SOURCE: "The Evolution of Anarchism and Syndicalism: A Critical Review," in European Ideologies: A Survey of 20th Century Political Ideas, edited by Feliks Gross, Philosophical Library, Inc., 1948, pp. 328-342.

In the following excerpt, Nomad examines Sorel's philosophical history, identifying Sorel's links with Marxism, democratic socialism and Bolshevism as key to understanding his body of work.

It is a truism that in all political movements a distinction must be made between what their participants profess and believe, on the one hand, and what subconsciously they are actually striving for, on the other.

This distinction is rendered somewhat complicated with regard to anarchism. For there are various schools of anarchism differing from each other on many essential points. Some of them accept the principle of private property, (the "mutualist" and the "individualist" anarchists), while others reject it. Among the latter there are those who believe in renumeration according to performance...