One of the founders of modern Anarchism, Michael Bakunin renounced his noble birth to protest the Czar's autocratic rule. As a result, he was imprisoned for eight years, then exiled to Siberia, whence he escaped and made his way - via America - to Western Europe, gradually perfecting his theory of anarchist society.

God and the State is the concise distillation of Bakunin's ideas. It sees religion as a weapon of repressive government, which by its insistence of submission to the "Big Boss" in heaven, sets a precedent for submission to a host of earthly rulers (many of whom...