Character guide

Rothschild

major

Also known as the Rothschilds, Rothschilds

Rothschild represents the capitalist class whose fortunes rest on the accumulated labour of generations, the small elite who own what everyone produced. Kropotkin uses the name to expose the absurdity of private ownership over a common inheritance, contrasting the banker's hoard with the plenty already within reach. This figure matters because the book's central case, that we are richer than we think, requires a villain to explain why that wealth feeds so few.

M. Ponce

minor

A character referenced in discussions of property and wealth.

Marx

supporting

Marx stands among the socialist thinkers Kropotkin engages and ultimately parts ways with, representing the state-centered tradition against which anarchist communism defines itself. The tension is fraternal: shared diagnosis of exploitation, sharp disagreement over whether the cure is a workers' state or the abolition of the state altogether. Kropotkin's early chapters lean on this debate to clear ground for his own vision of free distribution.

Adam Smith

supporting

Also known as Smith

Smith belongs to the intellectual scaffolding Kropotkin dismantles, the classical economist whose account of wealth and labour underpins the order the book attacks. Kropotkin's move is sly: he accepts the premise that labour creates value, then asks why its fruits flow to a handful. This tension between Smith's analysis and its capitalist uses sharpens the argument that abundance, not scarcity, is the real starting point.

Proudhon

supporting

Proudhon appears as a fellow traveler in the critique of ownership, the thinker who named property as theft yet stopped short of Kropotkin's full communist conclusion. The relationship is one of inheritance and revision: Kropotkin respects the diagnosis but pushes past the mutualist remedy toward free, common enjoyment of the world's wealth. His presence marks the book's place in a living socialist argument rather than a solitary manifesto.

The Socialists

supporting

Also known as Some Socialists, Socialists, Other Socialists

The socialists gather the many strands of nineteenth-century radical thought, from state planners to mutualists, each offering a remedy for the same disease. Kropotkin treats them as interlocutors rather than enemies, testing their proposals against the practical question of how a city in revolt would actually feed itself. Their disagreements give the book its dialectical energy, forcing Kropotkin to show why anarchist communism is not merely another blueprint but the one that follows from abundance.

Blanquists

supporting

Also known as the Jacobins, Jacobins

The Blanquists, also called Jacobins, embody the tradition of the centralized revolutionary coup, a small disciplined band acting on behalf of the masses. Kropotkin's quarrel with them is strategic and temperamental: their faith in seizing the state clashes with his conviction that emancipation must be the work of everyone, not a vanguard. Their presence in the argument clarifies what anarchism is not, sharpening the case for a revolution that dissolves authority rather than inherits it.

Sir Gorgeous Midas

minor

Also known as Sir Gorgeous, good Sir Gorgeous

A satirical figure representing greedy capitalists.

The Statists

minor

Advocates of state control, critiqued in the text.

Robert Owen

minor

Also known as Owen

A utopian socialist whose cooperative ideas are examined.

Watt

minor

An inventor whose steam engine revolutionized industry.

Napoleon

minor

Also known as Napoleon III

A historical figure used as an example of state power.

Raphael

minor

An artist referenced in discussions of luxury and art.

Robespierre

minor

A revolutionary leader cited in political debates.

Darwin

minor

A scientist whose evolutionary theory is mentioned.

Murillo

minor

Also known as poor Murillo

An artist referenced in discussions of poverty and art.

Louis Blanc

minor

A socialist politician whose ideas are critiqued.

Joule

minor

A physicist whose work on energy is cited.

Barral

minor

Also known as Barral (Hachette)

A publisher or figure mentioned in passing.

Fourier

minor

A utopian socialist whose communal ideas are discussed.

Ricardo

minor

An economist whose theories on rent are referenced.

Henry George

minor

An economist advocating land value tax, mentioned briefly.

Mignet

minor

A historian referenced in political discussions.

Danton

minor

A revolutionary leader cited in historical examples.

Stephenson

minor

An inventor of the steam locomotive, mentioned in passing.

Kropotkin

major

Also known as Peter Kropotkin

Kropotkin speaks directly to the reader as both scientist and agitator, cataloguing the cleared land, drained marshes, machines, and accumulated knowledge that past generations left to everyone alive. That ledger of shared inheritance collides with the fact that its profits flow chiefly to the few, and the gap between what we already possess and what we still deny one another is the engine of his argument. He matters because he reframes abundance as the starting point of the debate, not its distant reward.

Messrs. Thomas Nelson

minor

Also known as Thomas Nelson

A publishing firm referenced in the text.