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Proudhon Library

Proudhon and the coup d’état of 1851

July 13, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
One of the things that ought to be clear from recent developments here is that sometimes the most interesting, and also the most unexpected, insights into Proudhon’s work come from double-checking those things that “everyone knows” about his work. It was, after all, in the context of tracking down how close he came to saying “anarchy is order” that I ran across the dubious translations in The General Idea of the Revolution, and that has led to a general scouring of his work for discussions of “anarchy” and “anarchism,” which keeps raising interesting points about the early uses of that […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Bibliography of Anarchy — II — First Works of Anarchist Literature in England

July 8, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
CHAPTER II First Works of Anarchist Literature in England. A Vindication of Natural Society: or, a view of the miseries and evils arising to mankind from every species of artificial society. By a late noble writer, namely St-John Viscount Bolingbroke (London, 1756, in-8°). Its true author was Edmund Burke. Other editions: in Fugitive pieces on various subjects by several authors, vol. 2 (London, 1761; Dublin 1762; London, 1765, 1771; London, 1780, XIV, 106 pp., 81); A Vindication of Natural Society… in a letter to Lord ***, by Edmund Burke, a new edition (Oxford, 1796, VIII, 62 pp. in-8°); The Inherent […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Bibliography of Anarchy — I — Precursors of Anarchy

July 8, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
CHAPTER I Precursors of Anarchy. The anarchist literature has no determined origin, not being the expression of a system invented and progressively elaborated, but the very of systems. It is born of the need to demolish arbitrary power in all its forms, the rules and duties imposed by prejudices or by force, and to give rise to the free development of humanity. Therefore every act that was accomplised and every word that was spoken in hatred of that constraint and in favor of that liberty are conscious or unconscious works of anarchy. Not having made detailed studies in the ancient […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Max Nettlau, “Bibliography of Anarchy” (1897)

July 8, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: Max Nettlau: Main Page Bibliography of Anarchy BY MAX NETTLAU (1897) PREFACE. The work that we publish today could only be attempted by an erudite bibliophile, having in addition the devoted collaboration of numerous friends. The friends have presented themselves and this unselfish convergence of forces appears to us to be one proof among a thousand that the anarchists, just by “doing as they wish,” know however how to unite their individual wills in a collective will. No leader, no elected or self-imposed council has given the that his book should appear. The bibliographic essay composed by our […]
Working Translations

Louise Michel, “A Final Thought” (1887)

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[The New Era — VIII] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] A Final Thought Diving into the past, we see it join with the future like the two extremities of a circular arc, and that circle, like a sound wave, awakens others, infinitely. Eaten away by the world (from ancient India to ourselves), will the lost sciences germinate or are they dead in the flower? Must we wait for new emanations for new beginnings? Will there be enough to return to the soil to provide the seeds of renewal and conditions proper to existence? How many civilizations have fallen, how many scientific […]
fiction

Louise Michel, “Old Chéchette” (1884)

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Old Chéchette There are some beings so disgraced by nature, so strange to look at or hear, that their aspect alone is a subject for sad studies for some, of wild mockeries for others. Some have not always been this way: some of them have had some accident, whether moral or physical, while others, by letting themselves idly go from fatigue or laziness, are brought low to some degree and, on that slope, there is no reason for them to stop. Others still (and this is dreadful for humanity) become thus under the pressure of […]
Working Translations

Louise Michel, “The Claque-Dents,” Ch. II

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Chapter I] [ezcol_1half] II At the home of young Stéphane’s mistress there occurred a scene at once burlesque and sinister. Thirty thousand francs, won at the tables when chance was on his side, had allowed him to buy the bed and the jewels; he tried Lucrèce’s coral necklace on Marguerite. On her marble neck, its red line made the mark of the scaffold. Marguerite was vaguely aware of this thought of Stéphane’s. He saw her put her hand to her neck, as if to a wound. An intuition of the crime passed through him, while a sudden fear engulfed the […]
Working Translations

Louise Michel, “The Claque-Dents,” Ch. II

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Chapter I] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] II At the home of young Stéphane’s mistress there occurred a scene at once burlesque and sinister. Thirty thousand francs, won at the tables when chance was on his side, had allowed him to buy the bed and the jewels; he tried Lucrèce’s coral necklace on Marguerite. On her marble neck, its red line made the mark of the scaffold. Marguerite was vaguely aware of this thought of Stéphane’s. He saw her put her hand to her neck, as if to a wound. An intuition of the crime passed through him, while a […]
Saint Ravachol

A Handwritten Manuscript by Ravachol (1892)

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
A HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPT BY RAVACHOL Since his condemnation to death, Ravachol has written a great deal in prison. Here is a long handwritten text that we have been able to obtain, not without great difficulties. We have confided the reproduction of this interesting document to the house of Sédard in Lyon. It is written on two pages, and in it Ravachol explains his theories. Society can only be improved by a complete transformation of its organization. The most advanced political reforms, such as a tax on revenue and pensions for old age, all sound good to the ears of a […]