The Anarchist Cookbook, first published in 1971, is a book that contains
instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary
telecommunications phreaking devices, and other items. The book also includes
instructions for home manufacturing of illicit drugs, including LSD. It was
written by William Powell at the apex of the counterculture era in order to
protest against United States involvement in the Vietnam War.
Publication status The copyright of the book no longer
belongs to its author, but to its publisher Lyle Stuart. Stuart kept
publishing the book until the company was bought in 1991 by Steven Schragis,
who decided to drop it. Out of the 2,000 books published by the company, it was
the only one that Schragis decided to stop publishing. Schragis said
publishers have a responsibility to the public, and the book had no positive
social purpose that could justify keeping it in print. In December 2013,
it was reported that the copyright had been bought in 2002 by Delta Press, an
Arkansas-based publisher that specialises in controversial books, and
the book is their "most-asked-for volume".
The latest publication date is October 16, 2012, and the book is available in
both paperback and hardback from Snowball Publishing. Reviewers say the
copy has its basis in a 2002 revision and shows heavy editing and many items
removed over the original 1971 edition. Author
Since writing the book, Powell has converted to Anglicanism in 1976 and has
attempted to have the book removed from circulation. When Lyle Stuart published
the book, its copyright was taken out in the publisher's name, not Powell's, and
the current publisher had no desire to remove the book from print. Powell has
since created many websites devoted to the book, explaining his desire to see
it removed from circulation, as he no longer advocates what he had written.
On 19 December 2013, William Powell wrote an article in The Guardian to call
for the book to "quickly and quietly go out of print".
Reception At the time of its publication, one
Federal Bureau of Investigation memo described The Anarchist Cookbook as "one
of the crudest, low-brow, paranoiac writing efforts ever attempted".
In 2009, the magazine Vice published a brief history of the book as well as
excerpted recipes. The magazine's associate network, VBS.tv, also
broadcast a documentary on the subject. In 2010, the FBI released the bulk of
its investigative file on The Anarchist Cookbook.
= Anarchism= Advocates of anarchism dispute the
association of the book with anarchist political philosophy. The anarchist
collective CrimethInc., which published the book Recipes for Disaster: An
Anarchist Cookbook in response, denounces the earlier book, saying it
was "not composed or released by anarchists, not derived from anarchist
practice, not intended to promote freedom and autonomy or challenge
repressive power – and was barely a cookbook, as most of the recipes in it
are notoriously unreliable". Legality
The book was refused classification by the Office of Film and Literature
Classification upon release, thus making the book banned in Australia.
In 2007, a 17-year-old was arrested in Britain and faced charges under
Terrorism Law in the UK for possession of this book, among other things. He was
cleared of all charges in October 2008, after arguing that he was a prankster
who just wanted to research fireworks and smoke bombs.
More recently, in County Durham, UK in 2010, Ian Davison and his son were
imprisoned under anti-terrorism laws for the manufacturing of ricin, and their
possession of The Anarchist Cookbook, along with its availability, was noted
by the authorities. In 2013, renewed calls were made in the
United States to ban this book, citing links to a school shooting in Colorado
by Karl Pierson. See also
The Poor Man's James Bond References
External links Thompson, Gabriel. "Burn After Reading".
Harper's. Browsings. Retrieved March 3, 2015.