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Natural SciencesMutual Aid: A Factor of EvolutionPetr Alekseevich KropotkinMutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution

Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin

Natural SciencesEnglish
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Against those who read Darwin's theory as a story of endless 'struggle for existence', in which only the most ruthless survive, the Russian naturalist Peter…

Catalogue details

Author
Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin
Category
Natural Sciences
Language
English
Source
Project Gutenberg

About this book

Against those who read Darwin's theory as a story of endless 'struggle for existence', in which only the most ruthless survive, the Russian naturalist Peter Kropotkin argues that cooperation is just as important a factor in evolution. Drawing on his own observations in Siberia, he describes mutual aid among ants, birds and mammals, and then traces it through human history: in tribes, village communities, medieval guilds and free cities, and in the unions and friendly societies of his own day.

Context and significance

Kropotkin (1842–1921), a prince who became an anarchist and spent years in prison and exile, published the essays as a book in 1902, in reply to an article by Thomas Huxley. Biologists studying cooperation have given his ideas new attention. Worth reading alongside it: his The Conquest of Bread, and compare Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

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