Blog

The Distributive Passions

Into the Lombard agora

January 6, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Distributive Passions: Glimpses & Fragments:   With the sun just coming up, Lombard Station was already a circus. Gabe hopped off the bus at the last stop before the street was swallowed by the tents—as did nearly everyone else on board. He thought that the stop was a block or two back from the last time he had been through, though it was a little hard to tell. A sort of street bazaar was sprouting up amid the strip malls, and the landmarks were constantly changing. The bus lanes narrowed and veered off the painted stripes to weave in […]
bibliographies

E. Armand: Supplements and Broadsides

January 4, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: E. Armand [main page] There were a large number of supplements, broadsides and advertising materials produced in the course of E. Armand’s various periodical publishing ventures and the existing bibliographies, perhaps understandably, incomplete and sometimes confusing with regard to these items. The first group of documents listed here come from early in Armand’s career and relate to l’Ère Nouvelle. Most can be found in the digitized archives of the IISH. [Charles Hotz papers, folder 183] There are several more known supplements to l’Ère Nouvelle, which I will add as I can confirm their particulars. And then I can […]
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 His published notebooks and correspondence add another seventeen volumes, and his unpublished manuscripts (many of which are now being digitized by the Ville de Besançon) contain several thousand pages of important material.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. […]