Left unfinished at his death, Peter Kropotkin's two-volume work on ethics is a rejection of both divine command and the moral dictates of a ruling class. Kropotkin roots ethical life in something far older and more universal: the mutual aid practices that allow social species to survive.

Origin and Development, the first volume, has been out of print since its original 1924 English translation. In this work, Kropotkin explains why a new approach to thinking about ethics is needed and what the social and natural bases are on which this new ethics can be built. He engages with the long history of ethical theory in Europe, offering critical readings of figures from Plato to Robert Owen.

Peter Kropotkin (1842?1921) was the foremost theorist of the anarchist movement and was imprisoned for his activism in Russia and France. Born a Russian prince, he rejected his title to become a revolutionary, seeking a society based on freedom, equality, and solidarity. His writings include The Conquest of Bread; Fields, Factories, and Workshops; Anarchism, Anarchist-Communism, and the State; Memoirs of a Revolutionist; and Modern Science and Anarchism. New editions of his classic works Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution; Words of a Rebel; and The Great French Revolution, 1789?1793 were published by PM Press to commemorate his life and work on the centennial of his death.