Publisher's Synopsis
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is one of the most important books in evolutionary biology and one of the most important concepts that transcends biology and is used in political and social sciences. In the book, Kropotkin examines the social order of lives from animals to the modern era, arguing against the concept of social Darwinism, emphasizing that cooperation is as, if not more important, than competition. Not only in the necessity for survival but for a community to thrive, stating that cooperation is what has lead to the best we have seen from animals, including us. The essays which eventually were collected to make the book were originally published in the English periodical The Nineteenth Century between 1890 to 1896. Beyond its neutral scientific implication, with Kropotkin's other works, Mutual Aid is considered one of the most important pieces of anarchist and communist literature, as the concept of mutual aid introduced in this book is used often as a scientific basis for the advocacy of a communist social order to life, and for other types of libertarian socialism as well. Despite the concept and the book being over a century old, it remains an important piece that often unites politics and biology, the book itself living up to its name.
