Contr’un Collections: Proposed Contents

September 16, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur Corvus Editions

1-2. — In the Libertarian Labyrinth

(1994-2012 (more or less))

In the beginning of the mutualist “renaissance,” we maintained a dual project, elaborating what was necessarily new theory, while searching through the traces of the historical mutualist current that was presumably the project we were continuing.

[~500 pages]

Reimagining Mutualism

  • [New introduction; project history]

Early Explorations

  • Confessions of a Latter-Day Mutualist
  • The Historical Character of Mutualism
  • Varieties of Mutualist History
  • The FAQs! What is Anarchism?
  • Edward Kellogg, 1790-1858
  • A First Look at Google Books
  • Finding and Losing Bessie Greene
  • The Sarah Orne Jewett Text Project
  • The Incredible Shrinking William B. Greene
  • Oops! Wrong Brookfield? Historical Back Roads Prove Tricky
  • Susan Dimock and Bessie Greene
  • What Mutualism Was – I: Prehistories
  • 1850: The Hotbed of Mutual Banking Agitation
  • What Mutualism Was – II: The Kernel(?) of the Problem(?)
  • An embarassment of riches, or, Auguste Ott tips the scales
  • Alfred B. Westrup, “Liberty,” and “Plenty of Money”
  • Does the Peace Sign P*ss You Off?
  • Liberty: Progress and Premises
  • Anarchist Church, Anarchist State. . . Anarchist Inquisition?
  • Carnival of Anarchy, Old names and new positions
  • One mystery of mutualism solved—probably…
  • on An-archy
  • on Anarchism
  • on ALLiance
  • Stupid Search Engine Tricks / Google Books is hiding things again
  • Left-Libertarian Library Proposal
  • Questions on anarchism and ecology, roughly…
  • Proudhon’s 1848 “Toast to the Revolution”
  • The Lesson of the Pear Growers’ Series
  • The Gift Economy of Property
  • What could justify property?
  • Individualities and Collectivities – Rights and Strengths
  • Responding to the Deepwater Horizon disaster
  • Markets, Government and the Environment
  • Some thoughts on Locke’s proviso
  • Responses on Locke’s proviso
  • Property is impossible?
  • Take Me to the River
  • “property must justify itself or disappear”
  • What is property? — Some thoughts about how to proceed
  • Thoughts on mutualist land theory
  • Elements of appropriation
  • Responses on mutualist property theory: Self-ownership
  • Contr’un
  • A note on Bastiat and “double inequality”
  • On occupancy and use
  • The heart of Proudhon’s thought
  • Proudhon’s critics
  • Property and the Essence of Mutualism
  • 1839: Proudhon on property and theft
  • Varieties of “theft” and “property”
  • “What is certain is that property is to be regenerated among us”
  • “Theory of Property” Controversies
  • From my notebooks
  • The Gift Economy of Property (2.0)
  • Note on slavery and the origins of property
  • Labor and subjective value
  • Notes on a “mutualist minimum”
  • Notes on Occupancy & Use (The Infamous Summer House Thread)
  • Notes on “the disposition of intellectual products”
  • A Tale of Three Provisos
  • Jules Leroux on Property and Theft
  • [Mutualism.info posts]

Mutualism: The Anarchism of Approximations

Two-Gun Mutualism and the Search for the Justicier

  • Introduction: “Anarchist Theory is a Brace of Rusty Pistols”
  • Two-Gun Mutualism and the Golden Rule
  • Avengers Who Never Assemble
  • The Capitalist, the Prince, the Père de Famille and the Alternative
  • Note on the Initiation into Justice
  • In Search of the Justicier

APPENDIX: Cultural Studies

  • Futurism/post-Futurism: Art & Industry at the End of History & Beyond
  • What Means this “Art Strike”? (1994)
  • AKA bookish: Cyberstudies
  • “Futurist Synthesis (Energy and Fear)” (1995)
  • Dromologies: Paul Virilio: Speed, Cinema, and the End of the Political State (1994)

——————– Possible Contents ————————–

THE VERY IDEA

  • Puritan New England 1: Prehistory of American Freedom
  • Mayflower site: New England Puritan documents online
  • Thomas Morton: New England Outsider
  • Puritan New England 2: Key Categories
  • Great Ideas: Working Definitions and Clarifications
  • Colonial America: The First Half of our History
  • The Declaration as an Argument
  • The Founding Fathers
  • Meet the Teacher: Fall 2006
  • The Great Conversation Great Ideas: Possible and Minimal Definitions
  • Politics of Tolerance in Puritan Massachusetts
  • The Problem of Tolerance
  • The Dance of Science and Theology, etc
  • Colonial Economics and the “Land Bank Schemes”
  • Keywords: Libertarianism
  • Mini-Canon Assignment: How-To posts

3-4. — Contr’un (2012-2017)

[~800 pages]

Turning a Page

  • The Ungovernability of Anarchism
  • The Larger Antinomy
  • The Importance of Proudhon
  • “La propriété, c’est le viol” (1849)
  • Proudhon, women, and the “organ of justice”
  • Amant ou Mari?
  • Varieties of Proprietors: Lovers, Husbands, and Mother Hens

Toward an Ungovernable Anarchism

  • Intro
  • Anarchism’s Ungovernability, and What it Means to Be a Mutualist
  • Anarchy is order! (Wait! What?)
  • Collective force and the problem of authority
  • Statism: It’s not just for dentists anymore…Turning
  • Closing a chapter
  • Beyond Mutualism
  • Instead of a Book… a Different Book
  • The future of the Libertarian Labyrinth archive
  • Everything in the Balance
  • Proudhon on method, and the “system” of society
  • The Pleasures and Perils of “Getting Back to Basics”
  • Assembling the New Toolkit
  • The Libertarian Labyrinth and the Antinomies of Anarchy
  • To be a (synthetic, positive) anarchist
  • Anarchy, understood in all its senses
  • Proudhon and the coup d’état of 1851
  • * The Stirner Question
  • A Proudhonian summary from the manuscript writings

Self-Government and the Citizen-State: Explorations in Proudhonian Sociology

  • Intro
  • Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: Self-Government and the Citizen-State
  • Notes On Proudhon’s Evolving Theory Of The State
  • Notes on the Notes
  • Excerpts from Proudhon’s Works on the State

The Anarchic Encounter (2013)

  • How Does Property Become Capitalist?
  • Summary Notions
  • The Anarchic Encounter: Economic and/or Erotic?
  • The Anatomy of the Encounter
  • A note on “external constitution”
  • Encounters and Transactions
  • Is that a scepter in your invisible hand?
  • Mutualism Revisited
  • Note on Contr’archy and Guarantism
  • The Third Gift
  • Practicing the Encounter: Appropriation (and Ecology)
  • A note on Bastiat and “double inequality”
  • A Tale of Three Provisos
  • Responding to the Deepwater Horizon disaster

There and Back Again (2013)

  • Proudhon on “Libertarians” in 1858
  • JOSEPH DÉJACQUE’S STYLE
  • ON PROUDHON’S INCOME TAX PROPOSAL
  • AN OBSCURE PROUDHON VOLUME
  • A MILLION WORDS
  • HISTORY AND POSSIBILITY
  • SCRAPING SOME RUST OFF THE “TWO GUNS” OF MUTUALISM
  • THE CHALLENGE IN PROUDHON’S THOUGHT
  • PROUDHON’S THOUGHT AS A POTENTIALLY TRANSFORMATIVE FORCE WITHIN
  • CONTEMPORARY ANARCHISM
  • THERE AND BACK AGAIN
  • MAPPING MUTUALISM
  • RETURN OF THE PROUDHON SEMINAR
  • PROUDHON ON THE CRITERION OF CERTAINTY (1841-1858)
  • Pruning the Rhizome
  • MORE ON PROUDHON’S “THEORY OF PROPERTY”
  • PROUDHON’S “POLOGNE” AND THE FEDERATIVE PROJECT OF THE 1860S
  • THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE(!) AND THE ANARCHISM OF APPROXIMATION
  • NOTE ON THE DISPOSITION OF PRODUCTS AND THE ROLE OF PRINCIPLES
  • ADVICE FOR TRAVELERS ON THE TRAIL OF THE ANARCHIC ENCOUNTER

[Uncollected Items]

  • 2014: The Final Lessons
  • A note on anarchist economics
  • Back to Basics (now that we may know a few of them)
  • Property and Theft: Proudhon’s Theory of Exploitation
  • All Actors Are Collective Actors: The Unity-Collectivity
  • Equality and Justice
  • Instead of a “Dear John” Letter
  • The Bottom Line
  • [Propositions for Discussion]
  • Toward a General Theory of Archy
  • Anarchy and Anarchism, Insides and Outsides
  • Notes on the Anarchist Culture Wars
  • Max Nettlau, Pessimism and Possibilities
  • Max Nettlau, Adjectives and the Possibility of Panarchy
  • Anarchy, Panarchy and Peace — I

Our Lost Continent

  • The Era of Anarchy (1840-1880)
  • Libertarian Socialist Historiography
  • Joseph Déjacque and the First Emergence of “Anarchism”
  • Are We Anarchists by Accident?
  • One For the Road?
  • Notes on the Malheur Refuge Occupation
  • To “Property” via “Mutual Extrication”
  • Property, Individuality and Collective Force

Bakunin’s “God and the State” and the Question of “Legitimate” Authority

  • Mikhail Bakunin, “What is Authority?”
  • “God and the State”: The Lost Paragraphs
  • The Three Lives of “God and the State”
  • The “Authority” of the Bootmaker
  • Bakunin and Proudhon / Authority and Anarchy
  • But What About the Children? (A Note on Tutelage)
  • Mikhail Bakunin, “I believe neither in constitutions, nor in laws” (1848)
  • Anarchy and Its Uses

Contr’un Special A — Mutualism: Ask Me Anything

  • [Two Reddit AMAs]
  • Are Hotels Immoral?
  • FAQs & Fragments

Mutual Exchange on Occupancy and Use

  • Occupancy-and-Use: Neo-Proudhonian Remarks
  • Response to Kevin Carson’s Rejoinder
  • Proudhon on Land Value Taxation

Anarchy and Democracy

  • Anarchy and Democracy: Examining the Divide
  • Anarchism without Anarchy
  • Embracing the Antinomies
  • Social, but Still Not Democratic
  • Antinomies of Democracy
  • Note on Anarchism and the Rhetoric of Democracy

On the Construction of Anarchist Editions

  • An Accidental Translator
  • Strategies of Interpretation
  • Strategies of Presentation

5. — Rambles in Various Fields (2018-2022)

To Be Anarchist: Translations

  • Fernand Planche, “To Be Anarchist” (manuscript)
  • [several similar translations from this period]

Coming to Terms with the Anarchist Past

  • Extrications
  • Coming to Terms with the Anarchist Past
  • The Synthesist’s Consolation
  • Theories of Anarchist Development
  • Anarchy as a Beacon and as a Focus for Synthesis

Anarchism: Plain and neo-Proudhonian

  • Reconstructing the “Anarchism of Approximations”
  • Anarchy: Historical, Abstract and Resultant
  • Authority and Authority-effects
  • Legal Order
  • Miscellany (February 24, 2018)
  • How does property become anarchist?
  • Authority (Language of)
  • Neo-Proudhonian Anarchism (A Step toward Synthesis)
  • PROJECT: Vital Things
  • What I Did on My Summer Vacation
  • Escheat and Anarchy
  • Notes on Mutualism and the Problem(?) of Exchange
  • Notes on “What is Property?” (2019)
  • Notes on Proudhon and the family
  • Journal: September 1, 2019
  • Review of “Property is Theft!” (Black Flag, 2014)
  • Archy vs. Anarchy
  • Authority, Liberty and the Federative Principle
  • Anarchism: Plain and neo-Proudhonian
  • Notes on Liberty and neo-Proudhonian Anarchism
  • Note on Mutualism and the Market-Form
  • Collective force: notes on contribution and disposition
  • Glossary: A Schematic Anarchism
  • Polity-form (External constitution)
  • Legal Order (Nov. 28, 2021)
  • Notes on the Development of Proudhon’s Thought
  • Absolutes and Approximations (More Notes on the Development of Proudhon’s Thought)
  • New Things and Old Words in Proudhon’s Late Works

An Anarchist Survey

  • Proposal for an Anarchist Survey
  • An Anarchist Survey: Response by Shawn P. Wilbur

[Miscellaneous history]

  • In Search of “The Writings of Calvin Blanchard”
  • Joseph Déjacque or Imre Madach?
  • Notes on “Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism”
  • Fresh Summer Threads

Our Lost Continent and the Journey Back: Preliminary Writings

  • “Looking Forward—Mapping Our Lost Continent” (April, 2018)
  • Extrications: History, Tradition, Theory
  • Anarchism as a Fundamentally Unfinished Project
  • Anarchist History: A Mutualist’s-Eye-View
  • Anarchist History: The Metaphor of the Main Stream
  • Anarchist History: Maps and Overland Guides
  • Anarchist History: Streamside Reflections and Preparations for the Journey
  • Anarchist History: No End of Beginnings
  • The Uses of a Lost Continent
  • Positive Anarchy, Profusion, Uncertainty and the Uses of History
  • In Search of the Great Divide
  • Anarchist History: Lessons from the Outbound Journey
  • Sources: Before the Beginning
  • Sources: Seeking the Source
  • Sources: Over the Roofs of the World
  • Sources: The Era of Proudhon
  • Sources: The End of an Era
  • Sources: Note on Critics and Collaborators
  • Distributaries: The Problem of Proudhon
  • Distributaries: Proudhonism and the International
  • Distributaries: Anti-Authoritarian Collectivism
  • Distributaries: Atercracy
  • Distributaries: The Reform Leagues and Anarchist Individualism
  • Distributaries: “Modern Anarchism”
  • [A BRAIDED STREAM: The Third Leg (to be completed)
  • [CONFLUENCES: The Final Leg of the Journey (to be completed)

Anarchy: A Descent into the Maelstrom

  • Anarchy: Into the Maelstrom
  • Positive Anarchy and Collective Force
  • Anarchy: Lawless and Unprincipled
  • Anarchy, Harmony and the Maelstrom of Desire
  • Anarchy: Action in the Face of Uncertainty

Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism

  • The First Series (1-6)

Constructing a Schematic Anarchism

  • Anarchism: A General Formula
  • Anarchism: The Formula Explored
  • Constructing Anarchisms: Notes for a Preface
  • Constructing Anarchisms: Definitions, Pluralism, Anarchy
  • Constructing Anarchisms: Anarchy as Criterion
  • Embracing Anarchy — Introduction
  • A Schematic Anarchism (draft)
  • A Schematic Anarchism (Introduction)
  • A Schematic Anarchism: Rethinking Anarchism Without Adjectives and Synthesis
  • A Schematic Anarchism: Anarchism-in-General

Reflections

  • Reflections on Anarchist Tendencies and Mutualist History
  • [a few new essays, tying up some loose ends]

5. — Constructing Anarchisms: An Unfinished Workshop

6. — Working Translations: Essential Texts

7. — [Social Science Anthology]

[A collection of texts to accompany the “Margins and Problems” essays, as well as a number of similar items that seem unlikely to find their way into any of the planned author anthologies.]

[Work to be revived and possibly completed]

  • Propositions for Discussion
  • An Anarchist Survey
  • Anarchy, Panarchy and Peace
About Shawn P. Wilbur 2711 Articles
Independent scholar, translator and archivist.