Welcome to the Proudhon Library

A NEW PROUDHON LIBRARY (Draft translations)

I’m finally starting to sort of the various working translations produced for the New Proudhon Library project into a series of volumes for publication — and the arrangement here on the project page will reflect that process.

• A  plan for volumes in the New Proudhon Library (pdf)

VOLUME 1: A PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS

INTRODUCING PROUDHON:

• J.-A. Langlois, “P.-J. Proudhon: His Life and Work” (1876)
• “Proudhon Explained by Himself” (Letter to Villaumé, composed 1856; published 1866) (text — last revised July 24, 2023)
• Philosophy of Progress: Program (1853) [revision in progress] (pdf — last revised December 10, 2023) — including “Principles of the Philosophy of Progress”

FIRST WRITINGS:

• Application for the Suard Pension (1837) (text — last revised July, 2017)
• Psychology (unpublished manuscript, 1838) (
• Review: Essay on the Physical Analysis of Languages, or Methodical Alphabet (1839) (pdf — last revised March 27, 2024)
• The Celebration of Sunday (1839) [revision pending] (pdf — last revised November 2023)
• Notes and manuscript material from the Rivière edition of Celebration of Sunday

BETWEEN SCIENCE AND VENGEANCE:

• “The Extremes” [draft]
• Unanimity.—Universal Consent (c. 1852)
• “What, Finally, is the Republic” (manuscript, c. 1858) (text — last revised May 2.2023)
• Death Penalty (1863?)
• Letter to the editor of the Dictionnaire Larousse (1864)
• My Testament, or Society of Avengers (undated)
• Moral Education (undated)
• Spontaneous Generation (undated)
• “Property is Theft” (FR/EN)

VOLUME 2: WHAT IS PROPERTY?

What is Property? (1840)

• First and Second Memoirs (Benjamin R. Tucker translation)
• Notes on the text

Warning to the Proprietors (1841) [text — last revised March, 2023]

Explanations Presented to the Public Prosecutor Regarding the Right of Property (1842) (pdf — revised and expanded January 9, 2024)

The Literary Majorats (1862) (pdf — last revised June 10, 2024)

VOLUME 3: THE CREATION OF ORDER

The Creation of Order in Humanity (1843) [translation in progress]

• Definitions and Chapter I (draft — last revised August 2023)
• Chapter II — (draft — last revised August 2023)
• Chapter III — (draft — last revised August 2023)
• Chapter IV — (draft — last revised February 2024)
• Chapter V — (draft — last revised February 2024)
• Chapter VI — (draft — last revised February 2024)

VOLUME 4

The System of Economic Contradictions

VOLUME 5: REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS

Le Représentant du Peuple (October-November 1847) — (specimen issues)

Le Représentant du Peuple (February-August 1848) — (misc. writings)

Revolutionary Ideas (1848) (articles from Le Représentant du Peuple)

• The Malthusians (Benjamin R. Tucker translation)
• Expanded edition (pdf; draft complete — awaiting revision)

The Right to Work and the Right of Property (1848) (text — last revised April 2023)

VOLUME 6: SOLUTION OF THE SOCIAL PROBLEM

Solution of the Social Problem (collection, expanded edition) — translation in progress

Solution of the Social Problem (1848) (text — last revised March, 2023)

• The Revolution in 1848
• Democracy

The Organization of Credit and Circulation (pamphlet) (pdf — last revised December 2025)

• Articles in Le Représentant du Peuple — translation in progress

Bank of Exchange (1848) (translation in progress)

• What is Property? (text — last revised March, 2023)

Bank of the People — translation in progress

VOLUME 7: CONFESSIONS OF A REVOLUTIONARY

The Confessions of a Revolutionary (1849) (pdf — draft, last revised March 10, 2024)

Articles from “Le Peuple” (1849)

• “The President is Responsible” and other writings (January 26-31, 1849) — (pdf — last revised July 5, 2024)
• “To Be Done with M. Considerant,” etc. — (pdf — last revised May 2, 2026)
• Demonstration of Socialism, Theoretical and Practical, or Revolution by Credit (last revised July 2023)
• Articles from March-April 1849 (pdf — last revised June 2026)
• Articles on the liquidation of the Bank of the People (pdf)
• Articles: April 5-May 7, 1849 (“God is Evil,” etc.) (pdf — last revised June 2026)

VOLUME 8: ACTS OF REVOLUTION AND RESISTANCE

Acts of the Revolution (1849) — and articles from La Voix du Peuple

• What is Government? What is God? [unrevised translation]
• Resistance to the Revolution
• Georges Duchêne, “Government” — (pdf — last revised February 1, 2024)
• C.-F. Chevé, “Socialist Catechism” — (pdf)
• “Socialists and Malthusians” — (pdf)

The Present Utility and Future Possibility of the State (1849-1850)

• Sixth Article (text — last revised December 2014)

VOLUME 9: THE IDEA OF THE REVOLUTION

The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century

The Social Revolution Demonstrated by the Coup d’Etat of December 2 (1852) (pdf — draft, last revised July 19, 2024)

Review of Imperial Policy (1853?) (pdf — draft)

VOLUME 10

Of the Competition between the Railways and Waterways (1845) (pdf — last revised February 2024)

Manual of the Stock-Marked Speculator (1853, 1857)

Reforms to Accomplish in the Operation of the Railroads (1855)

Napoleon I (manuscripts) (pdf — last revised July 22, 2024)

Economy (1850-1855)

• The Extremes [draft]
• Principles of the Philosophy of Progress (pdf — last revised December 10, 2023)
• Cahier (18255 at BnF) — selections (in progress)
• Ms. 2863 — selections (in progress)
• Ms 2866 — selections (in progress)
• Ms. 2867 — (in progress)

Society of the Perpetual Exhibition: Proposal (1855) (pdf — last revised April 18, 2024)

JUSTICE [multiple volumes]

Justice in the Revolution and in the Church, First Edition (1858) [~ 2 volumes]

Eugène de Mirecourt, The Contemporaries: Proudhon [draft — revision in progress]

The Justice Pursued by the Church (1858) (pdf — first draft, last revised March 26, 2024)

How Business is Going in France and Why Will Have War, If We Have It (1859) (pdf— draft; last revised April 11,2024)

Justice in the Revolution and in the Church, Revised Edition (1860)

• Text and Notes [newly revised draft and commentary] — in progress
• Volume One: Program, Preliminary Address, First, Second and Third Studies [PDF, revised draft]
• Volume Two: Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Studies [PDF, revised draft]

• Popular Philosophy: Program (revised September 1, 2023)
• Preliminary Address (revised September 1, 2023)
• First Study: Position of the Problem of Justice (revised September 1, 2023)
• Second Study: Persons (revised September 1, 2023)
• Third Study: Goods (revised September 1, 2023)
• Fourth Study: The State (revised November 1, 2023)
• Fifth Study: Education (revised November 1, 2023)
• Sixth Study: Labor (revised November 1, 2023)
• Seventh Study: Ideas [draft complete; revision pending]
• Eighth Study: Conscience and Liberty [draft complete; revision pending]
• Ninth Study: Progress and Decadence [draft complete; revision pending]
• Tenth Study: Love and Marriage [draft complete; revision pending]
• Eleventh Study: Love and Marriage (continued) [draft complete; revision pending]
• Twelfth Study: Of Moral Sanction [draft complete; revision pending]
• News of the Revolution: Of the Pornocracy in Modern Times [draft complete; revision pending]

Supplementary texts:

• P.-J. Proudhon, Correspondence related to the Studies in Popular Philosophy (1859-1860)
• Eugène de Mirecourt, Lettres de Monsieur P.-J. Proudhon
• Jenny P. d’Héricourt, Woman Emancipated [draft complete (Vol. 1, Vol. 2); revision pending]
• Jenny P. d’Héricourt, “Philosophical Letters on Tolerance and the Critique of Hypotheses” (1863-64)
• André Léo, Woman and Mores [draft complete; revision pending]
• Juliette Lambert, Anti-Proudhonian Ideas (2nd Edition) [draft — last revised March 2024]
• Léon Walras, L’Économie politique et la justice

War and Peace (1861)

Theory of Taxation (1861) (pdf — partial translation, last revised November 13,2024)

Federation and Unity in Italy (1862) — [draft complete; last revised June 18, 2024]

The Sworn Democrats and the Refractories (1863) (pdf — last revised May 4, 2023)

New Observations on Italian Unity (1865) (pdf — last revised March 5, 2024)

Political Geography and Nationality [translation in progress]

Guarantism: Theory of Property [revision in progress]

The Federative Principle (pdf — last revised May 19, 2024)

If the Treaties of 1815 Have Ceased to Exist [draft complete; revision in process]

The Political Capacity of the Working Classes (pdf — draft translation; last revised March 15, 2025)

The Principle of Art and Its Social Destination [translation in progress] (pdf — partial translation)

France and Rhine [translation in progress] (pdf — partial translation)

Political Contradictions — (pdf — last revised June 26, 2024)

[RELIGIOUS WRITINGS]

The Miserere (1845) (text — last revised March 25, 2023)

Jesus and the Origins of Christianity (partial translation) (pdf — last revised July 23, 2024)

The Bible Annotated

Additional texts:

• Pierre Leroux, Equality (1848, New Edition)(drafts: Part One, Part Three; last revised July 2, 2024)
• Pierre Leroux, The Doctrine of Humanity: Aphorisms (1848)
• Auguste Beauchery, “Solution of the Problem of Certainty” (1867) [draft; excerpt from Économie sociale de P. J. Proudhon]
• Philibert Audebrand, P.-J. Proudhon and the Horsewoman of the Hippodrome (1868) (pdf — last revised June 11, 2024)
• Joseph Perrot, Transformation of the Republican Government and the Parliamentary Power by the Federative Principle: Coming of the People to Property (1886) [draft — last revised May 2024]