“Letterpress Revolution brings poststructuralist and postmaterialist lenses to bear on the rich history of anarchist publishing and printing. Kathy E. Ferguson’s critical study is based on meticulous research and an impressive knowledge of the scholarly literature. Her exploration of the anarchists’ intricate networks of communication provides new perspectives on the constitution of American and Western European movements and anarchism’s theoretical trajectory and biases. The arguments are provocative and stimulating, as is her assessment of anarchism’s empowering legacy.” - Ruth Kinna author of The Government of No One: The Theory and Practice of Anarchism
“This labor of love brings back to us an almost-lost world in vivid and exemplary ways, with theoretical sophistication, historical depth, analytical rigor, and literary flair. Letterpress Revolution is a beautiful book—and a hopeful gift to future generations.” - Marcus Rediker, coauthor of The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic
“By focusing on letterpress Ferguson presents a novel way of looking at the history of Anarchism. Letterpress as a way of working generates an active hands-on ambition to build and embody new and creative ideas. . . . Ferguson’s history promotes the message that meaningful radical development builds from face-to-face, hand-to-hand, cooperative endeavour.” - Peter Good, Kate Sharpley Library
"Ferguson's half-century of involvement in radical politics and her painstaking research in anarchist collections (many of them ill organized) qualifies her to write this dense but compelling history. . . . Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." - T. S. Martin, Choice
"In fluid prose, Ferguson offers a fresh historical look at the anarchist movement through a focus on lesser-known figures and their lesser-known labours, including printing and letter-writing." - Layla Saleh, LSE Review of Books
"Letterpress Revolution is essential reading. It is a result of exhaustive and detailed research that clarifies instead of obscures. ... It enriches anarchist history allowing us to appreciate the nuances and bravery of people as well as their complexities."
- Barry Pateman,
KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library
"Letterpress Revolution, like the innumerable print artifacts it analyzes, is a labor of love. ... The book’s understory teems with a rich ecosystem of ideas and stories painstakingly cultivated through patient research." - Nikita Shepard, Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies
"As a work of anarchist history, Letterpress Revolution is a who's who of the anarchist scene, from household-names like Emma Goldman and William Morris, to the lesser known Joseph !shills and Rudolf Rockers of the twentieth-century world." - Joshua Calladine-Jones, Anarchist Review of Books
"All in all, this is a fascinating exploration into the history of anarchist print culture that also counteracts a lot of myths about anarchism as a movement." - European Journal of Communication
"Kathy Ferguson has written a wonderful book, an essential contribution to the history of classical anarchism—with her eyes firmly on the present—and a must-read for anyone interested in the movement’s political, social, cultural and material history, and in the women and men who made it, quite literally." - Constance Bantman, Anarchist Studies
"In Kathy Ferguson’s rigorous, compelling and exquisitely poised analysis of anarchist print culture, we find journals and readers, presses and printers, letters and archivists stepping forth from the margins of anarchist history to take center stage as the generative, consolidating sustenance of the anarchist movement in its classical prime." - Rebecca van der Post, Theory & Event
“Ferguson’s wide-ranging archival research and obvious love for the history and culture of anarchism offers readers a richly detailed glimpse into an underground history still relevant today. Scholars in print culture, radical history and theories of craft will find in Letterpress Revolution an ally and an inspiration for future work on anarchism, resistance movements and maker culture.”
- Catherine W. Hollis,
Publishing Research Quarterly
