Welcome to the Kate Sharpley Library

The Kate Sharpley Library exists to preserve and promote anarchist history. (More information.)

Everything at the Kate Sharpley Library - acquisitions, cataloguing, preservation work, publishing, answering enquiries is done by volunteers: we get no money from governments or the business community. All our running costs are met by donations from members of the collective, subscribers and supporters, or by the small income we make through publishing. Please consider donating and subscribing.

We also try to promote the history of anarchism by publishing studies based on those materials - or reprints of original documents taken from our collection. Check out our books and pamphlets available for sale or explore our online documents or browse back issues of our Bulletin.

Our physical library (in California) includes books, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts and ephemera documenting the history of anarchist movements. Contact us to arrange a visit.

Recent news

March 2016 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 85, March 2016 has just been posted on our site. The PDF is up at: http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/bnzthf

Contents:
Thoughts on anarchism, academia and history by Professor Yaffle (With Richard Warren cartoons) http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/xpnxkx
The Anarchist Expropriators by Osvaldo Bayer [Review] http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/83bm8c
The Lessons of History by Albert Meltzer http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/dncm2p
Solidarity and Silence: the story of Ona Šimaitė, librarian lifesaver [Review] by Marc Record http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/mcvg27
Johnny come home: a review by John Barker http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/wpzj9x
Living Anarchism: José Peirats and the Spanish Anarcho-Syndicalist Movement by Chris Ealham [Review] by Stan Brook http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/7wm4dh
Library News [February 2016] http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/qz62mn

The Anarchist Expropriators by Osvaldo Bayer is out!

“It’s a chastening thought that Osvaldo Bayer wrote this book nearly forty years ago and his work still challenges us, as anarchists, with ideas, arguments, and problems that are still as relevant today as they were in 1975 or, indeed, as when the actions of this narrative were originally carried out… Those constant and exhausting questions of what anarchism is and the best way to practice it and bring about anarchy. Bayer is careful to try to delineate the complexities of these differences and provides us with a useful guide to understanding them.” Kate Sharpley Library (from the Introduction)
Available from AK Press https://www.akpress.org/the-anarchist-expropriators.html
Review from the next issue of the bulletin http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/83bm8c

October 2015 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 84, October 2015 has just been posted on our site. The PDF is up at: http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/x3fh0j

Contents:
Anarchist History: confessions of an awkward pupil by Barry Pateman http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/02v7v0
Tenth Anniversary of the death of Eliezer Hirshauge (1911-1954) [A work in progress] by Dinah Hirshauge http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/tb2szq
Library News (October 2015) (inc. New publication: What Does Syndicalism Want?) http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/9cnqd0
Anarchism by George Woodcock [Review] by Frank Mintz http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/j6q60z

London Anarchist Bookfair 2015

The 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair is coming soon. It will be on Saturday 24th October from 10am to 7pm.

Location: Central Saint Martin’s
University of the Arts London
Granary Building
1 Granary Square
London N1C 4AA
For more details (the list of meetings is up) go to: http://www.anarchistbookfair.org.uk/

See you there!

New publication: What Does Syndicalism Want? Living, Not Dead Unions By Max Baginski

What does syndicalism want? was first published in 1909, when the syndicalist revolt was growing worldwide. Baginski is clear in his call for working class rebellion: the task is not to fight simply for better conditions but ‘to break the chains of wage labor and at the same time the shackles of servitude to the state.’ At the same time, Baginski is no joyless martyr to ‘the cause’: personal freedom joins collective struggle at the core of his anarchism.
Max Baginski (1864-1943) was a German-born American anarchist activist and writer. Rudolf Rocker called him “one of the most outstanding human beings I have met in my life”. Nathan Jun’s introduction puts Baginski in his political and intellectual context as writer and anarchist.

What Does Syndicalism Want? Living, Not Dead Unions
By Max Baginski
Edited and introduced by Nathan Jun, translated by Friederike Wiedemann; with an obituary by Rudolf Rocker, edited by Nathan Jun, translated by Yvonne Franke
ISBN 978-1-873605-36-3 £3 / $3
Anarchist Library series ISSN 1479-9073 #25
See http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/ksn1fh