An epic panorama of life, struggling for survival looked at through the lense of mutual aid ( )

Interesting book. Written as a response to the essay “the struggle for existence in human society” by Thomas h. Huxley, who was arguing that competition, particularly in large complex cities demanded state rules people, when scarcity arose could not be counted on to be civilized. Kropotkin takes a counter point and starting with animals and moving through simpler to more complex societies shows that mutual aid has in fact been the more common and beneficial mode. Not totally sure how this relates to anarchy per se, but my research continues.

I liked Kropotkin as a teenager, but had never read this. Wordy by today’s standards but I enjoyed this survey of social good works among animals and people. ( )

Escrita en parte como respuesta al darwinismo social y, en particular, al ensayo del siglo XIX de Thomas H. Huxley, "La lucha por la existencia", el libro de Kropotkin se basó en su experiencia del día a día en expediciones científicas en Siberia para ilustrar el fenómeno de la cooperación. Tras examinar las pruebas de la cooperación en comunidades de animales no humanos, "salvajes", "bárbaros", en las autónomas ciudades medievales, y en la época moderna, llega a la conclusión de que la cooperación y la ayuda mutua son tan importantes en la evolución de la especie, como lo es la competencia y la lucha mutua, en caso de no ser más.

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a book by Peter Kropotkin on the subject of mutual aid, written while he was living in exile in England. It was first published by William Heinemann in London in October 1902. The individual chapters had originally been published in 1890-96 as a series of essays in the British monthly literary magazine, Nineteenth Century.

Written partly in response to Social Darwinism and in particular to Thomas H. Huxley's Nineteenth Century essay, "The Struggle for Existence," Kropotkin's book drew on his experiences in scientific expeditions in Siberia to illustrate the phenomenon of cooperation. After examining the evidence of cooperation in nonhuman animals, "savages," "barbarians," in medieval cities, and in modern times, he concludes that cooperation and mutual aid are as important in the evolution of the species as competition and mutual strife, if not more so.