Contr'un Archives - Page 52 of 57 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Benjamin Tucker enters the fray

July 10, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_2third] On January 5, 1873, 18-year-old Benjamin R. Tucker sent a letter to Francis Abbot, the editor of The Index, the journal of the Free Religious Association. In it, he took Abbot to task for […]

What Mutualism Was – II: The Kernel(?) of the Problem(?)

April 20, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_1third] Contr’un Revisited: [/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end] This is the second in a series of explorations of the mutualist tradition—or, perhaps more appropriately, traditions. The particular perspective they present is, as I’ve said, somewhat revisionist. It is […]

What Mutualism Was – I: Prehistories

March 21, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_1third] Contr’un Revisited: [/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end] [This post seems to have been lost at some point, but there was a draft preserved in my Blogger account.] This is the first of a series of explorations of […]

How I Spent My Spring Vacation

March 13, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

I celebrated a birthday, had my main email account compromised (so if you’ve tried to contact me, I’m not ignoring you, but it may be another day or so before I see you mail), reread […]

The Founding Fathers

February 21, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

Some days I’m content to treat the “founding fathers” as Real American Heroes, guys who did a pretty amazing job of forging a country out of the colonies, despite active opposition from England and internal […]

Calvin Blanchard: A Crisis Chapter on Government

January 26, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

It’s been awhile since this has been up in the Labyrinth. Yesterday, when I was discussing Tom Paine with my Great Ideas students, I passed around a couple of 19th century editions of Paine’s work: […]

Oops! Wrong Brookfield? Mass. Historical backroads prove tricky

January 25, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

Hehe. Thanks to some help from the very kind folks at the West Brookfield Historical Commission, it looks like we may have to revise one of the generally accepted “facts” about William B. Greene’s career. […]

“Song of Espousal” in the Moss Rose for 1847

January 23, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve been able to verify that William B. Greene’s first published work, the poem “Song of Espousal,” did in fact appear in the Moss Rose holiday gift annual for 1847. The annual is apparently a […]

The Fund: A Boston Land Bank of 1681

January 23, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

An important episode in the story of the New England land banks is The Fund at Boston, in New England, apparently the earliest practical land bank experiment in the colonies. Much of what we know […]

The Fund: A Boston Land Bank of 1681

January 22, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur

One sheet survives of this pamphlet, attributed to Rev. John Woodbridge. It describes an early mutual bank scheme known as The Fund at Boston in N. E. It is quite likely that this sheet was […]