Anarchism
Anarchism and anarchists and anything associated with the thinking, the people, or the history generally get a raw deal from the media and even mainstream historians. It is true that anarchism is profoundly anti-authoritarian, but its popular association with violence (wild-eyed bearded men throwing bombs) is exaggerated, even fictionalized by the very forces threatened by it, namely governments and the media with vested interests in things as they are.
As with any subversive political and economic movement, some proponents became impatient and felt justified in striking out in vengeance or justice. Thus you have Alexander Berkman and his attempted assassination of Pennsylvanian Henry Clay Frick in 1892 and Leon Czolgosz and his successful assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. Berkman, however, served his time in jail, wrote a deep and insightful account of his experience and went on to write more worthwhile books on the subject which possessed his life. (Czolgosz did not have that opportunity, being executed forty-five days after the death of his victim.)
Anarchism survived its dramatic beginnings in the 19th Century, however, and interested readers can find its articulate concern with agricultural reform, labor rights, and prophetic worries about the growth of the surveillance state in many excellent books. Here you will find books and a superb documentary on Sacco and Vanzetti (as well as Woody Guthrie's cd of his investigation into the miscarriage of justice). Here you will find histories, biographies, anthologies, memoirs, and fiction. It is a rich tradition, relevant to this day and to the future.
The Anarchist Banker
The Anarchist Banker
The story of The Anarchist Banker takes place in a Lisbon café where the narrator meets an old friend, now a wealthy banker. He questions his friend about his anarchist origins and discovers to his amazement that the banker still considers himself to be an anarchist. The story revolves around the banker's vigorous defense of his position and his assertion that he is the only genuine anarchist among the banker's so-called anarchist friends.
What I want to say is that there is no divergence between my theories and the conduct of my life, rather there is an absolute conformity. That my life is not that of syndicalists or bomb throwers--this is true. But it is their lives that are outside of anarchism, outside of anarchist ideals. Mine is not. In me--yes, in me, the banker, the capitalist, the ruthless monopoly financier if you wish--in me, the theory and practice of anarchism are perfectly fused.