André Léo Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

André Léo, “Woman and Mores” (1869)

July 28, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur

It is almost overnight that this question rejected at first as chimerical, then combated by ridicule, which however, today, in spite of so many prejudices and sarcasms, is agitated in the two worlds, and each day grows. It was born out of the French Revolution, which created or renewed all questions by the new principle that it proclaimed, in which the equality of woman, like all the others, is contained. […]

Charles Keller, “Their Poor Reasons”

December 25, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] LEURS PAUVRES RAISONS A Madame André Léo. Ce n’est pas sans bonnes raisons Qu’ils trottinent tous vers l’église, Chaque dimanche, comme oisons Que le Bon Pasteur mobilise! * * * […]

André Léo, “The Young Girl and the Bird” (1850)

February 8, 2014 anarchisms_w4l2ii

It’s certainly no surprise to find work by André Léo in Pierre Leroux’s journal La Revue Sociale. The prolific writer, whose real name was Victoire Léodile Béra, was married to the editor, Grégoire Champseix. But […]

Mikhail Bakunin, “Madame Léo and l’Egalité” (1869)

January 11, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

Madame Léo and l’Egalité [L’Egalité(Geneva), March 13 & 27, 1869] We have inserted this letter all the more willingly because it eloquently summarizes the reasons that militate in favor of a rapprochement of the different […]

Contr'un

Black and Red Feminism from 19th Century France

April 5, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’m gathering material for a fairly major foray into the works of 19th century French feminists, including completing the translations of some of the responses to Proudhon. But every major foray has to start with […]

André Léo, “Communism and Property” (1868)

September 13, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur

Victoire Léodile Béra (1824–1900), aka André Léo, was a French novelist, socialist and feminist. She was married to Gregoire Champseix, a member of Pierre Leroux’s circle, and Benoit Malon, the “integral socialist,” but was herself […]

Take me to the river…

July 18, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur

Let’s say we gather the usual suspects, down by the river, in the State of Nature, or thereabouts, for a bit of property theory and a few “good draughts.” John Locke says everybody can appropriate some river-water, as long as what they make their own “property” leaves “a whole river of the same water.” Now, Locke has a reputation for saying things like “my labor” when maybe he means the labor of someone else, so there’s some hesitation, but it seems like a pretty good deal, assuming it’s possible. Now, in literal terms, it seems impossible: a quantity of water, X, minus some non-zero “good draught,” G, is unlikely to = X. But, out in the State of Nature, talking about individual-scale “draughts” and a naturally resilient river-system, perhaps it is at least as good as possible. […]