By: Charlie Buckreis
The Anarchist Cookbook is mainly a compendium of recipes and instructions telling the reader how to make and use a wide variety of weapons, electrical equipment, and drugs. It is quite detailed, with each item having at least a few paragraphs explaining how it is made and/or how it is used or operated. Powell also includes advice and warnings for each item; some of this advice seems like it should be common sense, such as, “If you are holding a large amount of money, do not go anywhere alone with someone you do not trust.” Other pieces of advice are actually very useful, such as, “When an individual does go into a panic on acid, it is an extremely delicate situation. Although it has been said that tranquilizers, such as thorazine, will help to calm the person down, be very careful, as certain drugs react violently with tranquilizers.”
While the Anarchist Cookbook is mainly a bunch of recipes and instructions for causing anarchy, Powell does also use it to spread some anarchist beliefs and theory. He provides quite a bit of commentary on the problems that American society was facing in the seventies. The introduction to each chapter has some of Powell’s thoughts on both the topic of the chapter and how it interacts with society. At the beginning of chapter four, he talks about how explosions are perhaps the most important tool for anyone seeking reform and/or change, including anarchists.