Fields Factories and Workshops

Fields, Factories and Workshops: or Industry Combined with Agriculture and Brain Work with Manual Work is a landmark anarchist text by Peter Kropotkin, and arguably one of the most influential and positive statements of the anarchist political position. It is viewed by many as the central work of his writing career. It was published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, London, Edinburgh, Dublin and New York, in 1912. In it, Kropotkin shared his vision of a more harmonious way of living based on cooperation instead of competition. It is often positioned as a counter to the thinking of Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin which tended to imply centralised planning and control. To a large degree Kropotkin's emphasis is on local organisation, local production obviating the need for central government. Kropotkin's vision is also on agriculture and rural life making it a contrasting perspective to the largely industrial thinking of communists and socialists. His focus on local production leads to his view that a country should strive for self-sufficiency – manufacture its own goods and grow its own food, making import and export unnecessary. To these ends he advocated irrigation and growing under glass to boost local food production ability. The book presents arguments to its ends and is generally persuasive in tone, rather than being dogmatic. It is 255 pages long, and is structured as a series of essays, together with a large number of appendices of supporting evidence. Critics say he is rather optimistic in the work, however the problems arising from industrialisation and its reliance on fossil fuels has shown his ideas to be far sighted and possibly appropriate for the post-fossil fuel age.