William powell author biography books

Nothing in it was new, but it couched the information in an abstract political diatribe about resistance to the government, for whatever reason. Although Powell said that he had written The Anarchist Cookbook in protest of the Vietnam War, it found a home with all kinds of rebellions and political persuasions. It became a broad symbol of armed resistance and anomic rebellion, even though it was very rarely proven to have led to any actual crimes.

However, just the mention of The Anarchist Cookbook , either by police investigators or the news media, was enough to conjure instant criminality and agents of chaos.

William powell author biography books

One of the disturbing features of The Anarchist Cookbook is its guilt by association. Many discussions of the book tie it to a series of mass murders. But these crimes do not directly involve the book at all. Sometimes, the book is claimed to be an actual source of such murders: a complete falsehood. The Anarchist Cookbook is an easy symbol of malevolence, chaos, and social deviance for the media, politicians, terror consultants, and police investigators, who beg the question of whether reading a book causes a person to murder his neighbors.

This guilt by association has serious implications for the courts, where reading materials, like The Anarchist Cookbook , have historically been used to paint a damning psychological portrait of the sometimes innocent accused. We do not understand enough about reading inspiration to make such claims in courts of law. Archived from the original on March 17, The Observer.

ISSN Archived from the original on April 25, The New York Times. December 22, Archived from the original on April 30, The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 26, Now I see its premise as flawed". December 19, Archived from the original on January 18, Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 31, The Washington Post.

ProQuest August 2, Archived from the original on August 2, New York. Archived from the original on May 15, NBC News. Archived from the original on December 19, February 16, Archived from the original on October 13, Archived PDF from the original on March 9, Archived PDF from the original on July 8, November 23, Archived from the original on November 23, Archived from the original on January 9, Archived from the original on March 23, Archived from the original on September 10, Los Angeles Times.

March 23, May 21, Archived from the original on January 30, April 14, Archived from the original on May 6, Powell earned a bachelor's from Windham College and a master's from Manhattanville College. He went on to a career in international teaching, focusing on students with learning disabilities and other special needs, and wrote co-wrote several books on education.

I have recently been made aware of several websites that focus on The Anarchist Cookbook. As the author of the original publication some 30 plus years ago, it is appropriate for me to comment. The Anarchist Cookbook was written during and part of soon after I graduated from high school. At the time, I was 19 years old and the Vietnam War and the so-called "counter culture movement" were at their height.

I was involved in the anti-war movement and attended numerous peace rallies and demonstrations. The book, in many respects, was a misguided product of my adolescent anger at the prospect of being drafted and sent to Vietnam to fight in a war that I did not believe in. I conducted the research for the manuscript on my own, primarily at the New York City Public Library.

Most of the contents were gleaned from Military and Special Forces Manuals. I was not member of any radical group of either a left or right wing persuasion.