Paul Brown, whose Twelve Months in New Harmony I posted some time ago, was, from various indications, a friend of Josiah Warren. He was also the most articulate voice in favor of property-in-common that we have from the New Harmony community. He was the author of a number of books, on a range of subjects, as well as some uncollected writings, under the title “Gray Light,” which appeared in the New Harmony Gazette. I’m working on transcribing Gray Light, which is probably one of the five or six most interesting uncollected works I’ve run across in the last few years. In the meantime, Google Books has made available The Radical and Advocate of Equality, a very interesting collection of papers from 1835. I frequently disagree with Brown, who must have had some lively debates with Warren about property, but I think he is one of the most important voices in that “first mutualist moment” of 1825-7, ranking right up there with Warren, “The Mutualist,” and Owen himself.
Anarchism
Josiah Warren on “Communism”
I’ve finally posted all ten installments of Josiah Warren’s “The Motives for Communism: How It Worked and What It Led To” on the Libertarian Library blog. The series appeared in Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly in […]
Utopian and Scientific
Paul Brown in the “Boston Investigator” (1832–1847)
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] B, “The Radical—No. III,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 1 (March 30, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 4,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 4 (April 20, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 5,” […]
equitable commerce
Josiah Warren, “The Motives for Communism” (1872-73)
How often have I said to myself, “Oh, for a paper of world-wide circulation, through which we could pour into the public lap the most important results of our lives’ experience! That others who come after us may avoid the thorny paths that have lacerated our feet—may profit by our errors and successes. I hope and believe that your is, or will be, such a paper: and in it I propose to furnish a series of articles, showing the practical workings of Communism and other reform experiments running through the forty-six years devoted to peaceful social revolution; and it will be seen that some facts are more strange than fiction, more philosophical than philosophy, more romantic than romance and more conservative than conservatism. […]