I’ve just posted a translation of selections from The Philosophy of Defiance, an 1854 anarchist pamphlet published in New York and written by a French exile who signed the work “Felix P…..” Max Nettlau discovered the text, and published portions of it in La Revue Anarchiste for July, 1922. That’s fortunate, because the original text seems to be rare to the point of nonexistence, and because it’s a very interesting example of early anarchist thought.
Nettlau Project
Roads to Anarchism: Introduction
Max Nettlau’s work as a theorist of anarchist development, based in his extensive work as a historian of the movement, found expression in a long series of short articles (some of which are being assembled in a collection called New Fields, forthcoming from PM Press.) But he also produced three longer works addressing the question of anarchism’s progress, or lack thereof, and future prospects:
anarchism without adjectives
Max Nettlau, “The Case of Gustave Hervé” (1912)
[one_third padding=”0 0px 0 10px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] The Case of Gustave Hervé. Considerable surprise and ill-feeling were created by the news that Hervé, the editor of the Paris Guerre Sociale, hitherto believed to be an uncompromising antipatriot, antimilitarist, and insurrectionist, was, since his recent release from prison, working on much more moderate lines, apparently renouncing his former opinions and methods. When he proposed to state his standpoint and to give his reasons to an immense Paris audience at the Salle Wagram (September 25), some denied him a hearing, and a great row ensued. He has now lectured in […]
anarchism without adjectives
Max Nettlau, “A General Survey” (1910)
[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] A GENERAL SURVEY. As time goes, by, an increasing number of social commotions of some kind seem to happen each year, periods of rest are hardly known, and it would not be difficult to. describe a number of events of a hopeful character tending towards freedom during the year that is just past. The first French postal strike, the anti-militarist revolt in Catalonia, the international Ferrer protest, the crushing of absolutism in Turkey and in Persia are each of them events of a magnitude that has not happened in years in the quiet past. But I do not wish […]