This book was both fascinating and mildly disappointing. When I would hear about the Anarchist Cookbook, I would always hear about how I shouldn’t look it up online, and how it’s banned and dangerous. Looking for it would get the government on your tail. It was built up as this text that taught you to build bombs and start revolutions and fight the government. Then I read it and learned it was written by an angry 19-year old hippie who didn’t like the draft. The text is casual and full of jokes, yet still portrays the ideals of a revolutionary. The author, William Powell, advocates for doing whatever you want and advises you on how to do it safely. He’s almost caring in the way he talks about how to safely make dangerous chemicals and explosives. He advocates for a minimum number of casualties during the revolution, safely containing explosives, and never using injection drugs for fear of illness.
The way everyone thinks about this book is that it’s a terrible influence, full of dangerous ideas and recipes for murder and revolution. But I don’t feel it really is. Sure it advocates for the use of drugs, and there are recipes for explosives and dangerous chemicals, but it’s all about freedom. If you want to do these things, that’s on you, not the author. It’s your choice. I think the bad reputation this book has is a product of the time it was written in, when people were more comfortable with government control. I don’t think it was until later that people began to think