What is Communist Anarchism?

New York: The Vanguard Press. Near Fine. 1929. 1st printing thus (see notes). Hardcover. (flexible cloth-covered boards; no dust jacket) [minor shelfwear only, a nice clean copy]. (Outlines of Social Philosophies) Series Political treatise by this leading light of the anarchist movement in America, and a one-time lover of Emma Goldman, with whom he was deported from the U.S. to Russia in 1919, and was written while he was living in France (having only stayed in Russia for a couple of years before decamping for Berlin, then later France). Wikipedia tells the story of the book's genesis: "In 1926, the Jewish Anarchist Federation of New York asked (truncated) Berkman to write an introduction to anarchism intended for the general public. By presenting the principles of anarchism in plain language, the New York anarchists hoped that readers might be swayed to support the movement or, at a minimum, that the book might improve the image of anarchism and anarchists in the public's eyes." (The book's Preface indeed states that "the Jewish Anarchist Federation assumes responsibility for all arrangements covering this book, and collaborated with Mr. Berkman in its preparation.") Wikipedia further quotes a couple of authorities, who laud the book as "among the best introductions to the ideas of anarchism in the English language" and "the clearest exposition of communist anarchism in English or any other language." Although this copy is a stated "First printing - May 1929," the book had first been issued by Vanguard (also in 1929) under the title "Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism," so this alternate title would seem to indicate a slightly later issue. (I suspect the publisher changed only the title page and not the copyright/printing statement.) . (Inventory #: 29408)