author
E. V. (Ernst Viktor) Zenker
1865–1940
Austrian journalist, editor, and politician who is best remembered today for his early, critical history of anarchist thought. His work brought late-19th-century political debates to a broad readership and still surfaces in discussions of anarchism's intellectual roots.
1 Audiobook
Anarchism: A Criticism and History of the Anarchist Theory
by E. V. (Ernst Viktor) Zenker
About the author
Born in Postelberg, Bohemia, on March 10, 1865, he studied law in Vienna and went on to build a career in journalism and public life. Reliable biographical sources describe him as an Austrian journalist, writer, and parliamentarian, active in the lively political culture of the late Habsburg period.
Zenker edited and published periodicals including Die Wage, and he is especially associated with Anarchism: A Criticism and History of the Anarchist Theory, first published in the 1890s. That book set out to explain anarchist ideas, their background, and their leading figures for a general audience, and it remains the work by which many readers now encounter his name.
Sources found during this search disagree about his year of death, with reputable records giving either 1945 or 1946. What is clear is that he belonged to a generation of Central European public thinkers who moved between journalism, politics, and social criticism, leaving behind a body of writing shaped by the tensions of his era.