Proudhon’s work in the last few years of his life was dominated by his massive study of Poland, which combined history with a variety of social-scientific approaches. The unfinished and unpublished work that emerged from that study, Pologne, was intended to have two parts, seven chapters on “Principles,” followed by a “History of Poland.” In the plan for the Œuvres Posthumes, the first part appears divided into two volumes (Political Geography and Nationality and Theory of Property), of which only the second was ever published. This work on “Principles” is arguably one of the most interesting of Proudhon’s theoretical works, and it provides important contexts for several of the published works (The Principle of Federation, The Literary Majorats, France and Rhine, etc.)
The goal is to produce both French texts and English translations, and to document the editorial process by which the published version of Theory of Property was constructed from the manuscripts.
French texts:
- Ms. 2832 — Pologne. Les Principes (Ch. I)
- Ms. 2834 — Pologne. Les Principes (Ch. II-IV, etc)
- Ms. 2846 — Théorie de la propriété
- Ms. 2847 — Théorie de la propriété
- Théorie de la propriété (1866)
- Léon Abensour, “Proudhon et la Pologne” (1920)
English translations:
- [Poland. Part I, Contents]
- Ms. 2832 — Poland. Principles (Ch. I)
- Ms. 2834 — Poland. Principles (Ch. II-IV, fragments and variants)
- Ms. 2846 — Theory of Property
- Ms. 2847 — Theory of Property
- Theory of Property (1866)(revised translation in progress)
- Theory of Property (2014 draft translation)
- Disagreement Regarding the Posthumous Publication of Unpublished Works by P.-J. Proudhon (1865)
Misc:
- Ms. 2882 — Note on property (French/English)
Commentary:
- The Reunification of “Pologne” (May 18, 2017)
- “Un état, c’est moi” (July 6, 2014)
- A passage missing from “The Theory of Property” (July 15, 2014)
- Dividing “Pologne” (June 2, 2014)
- Moving forward with “The Theory of Property” (May 10, 2014)
- Proudhon’s “Pologne” and the federative project of the 1860s (April 22, 2014)
- More on Proudhon’s “Theory of Property” (April 9, 2014)
- “Theory of Property” controversies (January 5, 2012)
- “What is certain is that property is to be regenerated among us” (January 2, 2012)
- Louisa Sarah Bevington vs. Henry Seymour [coming soon]