The Conquest of Bread

By: Pyotr Kropotkin

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (1842-1921) was the leading - and the most widely admired - anarchist Communist in the last decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th. He lived long enough to see the establishment of Communism in Russia under Lenin, who acknowledged Kropotkin’s commitment to political change. However, Kropotkin was a very different kind of revolutionary figure, for he argued not only for Communism but anarchist Communism, distrusting and even despising central government control in favour of a more individual sense of responsibility and civic duty.

In The Conquest of Bread, first published in 1892, Kropotkin set out his ideas on how his heightened idealism could work. It was all the more extraordinary because he was born into an aristocratic land-owning family - with some 1,200 male serfs - though from his student years his liberal views and his fixation on the need for social change saw him take a revolutionary path. This led rapidly to decades of exile. Even today, The Conquest of Bread is fascinating listening.

It is a passionate, even a fierce polemic for dramatic social change. Kropotkin looks at the European revolutions, from the French Revolution to the upheavals of 1848 and later 19th-century events, commenting on why they were ultimately unsuccessful. Like Karl Marx he was convinced that major social upheaval was inevitable, but he argued for a different social structure - one where innate human goodness would not only overcome individualist capitalist greed but obviate the necessity of overbearing government control. Kropotkin’s faith in humanity and the reasonableness of man may seem naive, but his slogans are persuasive. ‘All belongs to all’; 'well-being for all’; ‘anarchist Communism, Communism without government - the Communism of the free: it is the synthesis of the two ideals pursued by humanity throughout the ages - economic and political liberty.’

His views encompassed further ideals: wealth should not hoarded by the few but distributed to each according to his need; women must be released from traditional domestic drudgery (he predicted that new machines would lightening the domestic load); the working day could easily be reduced to five hours a day, allowing more leisure time. With these innovations, Kropotkin argues, the future would be very different.

The Conquest of Bread is a classic political text of an idealistic vision that may never come to pass but which contains views which are difficult - theoretically - to dismiss.

Public Domain (P)2018 Ukemi Audiobooks

Chapter 35 is probably the best place to start.

All the "facts and logic" start in chapter 35, it just seems utopian until then. (Chapter 11 Part 3)

Unless you already like anarchism that is. Then it's all good.

Narrator is excellent regardless.

An inspirational guide to progress!

this is essential reading for anyone who dares t assume the world could be better then the relative slum it is compared to our potential.

Out of date

There is allot of good information here but it is so out of date it hard to read.

Excellent read

Really insightful book that gives a communist alternative to Marxism-Leninism and gives an insightful view into Kropotkin's view of anarcho-communism

A MUST for Revolutionaries and Capitalists alike!

The Conquest of Bread is the Anarchists guide to what to do after the Revolution. How to organize and ensure that ALL people are provided with their daily bread and necessities for living.

Peter Kenny delivers a very good reading which makes the textbook philosophy of Kropotkin seem more a narrative fiction than a labor of education. 10/10 I am ready for what comes next!