Reddit reviews Kropotkin: The Politics of Community

If one wants a deeper understanding of Peter Kropotkin's ideas, I recommend taking a look at the book Kropotkin: The Politics of Community by the anthropologist Brian Morris (If anyone here has a PDF of Morris' book please share it on libcom.org):

Kropotkin: The Politics of Community: https://www.amazon.com/Kropotkin-Politics-Community-Brian-Morris/dp/1591021588


If you want a book that uses Kropotkin's work for sociological analysis Living at the Edges of Capitalism: Adventures in Exile and Mutual Aid by Andrej Grubacic and Denis O'Hearn, that book gives a very good idea what "mutual aid" actually means:

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Edges-Capitalism-Adventures-Mutual/dp/0520287304/


As for anarchist thinkesr who are close to Kropotkin, I recommend taking a look at:

• Anarchy in action by Colin Ward: https://libcom.org/library/anarchy-action-colin-ward
  
  
  
• Communitas: Means of Livelihood and Ways of Life by Percival Goodman and Paul Goodman: http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=A61BDD67E4C76572F28955B902648FDD
  
  
• Compulsory Mis-Education, and the Community of Scholars by Paul Goodman: http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=68EF3057B9EAFA753EE4DDE9627BC746
  
  
• Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society by Paul Goodman: http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=F2927649E6100C01241D55B0D8448D9C
  
  
• Drawing the Line Once Again: Paul Goodman's Anarchist Writings: http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=CA8B169B5EF42CBC4342D52BE32A7A02
  
  
• Autonomy, solidarity, possibility: the Colin Ward reader: https://libcom.org/library/autonomy-solidarity-possibility-colin-ward-reader
  
  
• Ivan Illich - Tools for Conviviality.

I think you'll find this take much more useful: Mutual aid and the foraging mode of thought: Re-reading Kropotkin on the Khoisan - Alan Barnard

> I see him mentioned mostly as a precursor to sociobiology

Nope, he wasn't that's a caricature (though Gould does get some things right).

The anthropologist Brian Morris deals with various aspect of Kropotkin's philosophy (and debunks a lot of myths) in his book Kropotkin: The Politics of Community:


https://www.amazon.com/Kropotkin-Politics-Community-Brian-Morris/dp/1591021588

Although, Kropotkin was influenced by Spencer's synthetic philosophy (although he was very critical of Spencer overall), I don't think you could say that he has much if anything to do with came to be called "sociobiology".


I mean even Nicolas Rashevsky was influenced by Spencer, and he is the one who started the "relational biology" school of Robert Rosen and his student A.H Louie:


http://www.academia.edu/3134758/Robert_Rosen_and_the_Unfinished_Deconstruction_of_Mechanism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rosen_(theoretical_biologist)


But those guys are VERY, very far from the nonsense of Neo-Darwinism and Sociobiology.