Revolution and Other Writings: A Political Reader (2011)

Gustav Landauer, Revolution and Other Writings: A Political Reader Edited and translated by Gabriel Kuhn Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2010 (ISBN: 978-1-60486-054-2) and London: Merlin Press, 2010 (ISBN: 9780850366712) 'The state is a social relationship; a certain way of people relating to one another ...'. You know that one, don't you? Yet until now, these commonly quoted lines were pretty much the only contact many people have had with the man who wrote them - Gustav Landauer. The simple reason for this is that before the publication of this excellent book, very little of Landauer s work had been translated into English. Whatever the reasons for this (and it is certainly a question worth asking, though not one I am qualified to answer), Gabriel Kuhn has done all English-speaking radicals a tremendous service by translating a fine collection of Landauers lengthier essays, opinion pieces and letters, and it is a compliment, rather than a criticism, to say that, extensive though it is, this book already feels limited, and left me hoping that more translations will soon follow. And Kuhn has done much more than translate these works: the book is prefaced with a lengthy introduction (co-written with Siegbert Wolf) and is packed with extensive endnotes that help contextualise the chosen texts, both in broader historical and cultural terms, and in relation to the seemingly vast amount of Landauer s writing that is not included. This not only helps the reader to understand Landauer's thought all the better. It also, importantly, reassures us that Kuhn was as good a person as any for the job: in selecting which texts to include, Kuhn was placed in the position of deciding how this clearly important thinker, who wrote extensively over many decades, would be presented to the English-speaking world. Imagine having only one collection of essays by Kropotkin or Bakunin (and imagine the arguments that would follow about what had been excluded). Such a task comes with considerable responsibility, and whilst we have little more than Kuhn's input itself by which to judge his endeavours, I personally left any concerns aside as it became clear that Kuhn was highly knowledgeable in his subject, without ever seeming biased or otherwise one-sided in his presentation of Landauer. The result is a fine collection of work that demands attention. What remains to be seen, however, is how Landauer's ideas will be received. As noted, Landauer's view that 'the state is a social relationship' is frequently quoted; but what does Landauer mean by this, exactly? More to the point, is its regular invocation a sign of agreement, or of misunderstanding? I raise the question because Landauer consistently argued for an approach to social change which is often far from popular within certain anarchist circles. In particular, two related arguments are presented in numerous texts throughout the book. First, Landauer argues for what might be called (for want of a better term) lifestyle anarchism. Personally, I see Landauer's approach as an entirely appropriate application of a prefigurative politics that is supposedly at the heart of anarchist thinking. Yet for many anarchists, prefiguration is understood within the narrow confines of direct action protest, and as a rejection of tactics which are not prefigurative, such as voting. …