This book is not an Anarchist text. It is a book that will be used by people who claim to be Anarchists, but not philosophical Anarchists. It is a cookbook, first and foremost, for weapons, drugs, and bombs. It also contains practical advice for activists, violent or otherwise. Powell at this time was not a philosophical Anarchist, you can tell by the very general grasp he has on Anarchy and that he only spends a handful of pages talking about the philosophy. You could consider it, however, the other half of an Anarchist movement, the dangerous half to be specific. To make an Anarchist, you have to have the idea of Anarchy. A solid idea. This is where philosophers come in. They tell you what you’re fighting for. Their goal is to disseminate Anarchist ideas into the populace, something that was not Powell’s goal. This is the safe half of Anarchy, you can think about a governmentless society all you want. You can peacefully protest. You can hand out brochures. As long as you don’t encourage violence or rebellion, legally, you aren’t a threat. The cookbook is dangerous, though. The cookbook disseminates knowledge of how to build bombs and weapons. The cookbook shows you how to make drugs, something entirely unrelated with philosophical Anarchy. This is why people were arrested for having the Cookbook, but not other anarchist texts. This is why sites like the Anarchist’s library are allowed to exist. This is why the Anarchist’s cookbook was popular, because it was dangerous.