Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution

Mutual Aid explore the role of mutually-beneficial cooperation and reciprocity in the animal kingdom and human societies both past and present. Supporting the theory and foundation for anarchist communism, Peter Kropotkin presents an altruistic view of society, comparing it to the natural laws of biology and evolution. Kropotkin argued that it is our innate instinct for mutual aid - rather than mutual struggle - which enables societies to survive and flourish. From the earliest days of evolution through to medieval guilds, indigenous nomads and modern voluntary organisations, Kropotkin’s vision of small-scale, ecologically sustainable, collective communities challenged the orthodoxies of his age, whether individualism or Marxism. Mutual Aid offers instead a radical, and prescient, rewriting of the whole of human history.