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I’ve posted pdf image-scans of two of Cornelius Blatchly’s essays to the Labyrinth: Some Causes of Popular Poverty and An Essay on Fasting, and on Abstinence, and updated the links in the partial bibliography I posted earlier this week.

Paul Brown’s 12 Months in New Harmony is the classic exposé of Robert Owen’s American experiment, from the ruins of which a large number of the strains of American socialism and anarchism developed. Josiah Warren broke away from Owen’s socialism, as did the “Mutualist of 1826.” Paul Brown broke away in a different direction. He was, from all indications, a sincere and serious communist. He was also the author of several more radical works, which I hope to collect for the Libertarian Labyrinth soon. Stay tuned.

Notes toward a bibliography of Dr. Cornelius Camden Blatchly, with links and a letter from Thomas Jefferson: C. C. Blatchly to James Madison, May 6, 1815. Some causes of popular poverty, in The pleasures of contemplation: being a desultory investigation of the harmonies, beauties, and benefits of nature. Philadelphia : Eastwick & Stacy, 1817. —. in The Beauties of Philanthropy. New York, 1839. An essay on fasting, and on abstinence. New-York : Printed by C.S. Van Winkle, 1818. [1819 request to Common Council of the City of New York regarding taxes assessed in lieu of military service. (1)(2)] Minutes of […]

Kevin Carson has posted a first draft chapter from his new work on “an anarchist theory of organizational development.” In it, he’s concerned with the question of “economies of scale” and the limits beyond which bigger is perhaps not better. His examples of the defense of the alternative, bigger is always better, approach are drawn mostly from state socialist and capitalist sources, but there are also examples that might be taken out of histories much closer to mutualism. In the period around 1900, it was fairly common to see the large corporation, or even the monopolitistic trust as a “labor-saving […]

My research travels, partially in support of the Distributive Passions project, have taken me back into the 20th century–or rather forward from the centuries that usually occupying my time. I’m working on a quick survey of utopian novels and proposals from the early decades of last century. (Don’t worry. I’m also reading the 2-volume Library of America Debate on the Constitution set, which is marvelous relief from sappy romantic sub-plots.) These are waters I’ve travelled quite a bit before, but not in any systematic way. A novel that I have owned for years, but had not read until this week, […]

Rufus Wilmot Griswold, aside from having a remarkable name, produced a large number of rather lovely books on literature. In The Prose Writers of America. With a survey of the history, condition, and prospects of American literature (1847), he surveys the writers of the day, catching plenty of folks who don’t make more recent texts. His treatment of Ralph Waldo Emerson is interesting, and it includes a brief comment on William B. Greene. RALPH WALDO EMERSON [Born 1803.] THE development of the transcendental philosophy in New England is deserving of more consideration than can here be bestowed upon it. I […]

When I posted William B. Greene’s response to Jesse H. Jones in The Word, I promised some material on Jones himself. Jones is a figure of interest in our developing genealogy of mutualisms. Although he disagreed in various regards with Greene, he was another advocate of a mutualism based in Christian principles. In his didactic novel, Joshua Davidson, Christian (and I hardly needed to mention its didacticism, with a title like that, I suppose), he writes, From this [Public Spirit] there unfolds a form of society, which may be called Mutualism, in which there is a mutual bearing of burdens, […]

The Lancet is publishing a new study, which suggests that excess mortality in Iraq resulting from the US invasion and subsequent conflicts tops 650,000. The number is based on a survey. Iraq Body Count is currently showing a minimum figure of 43,850, based on incidents reported in major media. Check out the Wikipedia page on the earlier Lancet study for background and criticism. There is also a page there about Iraq Body Count.

There is a partial archive of Samuel Milton Jones’ Letters of Love and Labor at the Ohio Memory site. The site is extensive, and includes a large number of radical and civil rights items. Another piece of potential interest is this circular from Thomas Low and Mary Gove Nichols’ Memnonia Institute.

“T)EAR SIR—Tn reply to the queries eoutaiiied tn YOur note of the 26th nIt..” at The Very Idea!