The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century

Proudhon Library

P.-J. Proudhon, The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century (1851)

December 10, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
This is the text of John Beverly Robinson’s 1923 translation of The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, which remains the only published translation. I am in the midst of retranslating the work, in part to deal with some fairly serious problems with the treatment of anarchie, which can be examined in the partial revision linked below. As partial revision becomes complete, I’ll be providing the old and new versions in parallel here. General Idea OF THE REVOLUTION in the Nineteenth Century (Selected studies on revolutionary and industrial practice)   CONTENTS   To the Bourgeoisie. . . […]
Contr'un

Anarchy is order! (Wait! What?)

January 28, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
I have often seen the phrase “anarchy is order” attributed to Proudhon—and to Bakunin, and Bellarrigue, and Elisee Reclus, and a French singer-songwriter named Leo Ferre. Often the phrase is actually Bellegarrigue’s (“Anarchy is order; government is civil war”) or the phrase “Anarchy is order without power,” cited as appearing in the Confessions of a Revolutionary. That latter phrase does not seem to appear in that book (and I’ve searched pretty carefully) and it doesn’t really sound all that much like Proudhon. There are a number of places where he talked about the relationship between anarchy and order, and lots […]