The Anarchist Cookbook
The Anarchist Cookbook (ISBN 0-9623032-0-8) is a book written by William Powell. It was published in 1970 and was intended as a protest against the United States government over the Vietnam war. The book contains recipes and instructions for the manufacture of explosives, drugs, a number of now-obsolete telecommunications hacking devices, and other controversial themes. Despite the name, the book has no connection to the anarchist movement and is in fact heavily criticized by most anarchists (see below).
The book is now regarded to be public domain and is easily accessible on the internet. The author has disowned it and, though the copyright having been registered in the name of his publisher, he does not receive royalties from it.
Book
While The Anarchist Cookbook is legally available in the United States, it is illegal in many other countries. The information contained in the book includes instructions that, if followed, may be against the law (see felony for more details). Because of this, access to the book is often restricted, with some bookstores refusing to sell the book to persons under 21 years of age. Authorities and munitions experts have stated that the instructions in the book should never be attempted by inexperienced persons. It has been suggested that the book contains errors and other problems that make it unreliable for use. In fact, one rumor states that the book was actually written by the FBI, CIA, or some other branch of the US government, and that the dangerous errors in the recipes were put there to injure would-be terrorists. The book is treated more as a set of guidelines, or a book of ideas, than an instruction manual for terrorists, though it has been accused of promoting violence. Part of this book has a section on martial arts and unarmed street fighting.
Activists and spokespersons often see the banning of books such as The Anarchist Cookbook as a move against freedom of speech. The argument used in the defense of this and similar publications includes such statements as "guns don't kill people, people kill people." This can be interpreted as meaning the information contained itself in The Anarchist Cookbook is only dangerous in the hands of people who intend to use it. They also note that information on the same topics (including construction of explosive devices) is freely available at most libraries, and suppression of this book will not prevent such information from being obtained by people who look for it.
Other "underground" books have taken the basic premise of The Anarchist Cookbook and expanded upon it. Some of these books, including E for Ecstasy and The Big Book of Mischief, have been confiscated by authorities as "instruction manuals" for the manufacture of explosives and illegal drugs.
Much of the information in the book has been rightly criticized as outdated, misinformed or, in some cases, outright wrong. Many scientific tests have proven this point.
Criticism by Anarchists
Most anarchists condemn the Anarchist Cookbook as having nothing to do with the philosophy of anarchism and for giving anarchists a bad name. The title can be seen as evoking stereotypes of anarchism, such as violence and brazen law-breaking, that are not nessisarily reflective of the deeper political movement.
CrimethInc criticized the cookbook because it was "not composed or released by anarchists, not derived from anarchist practice, not intended to promote freedom and autonomy or challenge repressive power--and was barely a cookbook, as the recipes in it are notoriously unreliable." They recently released Recipes for Disaster: An Anarchist Cookbook, which was meant to be a more appropriate guide for the anarchist movement, containing useful information on activism. While some of the tactics are illegal, including sabotage and vandalism, there are vastly different topics, including "Health Care", "Dumpster Diving", "Coalition Building" and "Supporting Survivors of Domestic Violence."
Other anarchists also recently published The Anarchist's Cookbook which is a compilation of vegan recipes.
Movie
 | It has been suggested that this section be split out into another article titled The Anarchist Cookbook (film). (Discuss) |
In 2002 the movie The Anarchist Cookbook (directed by Samantha Shanni) was produced using the actual book as a key to the plot. The plot of the movie is about a young honors student-gone-anarchist, Puck (Devon Gummersall) and his group of anarchist friends living peacefully in a Dallas commune until the nihilist Johnny Black (Dylan Bruno) shows up with the Anarchist Cookbook and completely destroys their way of life.
The film is seen by many who've viewed it as a thinly-veiled piece of right-wing propaganda, almost on the level of Reefer Madness, even featuring a character who's secretly a member of NAMBLA.
See also
- List of banned books
- Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, who read and used the Anarchist Cookbook.
- Bowling for Columbine, 2002 documentary film that includes discussion of the book as it relates to teenage violence, including the Columbine massacre
External links
- The Anarchist cookbook The actual cookbook and links to other cookbooks
- The Amazon.com page, on which the author disowns the book and expresses his views about its content.
- An Anarchist Cookbook: Recipes For Disaster Useful direct action guide for all anarchist activists and troublemakers everywhere, written by CrimethInc. ex-Workers Collective.
- The Anarchist Cookbook (An actual cookbook)
- The Anarchist Cookbook at IMDb
- Peoples Revolution Militia Survival Guide One of the many Anarchist Cookbook spin offs.
- The anarchy cookbook 2000 The year 2000 (most recent) version of the internet version of the "anarchy cookbook".