Work record

The Conquest of Bread

Peter Kropotkin

1892 (English 1906) · 19th Century · Political Theory · French

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Abstract

Written: 1886-1892
Setting: Late nineteenth century; Europe, especially Paris
Author: Peter Kropotkin (trans. an anonymous translator)
Country: France
Language: French
Genre: Anarchist political theory
Form: Political treatise in seventeen chapters
Recommended: Grades 11–12 (Revolutionary political theory; best read critically in grades 11-12.)

Inheritance. A Russian nobleman turned revolutionary surveys the farms, towns, machines and science handed down by countless generations of toil.

Claim. Since no one person made this abundance, he holds that private ownership is unjust and that comfort for every household is achievable now.

Revolution. He sketches a great city whose citizens occupy houses, granaries and shops and distribute them according to need, starting with food, lodging and clothes.

Against wages. He attacks both state socialism and schemes to pay labour by the hour, praising instead voluntary federations, from lifeboat crews to railway companies.

New economy. Pleasant work, art and leisure for everyone, intensive gardening and local industry would let each region feed itself.

Reading. A clear, passionate classic of anarchist thought, best studied alongside its critics and the record of later revolutions. Teachers should present it as a primary source in the history of political ideas, pairing it with defenders of private property and markets, and asking students to examine its assumptions about human motivation, the practical problems of distribution in a great city, and how far voluntary associations could replace laws and governments in a modern, complex and interconnected economy.

Key figures

Peter Kropotkin: A Russian prince turned anarchist theorist.
Élisée Reclus: A French geographer and anarchist who wrote the original preface.
The collectivists: Socialists who proposed paying labour by hours worked.

Summary

The Conquest of Bread is Peter Kropotkin's most famous statement of anarchist communism, first published in French as La Conquête du pain in 1892, with a preface by the geographer Élisée Reclus, and in English in 1906. This text reproduces the 1926 Vanguard Press printing of the English version, with a short biographical note on the author. Kropotkin, a Russian prince who gave up his rank to join the revolutionary movement, begins by describing the immense riches that humanity has built up over centuries: fields cleared, cities raised, machines invented and knowledge accumulated by the labour of countless generations. Because this wealth is the collective work of all, he argues, it cannot justly belong to a few, and he concludes that all belongs to all. He insists that well-being for all is not a dream but is possible with existing means of production, if they are organised for the needs of everyone rather than for profit. He then describes how, after a revolution, the people of a great city such as Paris might take over houses, food stores and workshops, a process he calls expropriation, and share them according to need, beginning with food, shelter and clothing. He rejects state socialism and the collectivist proposal to pay workers in labour notes according to hours worked, arguing that it would preserve the wage system and its injustices. Instead he proposes free agreement among voluntary associations, giving many examples of cooperation without government, such as the international lifeboat associations and the European railway agreements. He argues that people need leisure, art and luxury as well as bread, that work can be made agreeable, and that intensive agriculture and decentralised industry could make every region nearly self-sufficient. He answers objections that people would not work without compulsion. The book was influential in labour and anarchist movements; students should read it critically, comparing its hopes with the history of twentieth-century revolutions.

Virtues in this work

Charity: Kropotkin calls for provision for every person's basic needs.
Justice: He argues that the products of common labour should be shared fairly.

Plot or Argument

Our riches
The wealth of society is the work of all generations and should belong to all.
Well-being for all
Kropotkin argues that comfort for everyone is possible with existing means.
Expropriation
He imagines a revolutionary city sharing food, housing and clothing by need.
Free agreement
He proposes voluntary cooperation instead of state or wage systems.
Work and production
He argues for agreeable work, luxury for all, and decentralised industry and farming.

Lessons

Common inheritance
Kropotkin argues that wealth is produced collectively over generations.
- What examples does he give?
- Is his argument convincing?
- How would an economist answer him?
Related across the library
- The Gambler, Chapter I
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- Common Sense, Rights of Man, The Age of Reason, and The American Crisis, Lesson: Plain style can radicalize politics
  Plain style can radicalize politics. Paine's genius is making complicated grievances sound legible to ordinary readers. Accessibility becomes a revolutionary force.
- Catiline's War and The Jugurthine War, Lesson: Prosperity can be harder to bear than danger
  Prosperity can be harder to bear than danger. Sallust's history of Roman morals in Catiline X turns on a paradox: the Romans who had endured toil and peril easily found ease and wealth a burden once Carthage was gone. Love of money came first and love of power after, and with them came deceit, contempt of religion and venality. He presents Catiline not as a monster dropped from the sky but as the product of a city that had changed its loves.
- Atlanta Exposition Address, Lesson: The dignity of labor
  The dignity of labor. Washington insists that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem and that a people must learn to put brains and skill into the common occupations of life. This conviction shaped Tuskegee, where students built the buildings in which they studied.
- The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter I: Of the Division of Labour
  more at one time than those employed in one single branch Though in such manufactures therefore the work may really be divided into a much greater number of parts than in those of a more trifling nature the division is not near so obvious and has accordingly been much less observed To take an example therefore from a very trifling manufacture but one in which the division of labour has been very often taken notice of the trade of a pin-maker a workman not educated to this business which the division of labour ha...
Mutual cooperation
He points to voluntary associations as models for society.
- What examples of free agreement does he give?
- Can large societies run without government?
- Where do you see cooperation today?
Related across the library
- Coriolanus, Lesson: The fable of the belly and the body politic
  The fable of the belly and the body politic. Menenius answers a hunger riot with an old political allegory, also found in Livy and Plutarch: the body's members rebel against the belly, which replies that it sends nourishment to all. The fable is clever and partly true, but it is told to men who are actually starving, and the First Citizen interrupts it with a list of the body's more active parts. The scene teaches students to admire an argument's form while asking whom it serves and whether it answers the compla...
- Ex parte Milligan, Lesson: Open courts as the test
  Open courts as the test. The majority draws a bright line: where the civil courts are open and able to act, civilians must be tried by them. The old English maxim that when the king's courts are open it is a time of peace gave Davis a test that judges could apply without second-guessing generals on strategy.
- The Code of Hammurabi, Lesson: Protecting the weak
  Protecting the weak. Alongside harsh penalties, the Code limits debt slavery and protects widows, orphans and sick wives. Even ancient rulers knew that law should defend the vulnerable.
- The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch), Full Text
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- Description of the Retreat, Lesson: Description of the Retreat teaches historical caution
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Reading critically
His hopes can be weighed against the history of later revolutions.
- What does he assume about human nature?
- What problems does he not address?
- What happened when revolutions tried to abolish property?
Related across the library
- Capitalism and Freedom, Lesson: Intentions and results
  Intentions and results. Friedman repeatedly distinguishes the aims of a policy from its actual effects. This habit of mind is useful in evaluating any proposal.
- Capital, Volume I, Lesson: Testing a theory against history
  Testing a theory against history. Marx predicted the growing concentration of capital and the impoverishment of workers. Comparing these predictions with what actually happened in industrial countries, and with the record of states that claimed his authority, is a lesson in weighing theories by their results.
- Economics in One Lesson, Lesson: Prices as signals
  Prices as signals. Prices tell producers what to make and consumers what to economize. Fixing them by law, Hazlitt argues, distorts that information.
- Capitalism and Freedom, Lesson: Economic and political freedom
  Economic and political freedom. Friedman argues that a society cannot remain politically free if its economy is centrally directed. Students can test the claim against historical examples.
- Liberalism, Lesson: Persuasion over force
  Persuasion over force. Mises insists that liberal ideas can prevail only by convincing people. Students can consider the role of argument in public life.

Context

In the late nineteenth century industrialisation produced great wealth and great poverty in Europe; socialists, Marxists and anarchists debated how to change society.

Composition

Written as articles for anarchist papers in Geneva and Paris and collected in 1892; translated into English in 1906.

Reception

Widely translated and influential in anarchist and labour movements, including in Spain and Russia.

Power / Politics Money Wealth Class / Society Utopia / Dystopia Justice Law

Comparisons

The Communist Manifesto
Marx and Engels's rival socialist program.
Capital, Volume I
Marx's analysis of capital, which Kropotkin's collectivist opponents drew upon.

Quotes

“Individual appropriation is neither just nor serviceable. All belongs to all.”

— Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread, Chapter I, Our Riches, trans. an anonymous translator (1906).Quote card

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“Well-being for all is not a dream. It is possible, realizable, owing to all that our ancestors have done to increase our powers of production.”

— Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread, Chapter II, Well-Being for All, trans. an anonymous translator (1906).Quote card

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Canto XLVI Diti s Hope Canto XLVII Sumati Canto XLVIII Indra And Ahaly Canto XLIX Ahaly Freed Canto L Janak Canto LI Visv mitra Canto LII Vasishtha s Feast Canto LIII Visv mitra s Request Canto LIV The Battle Canto LV The Hermitage Burnt Canto LVI Visv mitra s Vow Canto LVII Trisanku Canto LVIII Trisanku Cursed Canto LIX The Sons Of Vasishtha Canto LX Trisanku s Ascension Canto LXI Sunahsepha Canto LXII Ambar sha s Sacrifice Canto LXIII Menak Canto LXIV Rambh Canto LXV Visv mitra s Triumph Canto LXVI Janak s Spe...
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For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The argument from inherited collective wealth.
The meaning of expropriation.
The critique of labour notes and wages.
Examples of free agreement.
Kropotkin's view of luxury and leisure.

Key terms and names

Anarchist communism: A theory that society should be organised without the state, with goods shared according to need.
Expropriation: The taking of property from its owners, here for common use.
Wage system: The economic arrangement in which labour is paid for in money wages.
Mutual aid: Voluntary cooperation for common benefit, a key idea in Kropotkin's thought.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension Why does Kropotkin say wealth belongs to all?
Comprehension What does he propose to do with housing?
Comprehension Why does he reject labour notes?
Interpretation What does Kropotkin assume about human nature?
Interpretation Why does he include luxury and art in his plan?
Big Question Who has a just claim to what a society produces?

Faith Connections

Acts 4:32 (Scripture)
They had all things common; an early Christian community of goods.
Exodus 20:15 (Scripture)
Thou shalt not steal; the biblical defence of property.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Because wealth is produced collectively, it should be shared by all through voluntary cooperation rather than held privately or administered by the state.

Rhetorical device: appeal to example. Lifeboat societies and railway agreements are offered as proof of cooperation without government.

Debate: Resolved: that a society based on free agreement could meet everyone's needs.

Memory Work

Individual appropriation is neither just nor serviceable. All belongs to all.
Chapter I, Our Riches, trans. an anonymous translator (1906). Kropotkin's claim that well-being for all is possible.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Assess Kropotkin's argument against the wage system.

Comparison with The Communist Manifesto: Compare Kropotkin's vision with The Communist Manifesto.

Creative Prompts

Essay
Evaluate Kropotkin's claim that all belongs to all.
Dialogue
Write a debate between Kropotkin and an economist who defends private property.
Classroom
Map Kropotkin's examples of voluntary cooperation and discuss whether they scale.