George Woodcock (1912-1995) was a historian, political biographer, essayist, poet, and anarchist. He wrote biographies of such anarchist thinkers as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, William Godwin, Oscar Wilde, and Peter Kropotkin. Throughout his life, Woodcock was given numerous awards for his work, but he refused several awards from the government of Canada on the grounds that he only accepted awards granted by his peers.

In this chapter, Woodcock dispels many of the common myths about anarchism, and he addresses the fundamental flaws of government, the state, and bourgeois democracy. He argues that if one is committed to both freedom and justice, the social philosophy of anarchism is the only tenable option.