279
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] loomy@lemy.lol 21 points 1 month ago
[-] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Sometimes I’ll read it as a hopeful story and stop the chapter before they get arrested.

If you read it that way it starts as grumpy guy in totalitarian hellscape who hates himself and ends with him having found someone, being enlightened by resistance, and having a will to live.

(Of course the point isn’t to stop there. But sometimes I feel like reading the book again without being too gloomy.)

I think it also helps to understand the context of him writing the book. Specifically his experience as a libertarian socialist in revolutionary Catalonia and the oppression (incl executions and imprisonment) he and his comrades faced from Stalinist factions who treated the anarchists as threats to their power.

[-] loomy@lemy.lol 5 points 1 month ago

It's a great book to bring perspective to the foggy real-world of politics.

Also, the book doesn't theoritically stop at the end when he dies, because all governments rise and fall throughout history.

I non-ironically consider it a hopefull book in those ways.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
279 points (98.9% liked)

Books

6138 readers
5 users here now

A community for all things related to Books.

Rules

  1. Be Nice. No personal attacks or hate speech.
  2. No spam. All posts should be related to books.

Official Bingo Posts:

Related Communities

Community icon by IconsBox (from freepik.com)

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS