Year: 2007

Uncategorized

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 […]
Uncategorized

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 […]
Anarchism

An early mutual banking proposal

April 8, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’m wrapping up my first exploration of The Spirit of the Age (a little more rapidly than I had hoped, thanks to an Interlibrary Loan mix-up), and am already planning a road trip to scan more of this really important mutualist paper. My lengthy side-trip, from the William B. Greene research through the work of Joshua King Ingalls and ultimately to The Spirit of the Age, has paid an unexpected dividend (if, in this context, I can safely speak about the paying of dividends)—a discussion of Mutual Banking in the 1850 volume which casts Greene’s work in a somewhat different […]
Anarchism

J. K. Ingalls, “Address to Commonwealers”

April 2, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Joshua King Ingalls, “Address to Commonwealers,” The Twentieth Century, XIII, 2 (July 12, 1894), 11. ADDRESS TO COMMONWEALERS BY J. K. INGALLS. Hirelings who for gold have bled!Voters to polls by bosses led!Toilers, begging “work or bread,” Strike for Liberty!Now’s the day and now’s the hour!Cease to court the oppressors’ power!Who threaten, bribe, while they devour Your fruits of industry. Decline their deal the ballot boxTheir “leaden diet” cartridge box!Detective trick and brutal knocks! Brave thought against them try!In no “god of battles trust!”Give nor take what is not just!And only die, when die you must, As man for man […]
From the Archives

William Henry Van Ornum, “Co-operation” (1894)

April 1, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] There are whole books tucked away in the pages of the periodical literature, which have never seen separate publication. One of the pleasures of my current treasure hunt is finding some of those hidden books. William Henry Van Ornum, author of Why Government at All?, published his 19-part Co-operation in The Twentieth Century. [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] Co-Operation William Henry Van Ornum from the pages of The Twentieth Century, May 10–September 20, 1894 Introduction In England Its Ideal Ancient Co-operation Some Experiments Various Schemes Various Schemes European Credit Banks European Credit Banks European Credit […]
mutualism

Mutualist Townships: Albert Brisbane and J. K. Ingalls (1849–1850)

March 26, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
In early 1850, The Spirit of the Age featured two proposals for a “mutualist township.” One, by Joshua King Ingalls, was a practical follow-up to his “Method of Transition.” The other was by Albert Brisbane, the well-known popularizer of Charles Fourier. Brisbane was also an acquaintance of Proudhon, having visited him in prison in France. In this sense, Brisbane had the most direct connection to the French mutualist tradition of any of the American writers in 1850. Greene would eventually meet Proudhon, later in the 1850s. What follows is, in a sense, Brisbane’s mutualist resumé, including his account of his […]