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New Labyrinth / William B. Greene Timeline

April 10, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
As Kevin Carson recently mentioned (thanks!), I’ve been getting the Libertarian Labyrinth set up on a new, much improved site. If you want to check out some of the new material I’m working into the redesigned site, you can access it through the William Batchelder Greene pages, where you’ll find a couple of new features, including a “Timeline and Miscellany.” This is destined to be the chronological backbone of A Special Answer to a Special Prayer, my study of Greene, but it’s fun on its own as a collection of all the odds bits and pieces I’ve been assembling about […]
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New London Society: Connecticut Land Bank, 1732

April 7, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
Awhile back, I noted Andrew McFarland Davis’ “A Connecticut Land Bank of the Eighteenth Century” as another important piece in the land bank puzzle. This particular project was chartered as the New London Society United for Trade and Commerce in 1732, and the original grant describes it as an organization for “the promoting and carrying on Trade and Commerce to Great Britain and his Majesties Islands and Plantations in America, and other of his Majesties Dominions, and for encouraging the Fishery, &c., as well for the common good of their own private interests. . .” (See digitized colonial records here: […]
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Edward Kellogg again (and a money-crank treasure trove)

April 4, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
The pieces of the puzzle are coming together, slowly but surely, in the case of the Edward Kellogg bibliography. After some microform-related comedy of errors, I have now had a chance to look at the 4-page Usury, the Evil and the Remedy (1843), which was the last of the major editions I had yet to see. And, yes, it appears that all of Kellogg’s writings ought to be considered drafts of the same argument, though they range from 4 pages to over 300 pages in length. With the William B. Greene collation work still in progress—and now ranging into the […]
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Edward Carpenter: “Non-Governmental Society” and “Exfoliation”

April 3, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve been putting together pdf files of some of the texts I used to sell in pamphlet form, as I slowly but surely rearrange the new Libertarian Labyrinth site. Today, for your reading pleasure, the new additions are two essay by Edward Carpenter. “Non-Governmental Society” is a fine exposition of anarchism, though its author didn’t use the label. “Exfoliation” is an interesting period piece of evolutionary thought, for those who don’t mind a little Lamarck (or even Whitman) with their Darwin. Carpenter was a truly fine writer, and these are among my favorites from him. Enjoy!
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Josiah Warren, The First American Anarchist

March 13, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
William Bailie’s Josiah Warren: The First American Anarchist remains the best single source we have on Warren’s career, but it’s a bit hard to get your hands on. I was fortunate enough to pick up an original copy awhile back, and I’ve finally got around to preparing an electronic version. I think there’s still a typo or two in this version, and I’ll have to find some time to mark up a good scholarly version with original page numbers, but for all of you who have yet to get a look at the work, here it is. Enjoy!
Contr'un

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 divisions at home. You have to admire Jefferson as a writer and observer. Franklin the practical rationalist and experimental scientists is charming, if kind of weird, with his charts and his rationales for everything. Federalists and Jeffersonians alike clearly took the business of forming an American government seriously. And there are few writers in the canon who can touch Tom Paine for flair, or for […]
The Very Idea

The Declaration as an Argument

February 21, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
So, what does the Declaration of Independence do? What kind of writing is it, and what does it seek to accomplish? The documents begins: When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another We start with the occasion for the Declaration. “When. . . .” The language is strangely universal—as if this sort of thing happens all the time—but we’re going to find that the Declaration is part manifesto. That is, it wants to make real and proper something which is a bit unprecedented and […]
The Very Idea

Colonial America: The First Half of our History

February 19, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
It’s surprising when you notice that the colonial period is nearly one half of American history, over 150 years. If you start the history of the national period after the ratification of the Constitution, rather than at 1776, the halves even a little more. But “nationhood” at that time still only meant the 13 original colonies. It’s worth looking at the dates states entered the union, just to remind ourselves how recent a thing our United States really is. [The fact that this isn’t obvious to us can be attributed to 1) boring history classes in high school; and/or 2) […]
The Very Idea

Great Ideas: Working Definitions and Clarifications

February 19, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
It’s obvious, once the question is asked, that people value “great ideas” for a variety of reasons. But perhaps a general definition may still be possible. Great Ideas are those which will not let us (collectively) go—or which we can’t seem to let go—and which shape our sense of collective identity. It’s all too obvious that this only takes us so far. But that may be far enough to clarify things a bit more. Certain Great Ideas are of the “I know ’em when I see ’em” variety: liberty, democracy, monotheism, rationalism, science, community—these are our course keywords—love, progress, (indoor […]