Over at the Anarchist FAQ blog, Iain has a post recognizing the sesquicentennial of the term libertaire, used in 1858 by Joseph Déjacque as the title of his journal, La Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement Social. Déjacque is generally credited with the first use of the term “libertarian” as a synonym for “anarchist.” We’ve learned, as the digital archives grow, to be skeptical of first-use claims, but I’m happy to take a moment to recognize the importance of Déjacque’s contribution. His fascinating mix of anarchism, communism, egoism, and feminism, drawing on the thought of Fourier, Proudhon, Pierre Leroux and others, is deserving of much more attention that it has generally received.
Contr'un
The trial of Joseph Déjacque
An account of Joseph Déjacque’s 1851 trial for inciting hatred and contempt between classes, and against the government, is now available in English translation, over on From the Libertarian Library. It’s a lot of fun, […]
Contr'un
Joseph Déjacque, “The Humanisphere” — Note on “The Extremes”
I’m working on completing Part I of The Humanisphere, but I decided to finish up this very interesting note before settling down to that task. There are tensions in the work which are pretty remarkable […]
Contr'un
Joseph Déjacque, The Humanisphere — I
[I posted some of this about a year and a half ago, but set it down again, not feeling comfortable enough with some of the contexts to be sure I was getting the details right. […]