Proudhon Bicentennial (1809-2009)
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the first self-proclaimed anarchist, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865). Volume One of Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas contains several selections from Proudhon, including excerpts from
What is Property? (1840)The System of Economic Contradictions (1846)The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century (1851)
The Principle of Federation (1863) and
On the Political Capacity of the Working Classes (1865).
For more on Proudhon, see my introduction to the 1989 Pluto Press edition of the General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century, now posted as one of my pages on this blog. Reproduced below is Proudhon’s celebrated diatribe against government, taken from the General Idea of the Revolution.
February 19, 2009 at 9:45 am
I’ve proposed a Proudhon Reader to AK Press, who seem keen. Read about it here:
http://anarchism.pageabode.com/anarcho/pierre-joseph-proudhon-reader
I’m looking for help from interested people, contact details are in the blog along with a discussion of why I think its a good idea and what should go into it.
February 19, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I’ve seen your proposal and think it’s a great idea. The Stewart Edward’s collection, Selected Writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, has some good stuff in it but is missing a lot of the material that would be of interest to anarchists today. I think it crucial that more selections from Confessions of a Revolutionary and On the Political Capacity of the Working Classes be included. Good luck on your project.
March 2, 2009 at 7:54 am
It was nice to see your blog.Just Keep Writing!
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