The Anarchist Cookbook was written by William Powell as a teenager and first published in 1971 at the apex of the counterculture era to protest against the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War.

[1][2] Powell gained inspiration for his text from his experiences with Vietnam veterans while living in New York City, during which time the pacifist movements of the 1960s began to take a more violent turn.

Powell began plans to become a writer but decided upon a political course when he was drafted into the Vietnam war, which inspired him to write "recipes" and later compile them into a "cookbook".

[3] The initial vision of The Anarchist Cookbook was to post instructional flyers in New York City, including how to properly throw a Molotov cocktail and how to make LSD.

[3] Powell stated The Anarchist Cookbook was initially designed as a book meant to provide education to "the silent majority" of the American population.

He described that the book was not intended for extant political fringe organizations but was designed to galvanize a great societal change by inciting the general population.

The ultimate goal of the text was to provide the general population with the skills and capabilities to organize against fascist, capitalist, and communist threats.

Powell stated: "The central idea to the book was that violence is an acceptable means to bring about political change," a sentiment that he would renounce later in life.

[7] Powell had difficulty finding employment throughout his life, having described the book as "a youthful indiscretion or mistake that can haunt someone during their early years or even longer.

Powell envisioned the United States people rebelling against what he deemed to be oppressive capitalistic ideals, and to a lesser extent, against fascist and communist movements.

Powell believed that current expressions of politics, arts, music, and education all contained innate principles of anarchist ideals, thereby equating anarchism to individualism.

[5] The chapters of The Anarchist Cookbook include descriptions and detailed instructions in hand-to-hand combat, explosives, booby traps, drugs, tear gas, sabotage and demolition, surveillance, improvised weapons, and other topics related to anarchism.

[21] Repercussions from the book's publication, and the author's subsequent disavowal of its content, were the subject of the 2016 documentary film American Anarchist by Charlie Siskel.