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.
Anarchist Beginnings
Bibliography of Anarchy — I — Precursors of Anarchy
CHAPTER I Precursors of Anarchy. The anarchist literature has no determined origin, not being the expression of a system invented and progressively elaborated, but the very of systems. It is born of the need to demolish arbitrary power in all its forms, the rules and duties imposed by prejudices or by force, and to give rise to the free development of humanity. Therefore every act that was accomplised and every word that was spoken in hatred of that constraint and in favor of that liberty are conscious or unconscious works of anarchy. Not having made detailed studies in the ancient […]
Working Translations
Letters to “l’en dehors” from Max Nettlau and Emma Goldman (1922)
Vienne, 22 juillet 1922. Mon cher camarade, … Je suis très content d’apprendre que vos malheurs ont pris fin — jusqu’au moment où on voudra frapper à nouveau l’esprit « en dehors » que vous êtes. En ce qui me concerne je végète ici, mes ailes d’oiseau voyageur sont coupées par le cours de l’argent étranger. C’est ici où je suis encore le mieux, me confondant avec la misère générale, tandis qu’ailleurs je ferais tache. Quant à votre demande de m’inscrire sur la liste de vos collaborateurs, faites comme vous voulez : vos journaux seront toujours des expressions de pensée […]
anarchism without adjectives
Max Nettlau, Some criticism of some current anarchist beliefs (1901)
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] (Not for publication book for communication to friends and comrades.) Some criticism of some current anarchist beliefs. Max Nettlau [These reflections, transcribed from a handwritten manuscript in the recently digitized Max Nettlau Papers at the IISH, are prefaced by the note “Not for publication but for communication to friends and comrades.” Nettlau wrote a number of similar texts in 1901 and 1902, including a more formally structured French manuscript of 191 pages. Transcription is in-progress. The pages included here are followed by quotations from anarchist authors, amounting to […]