«Rocker's work is extraordinarily instructive and bears witness to a rare originality of spirit. Countless facts and relationships have been expounded in it in a completely new and persuasive way.”—Albert Einstein.

"Rocker's work makes a fundamental contribution to political philosophy, both for its deep and comprehensive analysis of many famous authors and for its brilliant critique of the idolatry of the state, the most widespread and baneful superstition of our time."—Bertrand Russell .

Written almost alongside his most important work, Nacionalismo y cultura —and complementary to it—, the gems that make up this book, published in the early 20th century anarchist press on both sides of the Atlantic, are —still today— of an amazing clairvoyance to dissect nationalism, fascism and the cult of state religion.

[...] Just as in religion the believer tries to save his soul, without worrying much about the salvation of his neighbor, in civic life, the common citizen tries to conform to the State as best he can without worrying about what your peers think about it. The State at first undermines the feelings of solidarity of man, invading social life and channeling all activity through officially approved rules. The more a government infiltrates the lives of its citizens, the less it attends to their needs and rights; the more it annuls the feeling of solidarity, the easier it is for it to break up the different constituent elements of society and turn them into docile instruments of the political machine. [...] Modern production, with its scientific division of labor, rationalization and barracks discipline, backed by the systematic dumbing down called education, is a symptom of a diseased condition that we should consider carefully. Modern nationalism, declared enemy of freedom and, therefore, militaristic, is one of the factors that turn man into a physical and mental automaton. And it is no exaggeration to say that if we do not react strongly to danger, it can lead to the destruction of civilization. We are still on time, because fortunately humanity has enough vitality and creative energy to reject this tragic development. [...]