Synopses & Reviews
Painting a vivid picture of 1960s counterculture ideas, this new collection of the late Paul Goodman's essential anarchist writingsfrom utopian essays to practical proposalsreveals how he inspired the dissident youth of the era and profoundly influenced movement theory and practice. Long out-of-print, these provocative, insightful, and incisive pieces analyze citizenship and civil disobedience, decentralization and the organized systemall while still mindful of the long anarchist tradition and of the Jeffersonian democracy that resonated strongly in Goodman's own political thought. A potent antidote to U.S. global imperialism and domestic anomie, this collection also includes a new introduction by Goodman's friend and literary executor, Taylor Stoehr, who explains why these nine core texts will thoroughly explicate anarchism for future generations.
Review
"The core of Goodman's politics was his definition of anarchism . . . He most passionately believed that man must not commit treason against himself, whatever the statecapitalist, socialist, et alcommands." Nat Hentoff, Village Voice
Review
"The important thing about Paul is that he raises the right questions. The fact that most of his answers are brilliant gives the reader an extra bonus." Dave Dellinger, peace activist and founder, Liberation magazine
Review
"Paul Goodman has been one of the few integrated and hence liberated people of our age . . . He may well have been the only truly seminal libertarian thinker in our generation." George Woodcock, historian of anarchism
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"Paul Goodman brought a new invigorating stream into American anarchism, simply through his insistence that in all the problems of daily life we are faced with the possibility of choice between authoritarian and libertarian solutions . . . [This book's] sympathetic editing introduces Goodman's social criticism to a new generation." Colin Ward, community planner
Review
"Editor Taylor Stoehr relates how he found in Goodman a man who had found 'another way to live,' a man whose refusal to conform could shock a young mind back into its best instincts." Bookforum
Synopsis
Painting a vivid picture of 1960s counterculture ideas, this new collection of the late Paul Goodman's essential anarchist writings--from utopian essays to practical proposals--reveals how he inspired the dissident youth of the era and profoundly influenced movement theory and practice. Long out-of-print, these provocative, insightful, and incisive pieces analyze citizenship and civil disobedience, decentralization and the organized system--all while still mindful of the long anarchist tradition and of the Jeffersonian democracy that resonated strongly in Goodman's own political thought. A potent antidote to U.S. global imperialism and domestic anomie, this collection also includes a new introduction by Goodman's friend and literary executor, Taylor Stoehr, who explains why these nine core texts will thoroughly explicate anarchism for future generations.
Synopsis
Five years after his death in 1972, Paul Goodman was characterized by anarchist historian George Woodcock as "the only truly seminal libertarian thinker in our generation." In this new PM Press initiative, Goodman's literary executor Taylor Stoehr has gathered together nine core texts from his anarchist legacy to future generations.
Here will be found the "utopian essays and practical proposals" that inspired the dissident youth of the Sixties, influencing movement theory and practice so profoundly that they have become underlying assumptions of today's radicalism. Goodman's analyses of citizenship and civil disobedience, decentralism and the organized system, show him Drawing the Line Once Again, mindful of the long anarchist tradition, and especially of the Jeffersonian democracy that resonated strongly in his own political thought. This is a deeply American book, a potent antidote to US global imperialism and domestic anomie.
About the Author
Paul Goodman is the author of Decentralizing Power and the bestselling Growing Up Absurd. He set the agenda for the youth movement of the 1960s and lectured on subjects ranging from politics, education, and community planning to psychotherapy, religion, and literature.