The Nation on No Map examines state power, abolition, and ideological tensions within the struggle for Black liberation while centering the politics of Black autonomy and self-determination. Amid renewed interest in Black anarchism among the left, Anderson offers a principled rejection of reformism, nation building, and citizenship in the ongoing fight against capitalism and white supremacism. As a viable alternative amidst worsening social conditions, he calls for the urgent prioritization of community-based growth, arguing that in order to overcome oppression, people must build capacity beyond the state. It interrogates how history and myth and leadership are used to rehabilitate governance instead of achieving a revolutionary abolition. By complicating our understanding of the predicaments we face, The Nation on No Map hopes to encourage readers to utilize a Black anarchic lens in favor of total transformation, no matter what its called. Andersons text examines reformism, orthodoxy, and the idea of the nation-state itself as problems that must be transcended and key sites for a liberatory re-envisioning of struggle.
Shedding new light on the works of Black anarchist thinkers like Lucy Parsons, Kuwasi Balagoon, and Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, William C. Anderson invites us to conceive of Black liberation outside the shackles of the nation-state. Attending anew to the intellectual and political itineraries of global Black rebellion, Anderson provides an incisive and highly original exploration of the ongoing urgency of Black anarchist thought and practice in the 21st century. The Nation on No Map is essential reading for anyone interested in building abolitionist futures.
Robyn Maynard, author of Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present
