Kropotkin travelled, went to prison, escaped, went into exile. He critiques capitalism and feudalism for the way they manufactured poverty for many while promoting privilege for a few. He critiqued Marxist state communism for the hierarchical power structures it created and the inequality it maintained, He promoted mutual aid and self-sufficiency. He called for a four-hour workday, He acknowledged humans’ flaws and competitive urges. he advocated communism, but a decentralized version of it, one in which people voluntarily created associations made of worker-run enterprises and self-governed communities.

Collected in this cute, pocket-sized volume are eight of Kropotkin's essays. The book starts with his indispensable article on anarchism, originally written for the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and moves forward to expound on his ideas, which include prison abolition, syndicalism, expropriation, etc., and contains a new editor's introduction by Nathaniel Kennon Perkins.