakonomics Rev Ed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Economics 101: From Consumer Behavior to Competitive Markets—Everything You Need to Know About Economics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chip War: The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed or Fail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Men Without Work: America's Invisible Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nudge: The Final Edition: Improving Decisions About Money, Health, And The Environment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of the United States in Five Crashes: Stock Market Meltdowns That Defined a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract for a Better Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Mutual Aid
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews