SOURCE: "The Destructive Urge," in Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements, World Publishing Company, 1962, pp. 145-83.

George Woodcock is one of the leading anarchist historians of the twentieth century. The following chapter from his book combines a detailed biography with a largely favorable assessment of Bakunin 's political philosophy, as manifested in both his actions and his writings.

Of all the anarchists, Michael Bakunin most consistently lived and looked the part. With [William] Godwin and [Max] Stirner and [Pierre-Joseph] Proudhon there always seems a division between the logical or passionate extremes of thought and the realities of daily life. These men of terror, as their contemporaries saw them, would emerge from their studies and become transformed into the pedantic ex-clergyman, the browbeaten teacher of young ladies, the former artisan—proud of his fine printing—who turns out to be a model family father. This does not...