If you’ve studied the subject of banned books, you’ve doubtless heard of something called The Anarchist Cookbook, by William Powell. Although it’s difficult in a free society to find a truly government-banned book, this one truly is not allowed at many state-run libraries in the United States. What’s more, the author himself, William Powell, wants it that way, and would prefer that the book stay out of print.

The book was written during the late 1960s after the author graduated from high school. Powell was involved in the anti-Vietnam-War movement and started the research for a book on how to get attention by causing massive chaos in the country. In the book are recipes for creating bombs, acids, and other materials to cause harm to human life. On the Amazon.com site for his book, the author recently wrote:

“The central idea to the book was that violence is an acceptable means to bring about political change. I no longer agree with this.
Apparently in recent years, The Anarchist Cookbook has seen a number of ‘copy cat’ type publications, some with remarkably similar titles (Anarchist Cookbook II, III etc). I am not familiar with these publications and cannot comment upon them. I can say that the original Anarchist Cookbook has not been revised or updated in any way by me since it was first published….Unfortunately, the book continues to be in print and with the advent of the Internet several websites dealing with it have emerged. I want to state categorically that I am not in agreement with the contents of The Anarchist Cookbook and I would be very pleased (and relieved) to see its publication discontinued. I consider it to be a misguided and potentially dangerous publication which should be taken out of print.”

Incidentally, I researched several websites with a similar name: some variation of “The Anarchist Cookbook.” Most of them are pitiful attempts to capitalize on the name of the original in appealing to people who still possess a desire to overthrow the government.