Thoughts on Natural Principles (1867) Eliphalet Kimball in Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly (1873–1876) Eliphalet Kimball for President! (1852) Another side of Eliphalet Kimball (necrology, etc.) Eliphalet Kimball [tag feed] BOOK PROPOSAL There Ought Always To Be Anarchy: Thoughts on Natural Principles, 1852-1876 by Eliphalet Kimball (~32,000 words) Eliphalet Kimball was that rare thing, an enthusiastic and unapologetic advocate of anarchy, in an era when even the most active and prominent libertarian thinkers tended to be much more circumspect. So it is remarkable that the histories of anarchist thought have so consistently passed over him, while a wide array of other […]
My goal overall is to produce a work that is at least potentially useful and shareable among anarchists of a variety of tendencies, as well as students of “the anarchist idea.” (The phrase is one of Nettlau’s that was obscured in translation.) But, to be honest, I am also very interested not to get too deeply involved in certain kinds of debate about how inclusive anarchist history ought to be. I expect that the best version of the work would hold little interest for those for whom anarchism does not appear still nascent in some important senses. For those willing to at least weigh the possibility of really sharing a historical tradition, I have some hope of presenting a relatively compelling case, but for others, honestly, I got nothin’…
Basically, the Contr’un is the star of the show here, the Whitmanesque subject who contains multitudes and is not contained between hat and boots, who spills out over all the property lines we might draw, at the same time drawing the world in without attempting to claim exclusive domain.