Reviews

Anarchy--In a Manner of Speaking: Conversations with Mehdi Belhaj Kacem, Nika Dubrovsky, and Assia Turquier-Zauberman by David Graeber

donegcol000's review

this conversation is incredibly interesting and works as a good summation of a lot of the finer points in some of Graebers other work with extra context and hearing other people discuss the ideas was really enloghtening.

nalz's review

3.0

Not so sure if this was the best entry point to the work/thought of David Graeber but it was pretty enjoyable nonetheless. I found the dialogic element here to work both for and against this book. On one hand it made it much easier to read, in a way that headier stuff rarely is. Then on the other hand, in presenting the large amount of ideas present here as a dialogue they ultimately cant reach the necessary point of being truly fleshed out in a way that makes them persuasive, nothing seems conclusive.

Ultimately if nothing else it was really thought provoking, though I remain unconvinced by anarchism as a coherent societal structure.

eddiel95's review

5.0

This was a cracking read. A lot of the philosophy and theory went over my head but the discussion was always followable. It's always interesting watching some fantastic minds must together on their shared knowledge and experience. A gripe I had is about half way through the book when they start talking about electrons and the second law of thermodynamics, someone (Assia I think) says they should have invited a physicist along. Probably. Fantastic book nonetheless.

colin_lavery's review

4.0

Graeber articulates his own reasons, connected to anarchist philosophy, for formatting a high-level text about anarchy as a dialogue, but I personally was grateful for the way the other speakers help mitigate the more esoteric parts of any particular speaker's points. Often times, one of the speakers would directly ask a question that was beginning to form in my mind, a nice reminder that these ideas are complicated and that there are very few stupid questions. Further, seeing the speakers work out their answers to the questions in real-time allows the reader to see anarchy as a work in progress rather than a fully articulated political system.