Mark Leier: 5 books

"The passion for destruction is a creative passion," wrote the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin in 1842. Since then, the popular image of anarchism has been one of violence and terror. But this picture is wildly misleading, and the media has done more to obscure anarchism than to explain it. Focusing...

The spellbinding story of both the man and the theory, Bakunin chronicles one of the most notorious radicals in history: Mikhail Bakunin, the founder of anarchism, here revealed as a practical moral philosophy rooted in a critique of wealth and power. Mark Leier corrects many of the popular misconceptions...

The battles between Michael Bakunin and Karl Marx in the First International (aka the International Working Men's Association, 1864 1876) began a pattern of polemics and rancor between anarchists and Marxists that still exists today. Outlining the profound similarities between Bakunin and Marx in...

On the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, paeans to the conquering Bolsheviks will be sung. Bloodstained highlights the darker echoes coming from that event, with a mixture of classic and new essays that expose a murderous dictatorship as it developed, paving the way for Stalin, Mao, Castro,...

May Day: A Graphic History of Protest traces the development of International Workers’ Day, May 1st, against the ever-changing economic and political backdrop in Canada. Recognizing the importance of work and the historical struggles of workers to improve their lives, with a particular focus on...