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A review by reader_in_the_meadow
Life and Ideas: The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta by Errico Malatesta
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
I liked this, but I also found certain things quite dislikable if I am to be honest.
While I found that Malatesta's ideas and argumentation were solid and quite agreeable. He manages to converse his thoughts in a coherent manner, even though he is quite repetitive at some points, which can be quite tiring. One thing, I can see people could mind, is his highly theoretical thinking, which at some points, again, can be quite tiring.
Another quarrel I have with this, is the way his qritings are compiled. As he never wrote a book on his thoughts, preferting writing articles and manifestos in newspapers and magazines, the compilation of these is just simply great. Even though, they are hard to understand at some points and it can be overwhelming to read about so many different subtopics, this was really infotmative and helped me understand the idea of his view of anarchism.
The additional material by translator and editor Vernon Richards, namely his notes for a biography and introduction, gave a great amount of context to Malatesta's writings. I sadly didn't read part III (Malatesta's Relevance for Anarchists Today) as I grew quite tired of the highly theoreticised nature of the text and decided zo come back to that part some other time.
All in all, this is a great book to understand Malatesta and his idea of anarchism.
While I found that Malatesta's ideas and argumentation were solid and quite agreeable. He manages to converse his thoughts in a coherent manner, even though he is quite repetitive at some points, which can be quite tiring. One thing, I can see people could mind, is his highly theoretical thinking, which at some points, again, can be quite tiring.
Another quarrel I have with this, is the way his qritings are compiled. As he never wrote a book on his thoughts, preferting writing articles and manifestos in newspapers and magazines, the compilation of these is just simply great. Even though, they are hard to understand at some points and it can be overwhelming to read about so many different subtopics, this was really infotmative and helped me understand the idea of his view of anarchism.
The additional material by translator and editor Vernon Richards, namely his notes for a biography and introduction, gave a great amount of context to Malatesta's writings. I sadly didn't read part III (Malatesta's Relevance for Anarchists Today) as I grew quite tired of the highly theoreticised nature of the text and decided zo come back to that part some other time.
All in all, this is a great book to understand Malatesta and his idea of anarchism.