Month: February 2020

Proudhon Library

Proudhon on Socialism (“Theory of Property” manuscripts)

February 29, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Socialisme.—Tout mot et sujet a plusieurs acceptations. Si Théorie de la société, ou Science sociale ;—je l’affirmes. Si parti qui affirme une science sociale, la nécessité de réformer la société conformément à la science : j’en fais partie. C’état ce que nous affirmions en 48. Si par socialisme, en entend le droit social, par opposition au droit individuel, j’admets ce système, comme partie intégrante du système entier de l’Humanité ; mais si l’on entend lui donner la prépondérance sur la liberté, je le nie, c’est communisme. Ainsi l’a compris Pierre Leroux ; ainsi il l’a tour à tour attaqué et […]
Contr'un

Authority, Liberty and the Federative Principle

February 19, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: Initial Thoughts Proudhon’s Du principe fédératif et de la nécessité de reconstituer le parti de la révolution occupies an interesting place among his works. It has been, prior to my translation of Théorie de la propriété, the only extended portion of Proudhon’s final major project, the study of Poland, available in English. And my sense is that it has been considered one of the “good” late works, like De la capacité politique des classes ouvrières, rather than one of the potentially “bad” works, like the work on property—while also being, of course, the work most often cited in […]
Contr'un

On the Anarchist Culture Wars

February 17, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
When it comes right down to it, the only people I have much faith in when it comes to a lasting commitment to anarchist thought and practice are those who are both serious about ideas (although I recognize a lot of ways this seriousness might manifest itself) — and specifically serious about anarchist ideas and anarchistic ways of thinking — and ready to acknowledge that the particular ideas that separate anarchism from the rest of the political or social philosophies out there, anarchy chief among them, are not “safe.”

[…]

Featured articles

Nathaniel Peabody Rogers on an Anti-Slavery Tour Of the White Hills (1841)

February 16, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
An 1841 Anti-Slavery Tour Of the White Hills Nathaniel Peabody Rogers CE-4706 A CORVUS EDITION   ANTI-SLAVERY JAUNT TO THE MOUNTAINS [from the Herald of Freedom of Sept. 10,1841.] We meant, from the several stages of our hurried expedition, to drop back for the Herald some of its incidents, detailed while events and impressions were fresh. But we could not find opportunity. The rapidity of our movement and constant occupation during intervals of anti-slavery action, compelled us to defer attempting it, and we must now give our readers a dull reminiscence. In company with brother Garrison, we left Concord the […]
Featured articles

Proudhon’s Barbaric Yawp (1840)

February 5, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Every story has to start somewhere. And when the story is that of anarchist history, it seems hard to find a more likely place to begin than Proudhon’s 1840 declaration—je suis anarchiste—which we generally treat as the first instance of at least one kind of anarchist position-taking.

[…]

Our Lost Continent

Our Lost Continent: 1840

February 4, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related Links: Our Lost Continent and the Journey Back [main page] What Mutualism Was: Coming to Terms with our Anarchist Past [main page] 1840: Our Lost Continent: Chronology: Notes: In the history of “the anarchist idea,” 1840 is not the beginning, but it is clearly one of those moments when something begins, conjured up with what has been a remarkably durable power by P.-J. Proudhon’s anarchist declaration, his barbaric yawp: je suis anarchiste. The fact that historical beginnings and endings are, at least in part, a matter of choice, often with significant consequences, is central to the argument about “anarchist […]