‘All things are for all men, since all men have need of them, since all men have worked in the measure of their strength to produce them, and since it is not possible to evaluate every one's part in the production of the world's wealth.’
‘That we are Utopians is well known. So Utopian are we that we go the length of believing that the Revolution can and ought to assure shelter, food, and clothes to all.’
The Conquest of Bread is Kropotkin’s most famous, influential, and idealist book. For Kropotkin, poverty did not need to exist and only did so because feudalism and capitalism required it to thrive. Yet the revolution against capitalism he envisioned takes a different form from most socialist revolutions due to his opposition against state-run centralization. In his ideal society without poverty, the economic system will be decentralized and based on mutual aid and voluntary cooperation. This vision of his remains influential to this day and The Conquest of Bread remains one of the most important, influential, and widely read works of political anarchism.
Peter Kropotkin was a Russian revolutionary and an important theorist in political anarchism. He also achieved renown in geography and zoology.