Blog

Uncategorized

Symmesonian, No. 3 (1824)

January 5, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Symmesonian, No. 3. The reasonings of S. R. in your last, could not fail to convince me of the justice of the course adopted with respect to your Indian neighbours, and the propriety as well as probability of the same course being pursued towards the Symmesonians. I was aware that, in “extinguishing the Indian title” to lands, you always found it expedient to extinguish the Indians also; and expected no other course to be pursued towards us. But however just and proper this might be, we could never be brought to relish it heartily, and I have been endeavouring to […]
Uncategorized

Report on Lab Reports

January 4, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
What’s a plan if you don’t change it a few times on the way to fruition? After weighing the costs in time and hassle of trying to put the new Lab Reports together as a DIY ‘zine, I’ve decided to take the project to Lulu, which seems to be the most inexpensive and flexible of the low-to-no-initial-cost print on demand operations (hardcover options, ebook options, audio download options, etc). My goal with this project is to make as much material available in as inexpensive and usable a form as possible. I expect volumes to range between 350 and 500 pages […]
Anarchism

Progress of the project

January 4, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Am I behind yet? I’m wrestling with the best approach to these early issues, and to the archiving end of things in general. It may be that I end up creating pdf files of some of these early issues that are useful to read in their entirety, just to get a sense of the jumping-off place for this expedition, but which aren’t all that exciting in comparison to later periods of Liberty. In any event, my scanning and posting chores are not always going to line up neatly, as other projects, such as the new Lab Reports, cause me to […]
Anarchism

Enclaves of Single Tax Or Economic Rent, 1921

January 4, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here’s a very useful resource, available from Google Books : Enclaves of Single Tax Or Economic Rent, Being a compendium of the legal documents involved, together with a historical description, by Charles White Huntington. Covering the “single tax colonies” of Fairhope, Arden, Tahanto, Halidon, Free Acres, and Saint Jordi, this is a collection of the communities charters and reports of the status of each. There appear to have been 10 volumes released annually between 1921 and 1930. Some of you may remember these volumes being mentioned on Kevin Carson’s Mutualist Blog back in June, 2005.
Anarchism

Stephen Pearl Andrews’ “New Catholic Church”

January 4, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Here is a very nice account of a visit with Stephen Pearl Andrews, including excerpts that appear to come from his Constitution or Organic Basis of the New Catholic Church (1860). From Spiritualism in American, by Benjamin Coleman (1861), pages 82-4.]Mr. Freeland, an intelligent, gentlemanly young man, called on me at my hotel, explaining the object of his visit to be, that hearing of my visit to New York, and that I was enquiring into the subject of Spiritualism, he was anxious that I should make the acquaintance of his friend Mr. Andrews. I ought not, he said, to leave […]
individualist anarchism

Saturday, August 6, 1881. Vol. 1, No. 1

December 21, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
Vol. I BOSTON, MASS., SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 1881. No. 1 “For always in thine eyes, O Liberty!Shines that high light whereby the world is saved’And though thou slay us, wewill trust in thee.”John Hay On Picket Duty Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, these three; but the greatest of these is Liberty Formerly the price of Liberty was eternal vigilance, but now it can be had for fifty cents a year. Individuals on becoming adults gain their freedom. Are nations never to attain their majority? The effect of one-half of our laws is to make criminals; the purpose of the other half is […]
Anarchism

New Project: Travelling in Liberty

December 21, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
With the 2006 projects in the wrap-up phase, it’s time to get the next set rolling. Along with the new Libertatia Lab Reports, I’ve launched Travelling in Liberty, a blog to document my attempt to read through all 403 issues of Benjamin R. Tucker’s Liberty in 2007, and get a more complete sense of the development of individualist anarchism through the years 1881-1908. I hope regular readers here will join the fun.
individualist anarchism

Access to “Liberty”

December 21, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
Considering the importance of Liberty, both as the primary journal of the individualist anarchist tradition and as an important component of the larger debates about social issues in its time, it is a bit surprising how difficult it is to access. For those with access to a university or other large library, Proquest’s APS Online database includes most of the run. John Zube’s microfiche edition is more complete, costs $27, and includes the either issues of Libertas (and you can order the Radical Review from John as well.) I tend to use both, relying primarily on Zube’s edition for completeness, […]
Anarchism

Travelling through “Liberty”

December 19, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
Between 1891 and 1908, Benjamin R. Tucker’s published 403 issues of Liberty, almost certainly the most important individualist anarchist publication in English, and probably in any language. Tucker was a, perhaps the, key player in the second phase of individualist anarchism in the United States. He both continued and greatly modified the earlier mutualist projects of William Batchelder Greene and Josiah Warren. By the end of his career he had come to embrace a Stirneresque egois—apparently worlds away from the Saint-Simon-influenced Christian mutualism of Greene’s early work or the Owenite origins of Warren’s. Questions of continuity and development within the […]