Year: 2019

Proudhon Library

Review of “Property is Theft!” (Black Flag, 2014)

December 25, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: Proudhon Library (main page) Black Flag 236 (Libcom) Purchase Property is Theft (AK Press) During his lifetime Pierre-Joseph Proudhon published two dozen works, ranging from pamphlets to the six-volume Justice in the Revolution and in the Church. Another fifteen were published posthumously. His published notebooks and correspondence add another seventeen volumes, and his unpublished manuscripts (many of which are now being digitized by the Ville de Besançon) contain several thousand pages of important material. Yet, until recently, all that has been available of Proudhon’s work in English has been four complete volumes (What is Property?, Letter to M. […]
Blazing Star Library

The Blazing Star Library (plan)

December 23, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
The project of a Blazing Star Library, reprinting the works of William Batchelder Greene is not a new one, but, like the Blazing Star, the possibility of completing the project has seemed to retreat before my efforts for a couple of decades now. With the archiving of what seem to be the last of the “Omega” articles, however, perhaps I’ve done more than a bit of catching up. An adequate edition of Greene’s works would have to document not only the breadth of his interests, but also the simultaneous development of several lines of thought in his work. And that’s […]
Beyond the Labyrinth

AKA bookish: Cyberstudies

December 22, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
The essays collected here are from an earlier phase of my scholarly career, when I was an active participant and observer in various online “virtual communities.” In those days, I was something of a big fish, in various small virtual ponds, and generally know by the username “bookish.” Related links: Voices from the Net [e-zine] Dromologies: Paul Virilio: Speed, Cinema, and the End of the Political State Futurist Synthesis (Energy and Fear) Running Down the Meme: Cyberpunk, alt.cyberpunk, and the Panic of ‘93 Shawn P. Wilbur ———- Dodging Cultural Traffic It’s a cliché of traditional history that a certain amount […]
Black and Red Feminism

Jenny P. d’Héricourt in “The Agitator” (1869)

December 16, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Bibliography: Jenny P. d’Héricourt, “Woman’s Rights in France,” The Agitator 1 no. 8 (May 1, 1869): 1. La Femme, “Madame Jenny P. d’Héricourt,” The Agitator 1 no. 9 (May 8, 1869): 6. Jenny P. d’Héricourt, [letter], The Agitator 1 no. 14 (June 12, 1869): 8. Jenny P. d’Héricourt, “Morality According to the Sexes,” The Agitator 1 no. 16 (June 26, 1869): 1. Jenny P. d’Héricourt, “Ernestine L. Rose,” The Agitator 1 no. 17 (July 3, 1869): 2. Jenny P. d’Héricourt, “Woman’s Rights in France,” The Agitator 1 no. 18 (July 10, 1869): 1. WOMAN’S RIGHTS IN FRANCE LETTER FROM MADAME […]
Featured articles

The Uses of a Lost Continent

December 16, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Our Lost Continent and the Journey Back Project Page: Our Lost Continent: Episodes from an Alternate History of the Anarchist Idea, 1837–1936 RELATED: “Our Lost Continent” (April 4, 2015) “The ‘Benthamite’ anarchism and the origins of anarchist history” (April 5, 1015) “New Uncertainties and Opportunities” (April 6, 2015) “Looking Forward—Mapping Our Lost Continent” (April, 2018) “What Mutualism Was: Coming to Terms with Our Anarchist Past” (January 4, 2019) “Our Lost Continent” [tag stream] “Extrications” [tag stream] — notes on synthesis, anarchist development, etc. MAPPINGS: Notes for an Introduction SOURCES: The First Leg of the Journey DISTRIBUTARIES: The Second Leg A […]
From the Archives

Francis D. Tandy, “Free Competition” (1896)

December 12, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
FREE COMPETITION By Francis D. Tandy The vastness of the subject which we are to consider [herein] will compel me to take for granted many theories which are controverted. While I believe that every assertion I shall make is capable of demonstration, yet [space] will not permit me to attempt to demonstrate them. Therefore, I would crave your indulgence in advance for many seemingly unwarranted assertions which I may make. The great question of the nineteenth century, which has well been called the modern Sphinx, is that of the readjustment of society upon more equitable principles. In spite of the […]
From the Archives

Wallace E. Nevill, “God and Government” (1899)

December 5, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
  FREE SOCIETY LIBRARY NO. 3 _______________________ GOD AND GOVERNMENT THE SIAMESE TWINS OF SUPERSTITION “Man, know thyself; presume not ‘God’ to scan— The proper study of mankind is Man.” BY Wallace E. Nevill DECEMBER, 1899 God and Government. In disputation the force of reason is to be sought for rather than authority, since the authority of a teacher is often a disadvantage to those who are willing to learn, as they refuse to use their own judgment, and rely implicitly on him whom they have chosen for a preceptor. A great name is not a substitute for an argument. […]
From the Archives

Ernst Steinle, “The True Aim of Anarchism” (1896)

December 5, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
  THE TRUE AIM OF ANARCHISM and THE SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES OF THE THEORY OF ANARCHISM. by ERNST STEINLE (1896) THE TRUE AIM OF ANARCHISM: A REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD AND OF MANKIND; AND THE TEACHINGS RESULTING THEREFROM. BY E. STEINLE. What is the aim and purpose of men, in giving up a free and independent life as individuals, in order to combine into groups, and form a society which must necessarily restrict to a certain degree the liberty of the person? Doubtless the aim can be nothing else than to secure the welfare of all those who […]
From the Archives

Henry Addis, “Essays on the Social Problem” (1898)

December 5, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Henry Addis was an anarchist-communist, a co-editor of the Portland Firebrand, and a contributor to several of the anarchist papers published in the western United States. In this collection, part of the Free Society Library, edited by another Firebrand alum, he weighed in on a variety of subjects, from communism to natural selection, and from state socialism to crime. Corvus Editions reprinted this collection in pamphlet form: pdf FREE SOCIETY LIBRARY NO. 6 ESSAYS ON THE SOCIAL PROBLEM:“WHY I AM AN ANARCHIST”—“DOWNFALL OF NATIONS”—“HEREDITY”—“SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST”—“THE WAR SPIRIT”—“ANARCHY AND THE FARMER”—“MODERN COMMERCE”—“POPULAR GOVERNMENT”—“POLITICAL ACTION”—“THE TYRANNY OF MAJORITY RULE”—“BREAD OR […]