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Our Lost Continent

Our Lost Continent: Episodes from an Alternate History of the Anarchist Idea, 1837–1936

May 3, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
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’…

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Emperor Norton Project

Emperor Norton Project

December 13, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
Proclamations for 1859 Proclamations for 1860 Proclamations for 1861 Proclamations for 1862 Proclamations for 1863 Proclamations for 1864 Proclamations for 1865 Proclamations for 1866 Proclamations for 1867 Proclamations for 1868 Proclamations for 1869 Proclamations for 1870 Proclamations for 1871 Proclamations for 1872 Proclamations for 1873 Proclamations for 1874 Proclamations for 1875 Proclamations for 1876-79 Notes: S. F. Mirror — 1861 Published Proclamations A collection of The Proclamations of Emperor Norton is available in pdf form in the Libertarian Labyrinth library. It will be updated as new material is unearthed. “Have We an Emperor among us?” Evening Bulletin (San Francisco) 8 […]
The Mundane System

The Hollow Earth theories of John Cleves Symmes

October 20, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
John Cleves Symmes’ 1818 declaration that the earth is “hollow, and habitable within” was just the start of a long and fascinating episode in the annals of fringe science. But most accounts of Symmes’ work simply stop with the declaration, or perhaps note a few of the early memoirs or the novel Symmesonia, neglecting Symmes’ own decade-long development of the work. When I began to search for the texts of those initial memoirs, I was surprised to find that—just in the case of Emperor Norton’s declarations—not only was there a much more substantial literature to be explored, but there was […]