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The Anarchist Library

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The Anarchist Library
Formation2007
FounderAragorn!
Marco
Other anarchists
PurposeArchiving and distributing documentation related to anarchism
Services
Official language
English
Affiliations Anarchism
Websitetheanarchistlibrary.org

The Anarchist Library is an online anarchist library and archive founded around 2007 by Aragorn!, Marco and other anarchists. Free to use and aimed at gathering all English-language anarchist literature, or literature translated into English, the library gradually gained increasing importance within anarchism in the early 21st century. In addition to collecting thousands of publications related to anarchism, it directly challenges the monopoly and private property of publishing houses by offering free access to copyrighted documents.

Despite these points and the library's influence among anarchists, it's also criticized for its exclusively English-language content and its open-submission policy, which sometimes results in incomplete or incorrect uploads. Project members engaged in significant discussions and debates to categorize certain movements over time.

History

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The online library was founded by Aragorn!, Marco and other anarchists around 2007.[1][2][3][4] It emerged from anarchist circles that were then seeking to organize using the tools provided by the advent of the internet.[5] It aims to serve as a gathering place for anarchist publications or those related to anarchism in English, and to enable the establishment of archival work for anarchist textual resources.[6] The library's collections focus particularly on contemporary anarchism, and almost all of the texts are in English.[7] The collection is built by free and open subscription from the editors.[7] Marco left it during the second half of the 2010s to establish another project, seeking a multiplicity of small anarchist libraries rather than a single one.[1][8]

In 2018, researcher Jayne Malenfant noted, in her surveys of anarchist youth in Canada, that the internet had become a privileged space for anarchist thought, particularly through this library.[9] Two years later, the project members mentioned approximately 7,000 archived texts.[4] During the COVID-19 pandemic, the library undertook an effort to collect data related to mutual aid practices by anarchists.[10]

Legacy

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Influence(s)

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The library is one of the older anarchist projects on the internet, and its approach to categorizing and preserving anarchist or anarchism-related sources can be seen, for example, in initiatives aimed at digitizing the American anarchist press.[5] In 2019, Ruth Kinna noted the library as a 'reference work' on contemporary anarchist thought.[7] This project also influenced other anarchist initiatives, such as the creation of the Southeast Asian Anarchist Library.[11]

Fairmont University recommends The Anarchist Library as a useful resource for studying anarchism.[12] Its collection of texts related to the Spanish Civil War was noted by the anarchist newspaper Fifth Estate.[13]

The library is credited by Luke Ray Di Marco Campbell, lecturer at the University of Glasgow,[14] with participating in anarchist economic practices.[15] He argues that the availability of a number of research publications directly challenges the monopoly and private property of the publishing industry.[15]

Criticisms and internal debates

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The fact that the library is primarily in English and that similar projects don't exist in less commonly spoken languages is criticized by Di Marco Campbell.[15] He argues that this forces anarchists to learn other languages, such as English or French, to access an abundant anarchist literature.[15]

In 2018, internal conflicts arose within The Anarchist Library over its inclusion of texts by Individualists Tending to the Wild (ITS) and debates about how—or whether—such content should be contextualized.[16][17] Critics argue that the editorial collective places disproportionate emphasis on anti-technology writings at the expense of other anarchist perspectives.[16][17][8][18][19] They contend that this focus, particularly in a project that identifies as an anarchist archive, risks legitimizing authoritarian ideologies and blurring the distinction between anarchists and their opponents.[16][17][8][18][19]

Some of the texts present on the website are criticized for being inacurrately transcribed, inauthentic or incomplete.[20] According to The Anarchist Library itself, editors attempt to achieve the most correct state of texts possible, but this is a time-consuming and constantly evolving process.[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Anarchist Libraries | About this project". anarchistlibraries.net. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  2. ^ Collective, CrimethInc Ex-Workers (2021-02-13). "CrimethInc. : Remembering Aragorn! : A Zine, a Video, and a Poem". CrimethInc. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  3. ^ "Aragorn! A Provocation Even in Death". anarchistnews.org. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  4. ^ a b "The Anarchist Library talk at 2020 London Anarchist Bookfair | The Anarchist Library Bookshelf". bookshelf.theanarchistlibrary.org. Archived from the original on 2025-03-27. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  5. ^ a b Cornell, Andrew (2019). "Archival Parties and Parties to the Archive: Creating and Recovering Anarchist Resistance Culture at the Interference Archive". American Periodicals. 29 (1): 21–25. ISSN 1054-7479. JSTOR 26729241.
  6. ^ Kinna 2012, p. 370.
  7. ^ a b c Kinna, Ruth (2013). "Anarchism". obo. doi:10.1093/obo/9780199756384-0059. ISBN 978-0-19-975638-4. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  8. ^ a b c "AnarchistLibraries.Net". 325.nostate.net. Archived from the original on 2018-07-03. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  9. ^ Malenfant, Jayne (2018). "Anarchist Youth in Rural Canada: Technology, Resistance, and the Navigation of Space". Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures. 10 (2): 126–151. doi:10.1353/jeu.2018.0020. ISSN 1920-261X.
  10. ^ Swann, Thomas (2023-01-01). "'Anarchist technologies': Anarchism, cybernetics and mutual aid in community responses to the COVID-19 crisis". Organization. 30 (1): 193–209. doi:10.1177/13505084221090632. ISSN 1350-5084. PMC 10076238. PMID 37038431.
  11. ^ "Q&A with a Librarian of Southeast Asian Anarchist Library". anarchistnews.org. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  12. ^ Reference, Library. "Fairmont State University Library: Anarchy: Internet Resources". library.fairmontstate.edu. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  13. ^ "Spanish Revolution Resource Page - Fifth Estate Magazine". Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  14. ^ "University of Glasgow - Schools - School of Education - Our staff - Mr Luke Campbell". www.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  15. ^ a b c d "Article: Intellectual Property is Theft – Towards an Anarchist Culture of Knowledge Sharing & Translation – AnarchistStudies.Blog". Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  16. ^ a b c "Anarchy: Deep in the Woods". slackbastard. 2018-12-16. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  17. ^ a b c "Of Indiscriminate Attacks and Wild Reactions: An Anti-Civ Anarchist Engages with ITS and Atassa, their Defenders and Their false Critics". ICD.
  18. ^ a b "On No Platform and ITS". ICD.
  19. ^ a b "The Elephant in the Room". ICD.
  20. ^ Fleming, Sean (2024). "Searching for Ecoterrorism: The Crucial Case of the Unabomber". American Political Science Review. 118 (4): 1986–1999. doi:10.1017/S000305542300148X. ISSN 0003-0554.
  21. ^ "About Us". The Anarchist Library. Archived from the original on 2010-03-05. Retrieved 2025-07-06.

Bibliography

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