Month: April 2007

Anarchism

William B. Greene, Communism vs. Mutualism

April 28, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
[This is a repost, probably the first of several, highlighting some of the more important statements about the philosophy of mutualism. Long-time readers and students of mutualism should note, particularly as I did not note it myself before, Greene’s apparent adoption of the “cost principle,” and the linked principle of deferred and social profit: “so much as the individual laborer will then get over and above what he has earned will come to him as his share in the general prosperity of the community of which he is an individual member.” That does not mean, however, that Greene had jumped […]
Anarchism

Eliphalet Kimball—”Anarchy is a good word.”

April 27, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
As promised, here’s a bit more from Eliphalet Kimball. One of his early contributions to The Boston Investigator was “Law, Commerce, and Religion” (June 30, 1862). It may, in fact, be his earliest explicitly anarchist essay. And it’s a doozy—a mix of revolutionary and primitivist elements, written in fine ranting style. There’s something to amuse and/or offend pretty much any anarchist or libertarian. But, most importantly, there is the very existence of Kimball, a Yankee doctor calling for a very radical anarchy in the midst of the Civil War, as striking as he is unexpected. Here’s a taste: It is […]
Uncategorized

Josiah Warren, “On Mobs” (1863)

April 26, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here’s a two-part essay by Josiah Warren, from The Boston Investigator: Josiah Warren, On Mobs (Part 1 of 2) Josiah Warren, On Mobs (Part 2 of 2) Other bits of interest from the Investigator in the early 1860s: Add labor activist John Farrel, of Pennsylvania and then Sonora, California, to the ranks of those promoting the work of Josiah Warren. And prepare yourself for more of Eliphalet Kimball (whose “Civilization—Anarchy” appears here and here.) Kimball turns out to have been fairly prolific, consistently entertaining, and, most significantly, he was unafraid to say that “Anarchy is a good word” in 1862, […]
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Henry Olerich

April 21, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
HENRY OLERICH One more for the Rogues Gallery: Henry Olerich, one of the occasional contributors to Liberty, and a more regular contributor to The Twentieth Century, is probably best known for his utopian novel, A Cityless and Countryless World, an Outline of Practical Cooperative Individualism. He wrote a number of other works, including Viola Olerich, the Famous Baby Scholar (which has just leaped to the top of my Weird Books by Libertarians must-see list) and Modern Paradise: An Outline Or Story of How Some of the Cultured People Will Probably Live, Work and Organize in the Near Future. Google Patents […]
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From the Libertarian Library – the first wave

April 20, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
120 posts since I launched From the Libertarian Library on March 23! Not bad for a month’s work. Here’s an index of what’s there so far: Welcome to the Libertarian Library John Adams, Social Reform, No. 1 [mutual banking] Peter I. Blacker, Equitable Villages Albert Brisbane, The Mutualist Township, II Albert Brisbane, The Mutualist Township Bolton Hall, Declaration of Children’s Independence Bolton Hall, Emerson the Anarchist Bolton Hall, The Growth of Socialism Bolton Hall, The Land Question and Economic Progress Bolton Hall, The New Charity Bolton Hall, The Taxation of Farmers Bolton Hall, The Tree of Equity [Bolton Hall, et […]
Anarchism

John Adams, mutual bank advocate

April 19, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
With two other researchers now working on Josiah Warren, I’ve been trying (as regular readers will know) to get notes together and sources archived. It’s rather wonderful, I must say, to be working in a field so wide open that it’s a relief to find that someone else can make use of your research. One less book to write. My notes on The Boston Investigator turned out to be a little less complete than I had hoped, so I’ve been taking another look at those microfilm reels—no hardship since each pass through a literature as rich as this tends to […]
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J. K. Ingalls, Woman’s Industrial Subjection

April 17, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Joshua King Ingalls was one of the most tireless of the radical writers of the second half of the 19th century, and one of those most interested in the “social problem” in all its aspects. Although land reform was his primary interest, he also addressed women’s rights in several of his writings. The four parts of “Woman’s Industrial Subjection” appeared in 1889 in The Woman’s Tribune, an important woman’s newspaper. They contain Ingalls’ attempt at a historical or anthopological account of the origins of women’s subjection to men, and an analysis of how this subjection paralleled the creation of modern […]
equitable commerce

Josiah Warren, Equitable Commerce, &c.

April 15, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here are four pieces, recently added to the archive, all relating to Josiah Warren. Peter I. Blacker, Equitable Villages Peter I. Blacker was a frequent contributor to The Boston Investigator, where his posts were frequently signed “P. I. B.” He was also, from all indications, one of the most enthusiastic converts to the system of “equitable commerce” promoted by Josiah Warren in a series of lectures in Boston in 1848 and 1849. Blacker contributed a number of articles to the Investigator, and to other Boston papers, in support of Warren’s efforts. This article, from 1852, announces the beginnings of the […]
Anarchism

Josiah Warren bloglog

April 11, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Previous entries on Josiah Warren: Letter to Louis Kossuth Josiah Warren’s debt to Robert Owen Practical application of the cost principle in Massachusetts, 1863 Co-operation – Alfred B. Westrup Josiah Warren, The First American Anarchist To The Friends Of The Equal Exchange Of Labor In The West A Poem on Equitable Commerce Benjamin Tucker enters the fray Henry Edger, a Positivist Priest at Modern Times From the Boston Investigator, 1848-49, Pt. 1
equitable commerce

From the Boston Investigator, 1848-49, Pt. 1

April 10, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
I was contacted this afternoon by a reader of this blog who is working on a biography of Josiah Warren. Taking that together with Crispin Sartwell’s work on a Warren Anthology, Crispin’s Josiah Warren Project archive, and the work that I’ve been doing digging through the archives, it appears that Warren’s star is once again on the rise. Good news! I’ve been promising Crispin the results of my own work for awhile, so here’s a start. XVII, 49 (April 12, 1848) 3. THE “ANGLO SACSUN,”—The publishers of the Phonographic paper, by this name, printed in New York, have issued a […]