Against the State: An Introduction to Anarchist Political Theory

Irreverent and incisive critique of liberal theories of the state.

In Against the State, Crispin Sartwell unleashes a quick and brutal rejection of the traditional arguments for state legitimacy. Sartwell considers the classics of Western political philosophy-Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hegel, Hume, Bentham, Rawls, and Habermas, among others-and argues that their positions are not only wrong but also embarrassingly bad. He separates the traditional pro-state arguments into three classes: social...