mutualism

Anarchism

At last, “Omega”!

February 2, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
There are quite a number of things I didn’t find in my searches through the Boston Investigator this week, but one of the things I did find was “Capital and Labor: Socialism in Massachusetts,” by OMEGA—one of the essays by William Batchelder Greene that was incorporated into his Equality (1849), reprinted from the Worcester Palladium. For some time, I have been wrestling with the question whether or not I could justify research travel to track down these articles, since they, and the book they were turned into, all appear to have been written in a matter of months, late in […]
individualist anarchism

1881 – the first three

January 29, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Ah, for the settled life of a scholar, where I could tackle my 1.104 issues of Liberty each day, and keep a regular schedule, rather than the constant fire-fighting and scrambling that goes with part-timing. But the show must go on, however fitfully.] So what actually appears in the pages of Liberty? The staple, stable source for Tucker’s opinions remained, from first to last, the “On Picket Duty” column. From the first issue, of August 6, through the remainder of 1881, this occupied the first two columns on the front page of nearly every issue, while a collection of clippings […]
Anarchism

“Travelling in Liberty” update, etc.

January 15, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve finally getting things rolling over at Travelling in Liberty, my examination of Benjamin R. Tucker’s thought and journal, and have already drawing a good question on Tucker’s relation to the rest of the anarchist tradition, with regard to wages. (Thanks, Iain!) Joshua King Ingalls’ Reminiscences is taking lots of work to annotate, but it is extremely agreeable work. Ingalls seems to have known everyone, including quite a few folks I was unfamiliar with. When I’m done with the notes on this, libertarians can take up “Three Degrees of Separation from J. K. Ingalls” as our new game. Social Wealth […]
individualist anarchism

Progress and Premises, continued

January 14, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
By the time he started Liberty, Benjamin R. Tucker had his trial by fire as a controversialist in the pages of The Index, where he also debated Stephen Pearl Andrews about the merits of Proudhon, had edited The Word for Ezra Heywood and The Radical Review for himself. He was obviously reading voraciously, and making (and breaking) connections with radicals of all stripes. Reading Liberty is, in large part, reading the public record of his reading, or his connections and disconnections. By the end of 1881, the first debates are beginning to take off in the letters section of the […]
individualist anarchism

Progress and Premises

January 14, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
At this point, I’m putting together “dummy” issues, with titles for all the major articles, and typing or scanning the bits that I think are most significant. I plan to put random free moments to work filling in the blanks in the early issues, while pushing ahead with the general reading and analysis. If anyone would like to help with the project, let me know and I’ll add you to the team. I’ve read through the issues for 1881 several times now, and am starting to get a feel for Liberty‘s beginnings. As I’ve mentioned before, the state of The […]
individualist anarchism

Saturday, September 3, 1881, Vol. 1, No. 3

January 14, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Vol. I BOSTON, MASS., SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1881. No. 3 “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 Wages is not slavery. Wages is a form of voluntary exchange, and voluntary exchange is a form of Liberty. About Progressive People Land and Liberty Within the last two years the above heading probably has decorated every public bulletin-board in this country and Great Britain. Yet probably it owes prominence to the more accidental alliteration, and has no rational significance in the average […]
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 […]