Featured articles
Félix P….., “Philosophy of Insubmission” (1854)
At any given point in my research, there are always a few texts that top the list of things I would love to read, but am unlikely to get my hands on. Some are of […]
The Era of Anarchy
Anarchist Beginnings
Benjamin Colin (1818-1884)
There are a handful of very early anarchist or at least anarchistic writings identified by Max Nettlau that have remained elusive in my searches. One in particular — “Plus de gouvernement!” by Benjamin Colin — has nagged at me a bit, since I have known that the paper it was published in, L’Homme, journal de la démocratie universelle, was accessible in various forms and included some other anarchism-related content. But I have never got around the making the extra effort or financial outlay necessary to get my hands on it. […]
Featured articles
Hector Morel, “Nationalities Considered from the Point of View of Liberty” (1862)
If there are words that we have used and abused, which we use and abuse every day, they are unquestionably the words nation and homeland. Everything in society which aims to muzzle and exploit the people, to paralyze and hold back the development of human intelligence, is always and invariably advanced in the name of the homeland: Laws and regulations, ordinances and decrees, scaffolds and prisons, police and gendarmes, etc., etc., all this hideous paraphernalia of chains and slavery, of plunder and misery, of exploitation and servitude, has only been invented, only exists, in the interest of the good order and internal security of nations. […]
Bakunin Library
Mikhail Bakunin, “What is Authority” (1870)
NOTE: This passage is generally known as part of “God and the State” (Dieu et l’État, first published in 1882), but it appears in Bakunin’s manuscript as part of “Sophismes historiques de l’école doctrinaire des communistes allemands,” the second section … Continue reading → […]
Anarchist Beginnings
Mikhail Bakunin, “What is Authority” (1870)
NOTE: This passage is generally known as part of “God and the State” (Dieu et l’État, first published in 1882), but it appears in Bakunin’s manuscript as part of “Sophismes historiques de l’école doctrinaire des […]
Bakunin Library
Mikhail Bakunin, “I believe neither in constitutions, nor in laws” (1848)
[Max Nettlau has pointed to this letter as the first evidence of anarchist leanings in Bakunin’s writings.] [Early August, 1848] To Citizen George Herwegh. Paris. [Rue St. Augustins] 40 9 [r. sur Cirque] To George My dear friend, since the … Continue reading → […]
Anarchist Beginnings
Ernest Coeurderoy, “Demolish Authority!” (1850)
From Days of Exile, Vol. 1: To make the Revolution pass, like a red-hot iron, across this century, one thing alone must be done: Demolish authority. This proposition has no need of demonstration. […]
Anarchist Beginnings
Josiah Warren, “Manifesto” (1841)
An impression has gone abroad that I am engaged in forming societies. This is a very great mistake, which I feel bound to correct. Those who have heard or read anything from me on the subject, know that one of … Continue reading → […]
art-liberty
Calvin Blanchard, “A Crisis Chapter on Government” (1865)
Governments are triumphant monopolies of murder, robbery, swindling and all that is atrocious and detestable. Ever since the beginning, they have forced mankind to kill or prepare and hold themselves in readiness to kill each other by the thousands and even millions at a time, and by the cruelest and most destructive means that spite can devise. […]
Contr'un
Our Lost Continent
The “lost continent” of anarchist history has been there all along, not so much lost but rather willfully ignored or dismissed, a blank spot on our map marked, not with some dire warning of the […]