Reclus, a companion and fellow intellectual with the likes of Kropotikin and Bakunin, and a participant in the Paris Commune, nevertheless remains an enigmatic figure now brought to a brighter light. Reclus is, perhaps, best known as a geographer whose monumental work, Nouvelle giographie universelle, ran to nineteen volumes and appeared during the years 18561894. He was an important thinker in a turbulent period of French history, and here Fleming is at her best in placing both anarchism and its proponents into perspective. Reclus is always interested in the relationship between man and his environment and believed that he had found the social laws of change that answered both evolution and revolution. Fleming’s biography should remain the basic source of reference on Reclus’ life.