The Anarchist Cookbook
by William F. Powell, William Powell · first published 1971
10% recommend80% neutral10% critical
Why HN recommends it
Known mostly for its humor and odd, over-the-top content, it serves as a curiosity and a cultural touchstone. It is also a notable example of a fringe, unreliable DIY guide.
Common criticism: Critics say many of its chemistry and explosives instructions are wrong and dangerous.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The Anarchist Cookbook will shock, it will disturb, it will provoke. It places in historical perspective an era when "Turn on, Burn down, Blow up" are revolutionary slogans of the day. Says the author" "This book... is not written for the members of fringe political groups, such as the Weatherman, or The Minutemen. Those radical groups don't need this book. They already know everything that's in here. If the real people of America, the silent majority, are going to survive, they must educate themselves. That is the purpose of this book." In what the author considers a survival guide, there is
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…eat. Boy Scout manuals, guidebooks, and merit badge books: Full of useful information Machinery's Handbook: Relearn to make parts Military field manuals: Helpful information for survival and tactics Anarchist Cookbook: Blackpowder, gene pool cleansing Marconi Patents: Communications - Slip in a Morse code table too.
on “If you were to form a Noah's Ark for books which ones are you taking and why?” ↗I am mostly just disappointed in the absolute lack of creativity in their suggestions. Even The Anarchist Cookbook is a better read :(
on “Simple Sabotage Field Manual (1944) [pdf]” ↗…trying to reach it makes for lots of fun projects like gardening, homelabbing, setting up federated software, etc. Further reading: Walkaway by Cory Doctorow, The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin, The Anarchist Cookbook by Keith McHenry (and look into Food not Bombs, Food not Lawns etc while you're at it), and various solarpunk copium like "A Half-Built Garden" by Ruthanna Emrys.
on “Yes, AI Will Take Your Job” ↗…subcultures disguising not-so-great behavior behind comedy so they can claim it isn't serious when criticized. Edit: and I've just now remembered what a great laugh I had reading some of the language in "The Anarchist Cookbook" even though all those non-traditional fire recipes were certainly meant to be used for some kind of malicious act :)
on “White hat social engineering: How to become an admin of a system” ↗I disagree...Anarchist Cookbook has tons of great information. Scraping the inside of banana peels, drying the residue and smoking it? Top Notch, would recommend...
on “The Gentleperson's Guide to Forum Spies” ↗…https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/uclas-unholy-alliance/ Agent provocateurs are going to become more and more necessary to "justify" the violence against protesters as protesters become more educated on pacifist strategies. The Anarchist Cookbook (new version) https://www.foodnotbombs.net/anarchist_cookbook.html is free to read and gets into the effectiveness of peaceful protest and direct action, and the counter-effectiveness of violence. How…
on “EU: Definition of "potential terrorists" opens door to broad information-sharing” ↗…it's The Only Way. A great resource that covers these historical facts in detail is Graeber's "The Dawn of Everything." If that's too lengthy, the founder of Food Not Bombs wrote a new version of The Anarchist Cookbook that's available as a free PDF https://www.foodnotbombs.net/anarchist_cookbook.html . Ignore the recipes, they're genuinely terrible. The first couple chapters are a good short introduction to the history…
on “"None of These Books Are Obscene": Judge Strikes Down Much of FL's Book Ban Bill” ↗…fact, he dropped his views all the way back in 1976. This editorial review on the Amazon page for the book might offer some more insight: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0974458902 Oh, and might I add, The Anarchist Cookbook isn't flawed so much in that it presents violence as a means to an end, but rather that actually following the recipes will likely get you killed or maimed. Hopefully people reading the book already knew…
on “I wrote the Anarchist Cookbook in 1969. Now I see its premise as flawed” ↗That's definitely an abridgment of your rights to free speech. The Anarchist Cookbook is an interesting study: prior restraint was never exercised against it because Hoover's FBI decided it was protected by the First Amendment, and it was published by the same (commercial) publisher as…
on “The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever” ↗…I guess they could prosecute you for reading Wikipedia on that basis. More concise write up here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-41751193 The "possessed information" by the way was The Anarchist Cookbook, available from £24 from Amazon.co.uk https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anarchist-Cookbook-William-Powell/d...
on “How the U.K. Prosecuted a Student on Terrorism Charges for Downloading a Book” ↗I totally disagree that the tone of that comment sums up the article in the slightest. While the article makes it clear that Powell now regrets authoring The Anarchist Cookbook, it is also made clear that the reasons for his regrets are far more interesting and nuanced than the quote above would have you think: "When Powell was in his late twenties and teaching special-needs…
on “Burn After Reading: William Powell and the Anarchist Cookbook” ↗…you, being an innocent victim of my exploding the results, or would you want me to be stopped at some point after I started doing that? How is this different from you spending one day reading the 1971 Anarchist Cookbook? In almost a half century since it's been released, we don't seem to have had an epidemic of homemade bombs, so I don't seem to have an evidence-based reason to object to people being able to read that…
on “Telegram founder: US intelligence tried to bribe us to weaken encryption” ↗Yeah, the Anarchist Cookbook used to be a must-have file for nerds in the early days of the internet, it used to turn up in collections of hacks and even in floppy disk/CD collections attached to computer mag covers. I don't think…
on “Scientists test medieval gunpowder recipes with 15th-century cannon replica” ↗…amongst its listings. But I don't think they should sell a book on how to create homemade bombs and then board planes with said devices." Not sure if it covers boarding planes, but: http://www.amazon.com/Anarchist-Cookbook-William-Powell/dp/0...
on “Pedophilia How-To Book Removed From Amazon” ↗That Billy Blann is certainly an interesting character. It should be noted that The Anarchist Cookbook is a very widely forged book these days. There are a ton of compendiums of various BBS text files or assorted clippings which claim to be successors, alternate editions and whatnot. An FAQ dated to 2000…
on “Burn After Reading: William Powell and the Anarchist Cookbook” ↗