INDIVIDUALIST ANARCHISM, A BIBLIOGRAPHIC GUIDE on Sunday 06 April 2014

by Wendy McElroy

in Individualist Anarchism -- History



BY Wendy McElroy



“ANARCHISM, a social philosophy that rejects authoritarian government and maintains that voluntary institutions are best suited to express man’s natural social tendencies....Anarchism aims at the utmost possible freedom compatible with social life, in the belief that voluntary cooperation by responsible individuals is not merely more just and equitable but is also, in the long run, more harmonious and ordered in its effects than authoritarian government.”

George Woodcock, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/george-woodcock-anarchism



Individualist anarchism distinguishes itself from other schools of anarchism by focusing on the individual and his autonomy rather than upon collectives such as “class” or “society.” It includes several rich traditions – for example, egoism, and transcendentalism – all of which view the individual as the basic building block of society. For well over three centuries, passionate literature has flowed from this tradition to oppose the state and champion individual rights; scholarship has poured from writers who dedicated their lives to a vision of freedom and to the peaceful societies it enables. Broadsides and novels, periodicals and poetry, speeches and books infuse the tradition with constant vitality.



I envy everyone who is at the beginning of an adventure through this body of literature. It is a cup that is always refilled. The tradition spills over with good friends, brilliant arguments and brave people who lived their principles. I wish it were possible to go back in time and meet them all again with fresh eyes. If you are like me, many of these books and writers will stay with you for life, enriching you and becoming fellow-travelers.



A Caveat...or Two



This guide offers a broad overview of individualist-anarchist literature and makes no claim to be definitive. Far from it. Rather, the guide is a representative sampling and often gives short shrift to important figures and works.



The guide uses specific filters to select material. It favors accessible works, especially those within the public domain or ones that may be offered now or later to liberty.me members. It does not list books that repeat the same basic material as many of the 19th century works on free banking do. It gives preference to English-language material and includes only those European figures who had the most profound influence on American individualist anarchism. Works that are libertarian without being specifically anarchist are excluded. Even such remarkable works as Herbert Spencer's The Right to Ignore the State (1844, chapter in Social Statics)



It is simply impossible to be comprehensive within the limited pages of a guide. For those who wish a more in-depth treatment, James J. Martin's Men Against the State:The Expositers of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827-1908 (1952) is highly recommended .



Caveat2: A sub-set of anarchist literature, which is a 'school' in and of itself, has been omitted. The sub-set could be called 'How To Anarchism' because it offers concrete guidelines on how to live or practice freedom.

A classic example is Harry Browne's (1933-2006) How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty (1973).

Many more books address the specifics of self-sufficiency, self-defense, and similarly practical matters. Although the books may be written by individualist anarchists and advanced within an anarchist context, they are as much if not more appropriately classified as “survivalist” or “liberty prepping” books. [For more on Liberty Prepping, please explore that section in liberty.me.]

For much the same reason, the many books advocating and explaining the dynamics of investment and personal finances have been excluded even when written by anarchists, like Anthony L. Hargis, who pioneered a working system of free banking and gold accounting for trusted customers. For those intrigued by this reference, however, I suggest following up with his book Law v. Freedom The Case for Stateless Firms (1976).

European Influences: It Usually Begins with William Godwin



Important forerunners to anarchism predate the first man who is said to have to explicitly espoused individualist anarchism: William Godwin (1756-1836). [Note: dates are provided only for deceased writers in order to place them immediately in time.] Godwin's approach is often called philosophical anarchism. Godwin's antecedents include:



Étienne de La Boétie (1530-1563) whose Discourse on Involuntary Servitude (1548) investigates both why people obey and how rulers manipulate obedience.

In the mid 17th century, John Lilburne, Richard Overton and William Walwyn spearheaded the Leveller movement in England. They demanded constitutional reform and equal rights under law on the grounds that all men were born free and with rights that derived from nature, not from government. Overton's An arrow against all tyrants (1646) exemplifies their approach.

The Philosophes were a group of writers and scholars who were general contemporaries of Godwin. They formed the backbone of the French Enlightenment (circa 1740-1789) by promoting a belief in the perfectibility of man and advocating tolerance, especially religious toleration. See Voltaire's Toleration and Other Essays (1755).

Other contemporaries are well worth noting: for example, Thomas Hodgskin (1787-1869), author of The Natural and Artificial Right of Property Contrasted (1832).



These and many other voices of revolution and reform led up to the phenomenon of William Godwin. A political theorist, novelist and journalist, Godwin's two most famous books are Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness



Political Justice sketches Godwin's political philosophy. It argues that government corrupts society but will become unnecessary due to the growth of knowledge and human understanding; Godwin offers not merely a concerted assault on political institutions but also an optimistic view of man and his perfectibility. Published during the French Revolution, Political Justice was deeply influenced by Edmund Burke's A Vindication of Natural Society



Godwin's wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, is worthy of mention. Her The Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Occasioned by His Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) passionately attacked aristocracy and defended republicanism. Nevertheless, her writing had a strong anarchist bent. In Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), for example, she writes, “I love man as my fellow; but his scepter, real, or usurped, extends not to me, unless the reason of an individual demands my homage; and even then the submission is to reason, and not to man.”



Another European anarchist who prominently impacted individualist anarchism was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865), the first thinker to explicitly adopt the label “anarchist.” A socialist-libertarian, Proudhon founded the tradition of mutualism, upon which current left-libertarians draw heavily. Proudhon's mutualism is a form of anarchism that embraces the labor theory of value Modern left libertarianism also draws upon the mutualist works of Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), especially The Conquest of Bread (1892)

Nevertheless, it was Proudhon whom 19Th century American individualist anarchists most revered. His work deeply affected what they viewed to be legitimate property, which was judged by who created it and who currently used it rather than by buying and selling or inheriting. Of Proudhon's vast body of work, the two books that were arguably most influential are What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government

An anarchist of Proudhon's day stood in contrast to mutualism. The Belgian-born classical liberal Gustav de Molinari (1819–1912) was an ardent champion of the free market. An associate of laissez-faire economists such as Frederic Bastiat (The Law, 1850)

The only other foreign influence on American individualist anarchism that compared with Proudhon's was that of the German philosopher, Max Stirner (nè Johann Kaspar Schmidt, 1806–1856). His book The Ego and His Own (1845)

Individualist Anarchism Takes Root in America

Individualist anarchism evolved in America in response to the country's unique issues and history.

From the earliest colonial days, religious dissenters like Roger Williams (1603-1683) were accused of being de facto anarchists because they left so many decisions to the individual's conscience and his relationship with God. Williams' best known work The Bloody Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience (1644) was rallying defense of the individual's absolute liberty of conscience; it is written as a dialogue exchange between Peace and Truth – a common technique of the day.

American individualist anarchism grew into maturity alongside radical movements, such as abolitionism. Abolitionism was the radical faction of the anti-slavery movement, which sought an immediate cessation to slavery on the grounds that every man was a self-owner; that is, every human being had moral jurisdiction over his or her own body. The main organ of abolitionism was The Liberator (1831–1866)

I have not come here with reference to any flag but that of freedom. If your Union does not symbolize universal emancipation, it brings no Union for me. If your Constitution does not guarantee freedom for all, it is not a Constitution I can ascribe to. If your flag is stained by the blood of a brother held in bondage, I repudiate it in the name of God. --William Lloyd Garrison

Heavily influenced by Quakers, abolitionism also embraced the goal of peace. Garrison's famous “Declaration of Sentiments” (1838)



In the same period, another uniquely individualist movement also arose in New England. Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement that was transformed into a cultural one through the influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). Emerson's Nature (1836)



The charismatic and prolific Emerson gathered a remarkable group of writers around him which included Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker and Henry David Thoreau. Indeed, it was Emerson who pressed Thoreau to start keeping a journal – a process that led to Thoreau's many works on nature as well as his famous book Walden (1854, also known as Walden; or, Life in the Woods)



Thoreau's most significant contribution to anarchism was through his essay Resistance to Civil Government (1849, also known as Civil Disobedience, title varies)



The two distinctive themes around which individualist anarchism coalesced in mid-to-late 19th century America were the sovereignty of the individual, sometimes called self-ownership, and the labor theory of value, often expressed as “cost the limit of price.” (Because of embracing a labor theory of value, the individualist anarchists are sometimes mistaken for socialists; their commitment to the individual as the basic unit of society grounds them within individualism, however.) A man who epitomized both themes was Josiah Warren (1798–1874). Indeed, both Benjamin Tucker and Stephen Pearl Andrews considered him to be “the founder” of individualist anarchism. “Josiah Warren,” Tucker subsequently wrote, “was the first man to expound and formulate the doctrine now known as Anarchism; the first man to clearly state the theory of individual sovereignty and equal liberty...” William Bailie's biography, The First American Anarchist, (1906) is recommended.

In January 1833, Warren issued what is considered to be the first American anarchist periodical, The Peaceful Revolutionist,

It was largely as a result of meeting Warren and the anarchist free-banking advocate William B. Greene (Mutual Banking, 1850)

Spooner's writings can be divided into two sections. In the first one, Spooner actively uses constitutional appeals to argue his points. In the second one, he turns just as actively against the constitution, calling it a document “of no authority.” The change came about due to Spooner's disillusionment with the Civil War.

The best known of Spooner's pre-war works is probably The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (1845)

The Impact of Radical Movements on Individualist Anarchism

There was a continuing overlap between individualist anarchism and three radical movements: freethought, free love, and the labor movement. Neither freethought nor free love were explicitly anarchist, however. Free thought called for the separation of church and state; free love sought the separation of all sexual matters from the state. Because of their anti-state approach, individualist anarchists often became radical voices within these movements. For example, the homesteading pioneer George Henry Evans (1805-1856) advertised freethought works in his periodical The Working Man's Advocate. Tucker's periodical Liberty also featured freethought material. A partial list includes:

Church and State

The Deist's Immortality lysanderspooner.org/node/18 by Spooner;

God and the State

and Three Dreams in a Desert

The free love movement was also closely linked to individualist anarchism. Most prominently, the anarchist Moses Harman published a periodical entitled Lucifer, the Light Bearer (1883–1907) out of Kansas. Hal D. Sears' book The sex radicals: free love in high Victorian America (1977) offers the best overview of the free love movement and Harman.

The free love periodical with which Tucker most closely associated was Ezra and Angelina Heywood's The Word (1872-1893). It began with a focus on free love but also served as the voice of the New England Labor Reform League. Ezra Heywood (1829-1893) is best remembered for the women's rights pamphlets Uncivil Liberty: An Essay to Show the Injustice and Impolicy of Ruling Woman Without Her Consent (1873)

James J. Martin rendered a sense of Heywood's importance in writing “[Heywood] is best remembered for his efforts in the propagation of native anti-government thought and literature during a period of transition when radicalism was receding almost to the vanishing point before a wave of post-war sentiment for continued conformity.” Like Lysander Spooner, Heywood provided a bridge from pre-Civil War radicalism to the rebirth of individualist anarchism in the latter part of the 19th century.

Labor

Tucker and other hardcore individualist anarchists tended to identify more closely with the labor movement than with freethought or free love. The NELRL was a magnet. Formed in 1869 by a group including Warren, Stephen Pearl Andrews (1812-1886), Ezra Heywood, and Wendell Phillips, it presented an anti-statist, anti-monopoly, anti-corporation philosophy, with a strong emphasis on the labor theory of value.

It was an eclectic collection of reformers. For example, Andrews was already well known in radical circles for his free love book Love, Marriage, and Divorce and the Sovereignty of the Individual. A Discussion Between Henry James, Horace Greeley, and Stephen Pearl Andrews (1853).

Tucker published the first issue of Liberty magazine (August 1881-April 1908), which is widely considered to be the best individual anarchist periodical ever published. It addressed a broad range of issues and theoretical points but its focus was upon economics, including labor reform. The publication run constituted the 19th century's golden age for individualist anarchism.

To promote its ideas, Liberty published and/or sold an amazing array of books and pamphlets. The following is a representative sample, which omits previously mentioned works, repetitive material and ones that are of lesser interest to anarchists. The descriptions were used in Liberty itself.

A Small Sample of Liberty's Library



Anarchism: Its Aims and Methods. By Victor Yarros. An address delivered at the first public meeting of the Boston Anarchists' Club and adopted by that organization in its authorized exposition of its principles.



An Anarchist on Anarchy. An eloquent exposition of the beliefs of Anarchists by a man as eminent in science as in reform. By Elisee Reclus.



The Ballad of Reading Gaol. By C.3.3....Oscar Wilde. A poem of more than 600 lines.

The Fallacies in "Progress and Poverty." A bold attack on the position of Henry George. Written for the people, and as revolutionary in sentiment, and even more radical than "Progress and Poverty" itself. By William Hanson.

[Note: Henry George contributed the unique perspective of a Single Tax on land to individualism but he was not an individualist anarchist. His book Progress and Poverty



Free Political Institutions: Their Nature, Essence, and Maintenance. An abridgment and rearrangement of Lysander Spooner's "Trial by Jury." Edited by Victor Yarros.



Instead of a Book, By a Man Too Busy to Write One. A Fragmentary Exposition of Philosophical Anarchism. (1893) Culled from the writings of Benj. R. Tucker.



A Politician in Sight of Haven Being a Protest against the Government of Man by Man. By Auberon Herbert.



The Rights of Women and the Sexual Relations. An Address to an Unknown Lady Reader. By Karl Heinzen.

A Strike of Millionaires Against Miners: Or, The Story of Spring Valley. By Henry D. Lloyd. A book to be read by everyone who wants to learn the methods by which, in this free and glorious Republic, the people are being robbed of their labors and liberties.



The Thirty-Six Trades of the State. By Arsene Alexandre. Translated from the French by Benj. R. Tucker. Showing the state as a jack-at-all-trades and good at none.



Voluntary Socialism. By F. D. Tandy. A complete and systematic outline of Anarchistic philosophy and economics, written in a clear, concise, and simple style. It is followed by a suggestive bibliography of books of service to those who wish to study the subject more deeply, and contains also a complete index.

As well as Instead of a Book, another collection of articles was compiled from Tucker's Liberty writings; Individual Liberty: Selections From the Writings of Benjamin R. Tucker was edited with an introduction by Tucker's friend and associate C.L. Swartz.

Liberty also issued a series of Spooner's works, including Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty (1875)

The fire that destroyed the Liberty office in January 1908 destroyed the center of individualist anarchism in America. World War I followed about ten years thereafter and completed the process. Before moving into the 20th century revival of the tradition, however, it is important to mention a few other figures and to touch in passing upon the British individualist movement that was a counterpart to the American one.

Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912)was a strong passionate voice not only for anarchism but also for feminism and free love; she was individualism's version of Emma Goldman. Her Essays and Other Writings &ved=0CEgQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false

The labor activist and anarchist Charles Joseph Antoine "Jo" Labadie (1850-1933) moved from socialism to individualist anarchism, and continued his efforts on behalf of labor. Anarchism What it is and what is isn't

For a more comprehensive sense of the figures and themes of 19th century individualist anarchism, please see The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881-1908) (1994) edited by Frank Brooks or The Debates of Liberty (2002) by Wendy McElroy. Liberty and the Great Libertarians. An Anthology of Liberty, a Handbook of Freedom (1913) by Charles T. Sprading is also useful but includes several odd choices; for example, it includes Abraham Lincoln.

The British Individualists

At the same time individualist anarchism flourished in America, a vigorous and radical individualism arose in Europe, especially Britain. In his essay, “The English Individualists as They Appear in Liberty,” Carl Watner explained, “The leading English individualists as they appear in Benjamin Tucker's journal, Liberty, are Auberon Herbert, Wordsworth Donisthorpe, Joseph Hiam Levy, Joseph Greevz Fisher, John Badcock, Jr., Albert Tarn, and Henry Seymour.....Although some of the English individualists refused to call themselves anarchists, their doctrines were perilously close to anarchism. Benjamin Tucker defined anarchism as the doctrine that the State should be abolished and all the affairs of men be carried out on a voluntary basis. More than likely, Herbert, Donisthorpe, Tarn, Seymour, and Badcock would have accepted this statement as an expression of their own political beliefs. J. H. Levy definitely would not. ”

The most prominent of the British individualists was the prolific Herbert (1838-1906) of whom Tucker stated in eulogy, “"Auberon Herbert is dead. He was a true anarchist in everything but name.” Instead, Herbert used the term “voluntaryism.” His best known and most representative book is The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State and Other Essays (1885)

Donisthorpe (1847-?) published regularly in later issues of Liberty; his book Individualism: A System of Politics (1889) is considered to be a classic.

The 20th Century Dawns

Individualist anarchism in America fell into neglect after 1908. In his Editor's Foreword to Individual Liberty, C.L. Swartz wrote, “For a number of years practically all of the literature of Individualist Anarchism has been out of print. The great bulk of whatever matter there was had, of course, been in the hands of Benjamin R. Tucker, and up to 1908 it was being constantly augmented by him. But when, in January of that year, his entire wholesale stock of publications, manuscripts, etc., and nearly all of his plates were wiped out by fire, the loss was irreparable, and little attempt has been made to replace any of the material destroyed.”

Tucker left America to live the rest of his life in Europe. Although he published in Dora Marsden's periodicals The Freewoman and the Egoist, a disillusioned Tucker turned away from his early activism. Marsden (1882-1960), who has been called the feminist Stirner, is a neglected individualist anarchist and anarcho-feminist; she is enjoying a revival, however, through works such as Bruce Clarke's Dora Marsden and Early Modernism: Gender, Individualism, Science (1996).

Individual anarchists still wrote and were active but the movement lacked a core. For example, the journalist Hutchins Hapgood (1869-1944), who embraced both Stirner and Friedrich Nietzsche, produced most of his work in the first part of the century. His autobiography, A Victorian in the Modern World (1933) provides a fascinating glimpse into New York City's anarchist circles.

Others vigorously promoted freedom without adopting the term individualist anarchism even though their beliefs were compatible. For example, the newspaper man Raymond Cyrus "R.C." Hoiles (1878–1970) in 1935 purchased the Santa Ana Register that became the flagship of the media empire Freedom News, Inc. An avid fan of laissez-faire capitalism, Hoiles would have been repelled by the labor of theory of value adopted by the 19th century anarchists. Indeed, the early 20th century is when individualist anarchism drifted from the labor theory of value.

Notably, the individualist anarchist Robert LeFevre (1911–1986) worked for Hoiles as a writer; LeFevre called his philosophy Autarchism or self rule, which blended pacifism with anarchism. His two most influential books are arguably This Bread is Mine

Lane was part of a wave of writers in the mid-century who kept individualism alive through their writing. Her most significant non-fiction book was The Discovery of Freedom (1943) (BK, THE LFC COPY) which argued that freedom was essential to wealth and happiness. The anarchist and contemporary Albert Jay Nock (1870–1945) declared Lane's and Isabel Paterson's nonfiction works to be "the only intelligible books on the philosophy of individualism that have been written in America this century." Paterson's most libertarian book was The God of the Machine (1943) (http://mises.org/books/godofmachine.pdf) Interestingly, in the same year, Ayn Rand issued The Fountainhead; Nock may well have excluded her from his comment because the book was fiction.

The journalist and anarchist Nock was profoundly influenced by Franz Oppenheimer's (1864–1943) classic anti-collectivist work The State (1908, German).

Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken (1880–1956) was a journalist and an iconoclastic commentator on American culture and politics. In his lifetime, Mencken defied political classification and, perhaps, consciously so. In his path-breaking book The American as Anarchist. Reflections on Indigenous Radicalism (1978), David DeLeon concluded that there was a form of “right anarchism” in America; it is a category into which Mencken may most comfortably fit. His relevant works include: The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1907) the first English language book on Nietzsche; Notes on Democracy (1926); and, Treatise on Right and Wrong (1934). Of the Prejudice series, Prejudices: Fourth Series (1924) is most relevant to anarchism. He wrote an “appreciation” of Tucker which was included in Free Vistas: An Anthology of Life and Letters, edited by Joseph Ishill (1937 edition).

Frank Chodorov (1887–1966), an Old Right libertarian, claimed that "the state itself, regardless of its composition, is an exploitative institution." A founder of the periodical The Freeman, he was a close associate of Nock. Chodorov's work is well represented by a collection selected by Charles Hamilton, Fugitive Essays, Selected Writings of Frank Chodorov (1980). Chodorov's autobiography provides a launching point to explore this fascinating man: Out of Step: The Autobiography of an Individualist (1962).

The economist Floyd Arthur "Baldy" Harper (1905–1973) is remembered for founding the Institute for Humane Studies in 1961. In his eulogy to Harper, the economist and political theorist Murray Rothbard (1926-1995) stated, “[H]e was a member of a veritable 'lost generation' from the libertarian point of view....Baldy and I came to anarcho-capitalism from laissez faire at about the same time, driven by inexorable logic, in what for us was the memorable winter of 1949–50. I vividly remember one time I was visiting him at FEE and he quietly pulled out a copy of Tolstoy's anarchist Law of Love and the Law of Violence (1908), which he confided that 'some of us are now reading with great interest'." His book Why Wages Rise (1957) mises.org/books/whywagesrise.pdf has been particularly influential on readers such as Charles Koch. There is a two-volume edition of his work entitled The Writings of F. A. Harper (1978, 1979) mises.org/books/writings_of_harper1.pdf

Like Harper, the economist Leonard Read (1898-1983) is often best remembered for establishing an institute: the Foundation for Economic Education. Read's philosophy was that society should allow “anything that is peaceful.” His best known work is the essay "I, Pencil" (1958) with the full title being "I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read" (BK as originally published,

In the '60s, individualist anarchism asserted itself through other venues as well, including the Freedom School established by LeFevre in 1956. The historian James J. Martin was a guest lecturer at the school. His definitive work on early American individualist anarchism Men Against the State provided the movement with its history. Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements (1962) by George Woodcock offers a broader, more international context for the history. James Joll's The Anarchists (1964) is also valuable.

Rothbard played the seminal role of synthesizing the radicalism of 19th century individualist anarchism with Austrian economics and the isolationism of the American Old Right. Calling his philosophy “anarcho-capitalism,” he detached individualist anarchism from the labor theory of value and folded it into a laissez faire capitalist context. (In doing so, he drew upon the influence and insights of his mentor Ludwig von Mises, especially the masterpiece Human Action published in in English in 1949

Much of Rothbard's profound impact on individualist anarchism, however, came from his personal influence upon a younger generation, as the guide explains later after touching upon other important figures of the '60s and '70s. As with Tucker, the “Rothbardians” have so prolifically addressed political and social issues that a full listing is not possible. A partial listing is offered only to indicate the depth and breadth of Rothbard's legacy. An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (2000) by Justin Raimondo provides more in-depth information.

A sampling of Rothbardian anarchists:

Hans-Hermann Hoppe, whom some consider to be Rothbard's “heir.” His writings include Economic Science and the Austrian Method (1995) and The Economics and Ethics of Private Property (2nd edition, 2006)

Ralph Raico, a noted historian in the Austrian tradition. His latest book is Classical Liberalism and the Austrian School (2012).

Walter Block, an Austrian economist and anarchist theorist. Block is best known for his book Defending the Undefendable (1976); his economic approach is captured by The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors (2009).

Lew Rockwell, the head of Mises Institute. A representative sample of his writing is The Left, The Right, and The State (2008).

David Gordon, a philosopher. His book Resurrecting Marx: The Analytical Marxists on Exploitation, Freedom, and Justice (1990) is recommended.

Thomas Woods, an historian and best-selling author. His latest book is Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse (2011).

Robert Higgs, an economic hisstorian. Arms, Politics, and the Economy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (1990) is representative of his meticulous scholarship.

Apologies to all Rothbardian anarchists who are not mentioned.

Karl Hess (1923–1994) came at liberty from a somewhat different angle. Hess is famous for having scripted the line uttered by Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." Influenced by Rothbard, Hess began to read anarchist tracts and found them convincing, especially those by Emma Goldman. (See Goldman's My Disillusionment With Russia (1931)

Morris and Linda Tannehill issued the now-classic The Market for Liberty in 1970

Meanwhile, Samuel E. Konkin III or SEK3 (1947–2004) founded the Movement of the Libertarian Left which considers libertarianism, if properly viewed, as a radically left movement. He called his political philosophy called “agorism”and advocated a voluntary society in which people take their activities underground. Counter-economic activities, such as the black market, would achieve a peaceful revolution. His work New Libertarian Manifesto (1980)

In 1982, Carl Watner, George H. Smith and Wendy McElroy formed The Voluntaryists organization in order to counter the rise of electoral politics within the libertarian and anarchist movements, and to explore non-political means of achieving a free society. In doing so, they built upon Sy Leon's accessible book None of the Above - The Lesser of Two Evils . . . is Evil (1976). They also drew heavily upon the non-violent and passive resistance philosophy of the anarchis Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948); his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth (two volumes, 1927, 1929) provides a good starting point for investigating this strategy. The Voluntaryists also incorporated the definitive three-volume work by Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (1973).

The Voluntaryist's philosophy and approach is captured in the anthology Neither Bullets Nor Ballots (1983). The Voluntaryist appeared in 1982 and continues to this day. The Essential Voluntaryist (2014) reprints many of the best Voluntaryist articles written by Watner. [BK YOU SHOULD HAVE THE LIBERTY.ME LINK. I DON'T.] His other books include Toward a Proprietary Theory of Justice' (1976) and Dissenting Electorate: Those Who Refuse to Vote and the Legitimacy of Their Opposition (2004, with McElroy).

George H. Smith's approach is expressed in The System of Liberty: Themes in the History of Classical Liberalism (2013). Wendy McElroy offers an overview of 19th century individualist anarchism in The Debates of Liberty: An Overview of Individualist Anarchism, 1881-1908 (2002) and Individualist Feminism of the Nineteenth Century: Collected Writings and Biographical Profiles (2001).

Left Libertarianism/Anarchism

Left libertarianism or anarchism is a new voice within the broader anarchist movement. Roderick Long, who is arguably the central figure in left libertarian anarchism. Long defines libertarianism as "any political position that advocates a radical redistribution of power from the coercive state to voluntary associations of free individuals." The voluntary associations would include communes and other non-free market arrangements, which left libertarians sometimes call “freed markets.” Building on this definition, left libertarians contend that the left-wing answers some social problems better than traditional libertarianism. The sympathetic scholar Sheldon Richman provided a concise explanation,

Left-libertarians favor worker solidarity vis-à-vis bosses, support poor people's squatting on government or abandoned property, and prefer that corporate privileges be repealed before the regulatory restrictions on how those privileges may be exercised. They see Walmart as a symbol of corporate favoritism—supported by highway subsidies and eminent domain—view the fictive personhood of the limited-liability corporation with suspicion, and doubt that Third World sweatshops would be the "best alternative" in the absence of government manipulation. Left-libertarians tend to eschew electoral politics, having little confidence in strategies that work through the government. They prefer to develop alternative institutions and methods of working around the state.

In economics, the left libertarians harken back to the mutualism of Proudhon and the positions held by the 19th century American individualist anarchists. They favor radical but peaceful solutions to perceived social problems, such as discrimination, because they oppose hierarchies and asymmetries in power.

The following anarchists are closed associated with left libertarianism:

Roderick T. Long, a professor of philosophy. Reason and Value: Aristotle versus Rand (2000) is representative of his meticulous research.

Kevin Carson, a social and political theorist. A prolific writer, his works include Studies in Mutualist Political Economy (2007) and The Homebrew Industrial Revolution: A Low Overhead Manifesto (2010) .

Gary Chartier, a legal scholar. His latest book is Anarchy and Legal Order: Law and Politics for a Stateless Society. (2013).

Charles Johnson, a self-described “student of philosophy, and sometime teacher of logic.” The anthology he co-edited with Chartier captures a basic theme of left libertarianism: Markets Not Capitalism: Individualist Anarchism Against Bosses, Inequality, Corporate Power, and Structural Poverty (2011).

Brad Spangler, a Senior Fellow and Trustee for the Center for a Stateless Society.His book Sedition on the Installment Plan: Collected Notes on Anarchism, Libertarian Theory and More (2012) provides a good overview of Spangler's approach.

Figures Too Important To Skip Over

Important contributions have been made by authors who do not easily fit into a category or timeline. [Indeed, I have skipped over entire movements, like the Modern School on inpired by Francis Ferrer: see Avrich's The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States (1980).] The following list indicates a mere handful of contributors without the slightest pretense of being comprehensive.

Dorothy Day (1897–1980), a social activist and Catholic anarchist. The best overview of her work is provided in her own words: The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of Dorothy Day (1952).

Laurance Labadie (1898-1975), son of Joseph Labadie. Key writings include Origin and Nature of Government

Robert Nozick (1938-2002), a professor of philosophy. His book Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) introduced anarchism into an academic environment and stirred immense debate. It stands as a libertarian response to John Rawls' A Theory of Justice.

David Friedman, an economist, legal scholar, and political theorist His best known work is The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to Radical Capitalism (1973) which advances an arguments for a voluntary society based on private property and individual rights.

Stephan Kinsella, the leading anti-intellectual property voice. Kinsella publishes anti-IP views largely in periodicals such as Journal of Libertarian Studies. Volume 15, no. 2 (Spring 2001): “Against Intellectual Property.” It is difficult to overstate the impact of his work on this issue.

J. Michael Oliver, publisher of the periodical The New Banner. The New Libertarianism: Anarcho-Capitalism (2013) is the only publication of his 1972 dissertation in which Oliver was the first to synthesize the ideas of Rand and Rothbard.

In concluding this whirlwind tour of individualist anarchism, I can only repeat a sentiment stated in the introduction. I envy every single reader for the intellectual adventure on which you are embarking. I wish you friends with whom to debate the ideas and arguments long into the night, over a good bottle of wine. Afterward, I hope you post to the anarchist section of liberty.me so that I can experience the “breath of fresh air” vicariously. INDIVIDUALIST ANARCHISM, A BIBLIOGRAPHIC GUIDEBY Wendy McElroy“ANARCHISM, a social philosophy that rejects authoritarian government and maintains that voluntary institutions are best suited to express man’s natural social tendencies....Anarchism aims at the utmost possible freedom compatible with social life, in the belief that voluntary cooperation by responsible individuals is not merely more just and equitable but is also, in the long run, more harmonious and ordered in its effects than authoritarian government.”George Woodcock, The Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIndividualist anarchism distinguishes itself from other schools of anarchism by focusing on the individual and his autonomy rather than upon collectives such as “class” or “society.” It includes several rich traditions – for example, egoism, and transcendentalism – all of which view the individual as the basic building block of society. For well over three centuries, passionate literature has flowed from this tradition to oppose the state and champion individual rights; scholarship has poured from writers who dedicated their lives to a vision of freedom and to the peaceful societies it enables. Broadsides and novels, periodicals and poetry, speeches and books infuse the tradition with constant vitality.I envy everyone who is at the beginning of an adventure through this body of literature. It is a cup that is always refilled. The tradition spills over with good friends, brilliant arguments and brave people who lived their principles. I wish it were possible to go back in time and meet them all again with fresh eyes. If you are like me, many of these books and writers will stay with you for life, enriching you and becoming fellow-travelers.A Caveat...or TwoThis guide offers a broad overview of individualist-anarchist literature and makes no claim to be definitive. Far from it. Rather, the guide is a representative sampling and often gives short shrift to important figures and works.The guide uses specific filters to select material. It favors accessible works, especially those within the public domain or ones that may be offered now or later to liberty.me members. It does not list books that repeat the same basic material as many of the 19th century works on free banking do. It gives preference to English-language material and includes only those European figures who had the most profound influence on American individualist anarchism. Works that are libertarian without being specifically anarchist are excluded. Even such remarkable works as Herbert Spencer's The Right to Ignore the State (1844, chapter in Social Statics) http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2497 are mentioned only in passing. Periodicals are not featured, nor is fiction.It is simply impossible to be comprehensive within the limited pages of a guide. For those who wish a more in-depth treatment, James J. Martin's Men Against the State:The Expositers of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827-1908 (1952) is highly recommended . http://mises.org/document/4310/Men-Against-the-State-The-Expositers-of-Individualist-Anarchism-in-America-1827-1908 as is William O. Reichert's Partisans of Freedom: A Study in American Anarchism (1976). Also of value for perspective but less focused on individualist anarchism are: Paul Elzbacher's Anarchism (1908), E. V. Zenker's Anarchism (1898), Rudolf Rocker's Anarcho-Syndicalism (1938) and his Pioneers of American Freedom: Origin of Liberal and Radical Thought in America (Eng. 1949). Paul Avrich's books on anarchist history are excellent introductions, especially Anarchist Portraits (1988) and Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America (1995); but, again, Avrich's focus is not on individualist anarchism per se.Caveat2: A sub-set of anarchist literature, which is a 'school' in and of itself, has been omitted. The sub-set could be called 'How To Anarchism' because it offers concrete guidelines on how to live or practice freedom.A classic example is Harry Browne's (1933-2006) How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty (1973). http://trendsaction.com/ebook/how-i-found-freedom-in-an-unfree-world.php Also Mary Ruwalt's Short Answers to the Tough Questions (2012) which provides a guide for those who wish to know how to concisely address important points of libertarian-anarchist theory.Many more books address the specifics of self-sufficiency, self-defense, and similarly practical matters. Although the books may be written by individualist anarchists and advanced within an anarchist context, they are as much if not more appropriately classified as “survivalist” or “liberty prepping” books. [For more on Liberty Prepping, please explore that section in liberty.me.]For much the same reason, the many books advocating and explaining the dynamics of investment and personal finances have been excluded even when written by anarchists, like Anthony L. Hargis, who pioneered a working system of free banking and gold accounting for trusted customers. For those intrigued by this reference, however, I suggest following up with his book Law v. Freedom The Case for Stateless Firms (1976).European Influences: It Usually Begins with William GodwinImportant forerunners to anarchism predate the first man who is said to have to explicitly espoused individualist anarchism: William Godwin (1756-1836). [Note: dates are provided only for deceased writers in order to place them immediately in time.] Godwin's approach is often called philosophical anarchism. Godwin's antecedents include:Étienne de La Boétie (1530-1563) whose Discourse on Involuntary Servitude (1548) investigates both why people obey and how rulers manipulate obedience. http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/etienne-de-la-boetie-discourse-on-voluntary-servitude In the mid 17th century, John Lilburne, Richard Overton and William Walwyn spearheaded the Leveller movement in England. They demanded constitutional reform and equal rights under law on the grounds that all men were born free and with rights that derived from nature, not from government. Overton's An arrow against all tyrants (1646) exemplifies their approach. http://www.constitution.org/lev/eng_lev_05.htm The Philosophes were a group of writers and scholars who were general contemporaries of Godwin. They formed the backbone of the French Enlightenment (circa 1740-1789) by promoting a belief in the perfectibility of man and advocating tolerance, especially religious toleration. See Voltaire's Toleration and Other Essays (1755). http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/voltaire-toleration-and-other-essays Other contemporaries are well worth noting: for example, Thomas Hodgskin (1787-1869), author of The Natural and Artificial Right of Property Contrasted (1832). http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hodgskin-the-natural-and-artificial-right-of-property-contrasted Space prohibits their inclusion in this work, however.These and many other voices of revolution and reform led up to the phenomenon of William Godwin. A political theorist, novelist and journalist, Godwin's two most famous books are Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/godwin/PJfrontpiece.html (1793) and Things as They Are; or The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) which is often called simply Caleb Williams. https://archive.org/stream/calebwilliams11323gut/11323.txt Political Justice sketches Godwin's political philosophy. It argues that government corrupts society but will become unnecessary due to the growth of knowledge and human understanding; Godwin offers not merely a concerted assault on political institutions but also an optimistic view of man and his perfectibility. Published during the French Revolution, Political Justice was deeply influenced by Edmund Burke's A Vindication of Natural Society http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=850&Itemid=27 (1756) and by Thomas Paine's Rights of Man http://www.ushistory.org/PAINE/rights/index.htm (1791-1792). Indeed, the beginning of Political Justice explicitly draws upon A Vindication which Godwin considered to be the leading literary expression of philosophical anarchism of his day. The remainder of Political Justice presents Godwin's own vision of an anarchist society. Caleb Williams is an attack upon privilege and aristocracy in the form of what has been called “the first mystery novel,” the first thriller. The two books cemented Godwin's reputation in radical circles and allowed him to deeply influence a wide circle of writers including Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.Godwin's wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, is worthy of mention. Her The Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Occasioned by His Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) passionately attacked aristocracy and defended republicanism. Nevertheless, her writing had a strong anarchist bent. In Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), for example, she writes, “I love man as my fellow; but his scepter, real, or usurped, extends not to me, unless the reason of an individual demands my homage; and even then the submission is to reason, and not to man.”Another European anarchist who prominently impacted individualist anarchism was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865), the first thinker to explicitly adopt the label “anarchist.” A socialist-libertarian, Proudhon founded the tradition of mutualism, upon which current left-libertarians draw heavily. Proudhon's mutualism is a form of anarchism that embraces the labor theory of value Modern left libertarianism also draws upon the mutualist works of Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), especially The Conquest of Bread (1892) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/23428 , Fields, Factories and Workshops (1898) https://archive.org/details/cu31924032409710 and Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4341 Nevertheless, it was Proudhon whom 19Th century American individualist anarchists most revered. His work deeply affected what they viewed to be legitimate property, which was judged by who created it and who currently used it rather than by buying and selling or inheriting. Of Proudhon's vast body of work, the two books that were arguably most influential are What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/pierre-joseph-proudhon-what-is-property-an-inquiry-into-the-principle-of-right-and-of-governmen (1840) and System of Economic Contradictions, or Philosophy of Poverty http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/pierre-joseph-proudhon-system-of-economical-contradictions-or-the-philosophy-of-poverty (1847). The iconoclastic Benjamin Tucker considered Proudhon to be so important that he issued the ambitious “Proudhon Library,” a series of Proudhon translations sold by subscription. Most of the translation from the French was done by Tucker himself. His periodical, Liberty, used a Proudhon quote on its masthead: “Liberty; Not the Daughter but the Mother of Order.” The entire run of Liberty was issued by Greenwood Reprint in 1970.An anarchist of Proudhon's day stood in contrast to mutualism. The Belgian-born classical liberal Gustav de Molinari (1819–1912) was an ardent champion of the free market. An associate of laissez-faire economists such as Frederic Bastiat (The Law, 1850) http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html , Molinari took free market analysis one step farther by arguing that security and defense, like any other “goods,” are best provided by the marketplace rather than the state. In short, Molinari was a precursor to free-market anarchism. He was the first theorist to argue that the free market should provide defense, not merely for individuals but for communities. He did so in an article entitled "The Production of Security" mises.org/books/production_of_security.pdf‎ (1849) and in his book Conversations on Economic Laws and Defense of Property (1849). http://praxeology.net/GM-RSL.htm Unfortunately, Molinari had little impact beyond his day because his writing fell into obscurity.The only other foreign influence on American individualist anarchism that compared with Proudhon's was that of the German philosopher, Max Stirner (nè Johann Kaspar Schmidt, 1806–1856). His book The Ego and His Own (1845) http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34580 created a furor in the 19th century and prompted many prominent individualist anarchists to reject natural rights to become become egoists. According to Stirner's approach, everything over and above the individual ego is illusory; he considered everything but acting in your own self-interest to be irrational with the definition of self-interest being subjective. The first important work in English on egoism was by the American individualist anarchist and egoist James L. Walker writing under the pseudonym “Tak Kak.” The Philosophy of Egoism was published serially between 1890-1891. http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/coldoffthepresses/walker/egoism.html Individualist Anarchism Takes Root in AmericaIndividualist anarchism evolved in America in response to the country's unique issues and history.From the earliest colonial days, religious dissenters like Roger Williams (1603-1683) were accused of being de facto anarchists because they left so many decisions to the individual's conscience and his relationship with God. Williams' best known work The Bloody Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience (1644) was rallying defense of the individual's absolute liberty of conscience; it is written as a dialogue exchange between Peace and Truth – a common technique of the day. http://archive.org/stream/thebloudytenento00willuoft/thebloudytenento00willuoft_djvu.txt Meanwhile, a Puritan woman named Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) became what Murray Rothbard called “America's first individualist anarchist....the logic of liberty and a deeper meditation on scripture had both led Anne to the ultimate bounds of libertarian thought.”American individualist anarchism grew into maturity alongside radical movements, such as abolitionism. Abolitionism was the radical faction of the anti-slavery movement, which sought an immediate cessation to slavery on the grounds that every man was a self-owner; that is, every human being had moral jurisdiction over his or her own body. The main organ of abolitionism was The Liberator (1831–1866) http://fair-use.org/the-liberator/ , which was edited and largely written by William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879). Garrison openly condemned the U.S. Constitution as “a covenant with death and an agreement with hell” because of its compromise language on slavery.I have not come here with reference to any flag but that of freedom. If your Union does not symbolize universal emancipation, it brings no Union for me. If your Constitution does not guarantee freedom for all, it is not a Constitution I can ascribe to. If your flag is stained by the blood of a brother held in bondage, I repudiate it in the name of God. --William Lloyd GarrisonHeavily influenced by Quakers, abolitionism also embraced the goal of peace. Garrison's famous “Declaration of Sentiments” (1838) https://archive.org/details/DeclarationOfSentiments was presented at a conference he organized and from which the New England Non-Resistance Society emerged. In A Letter on the Political Obligations of Abolitionists (1839) Garrison rejected political action in favor of moral suasion as a means to reform society. The best introduction to Garrison and his role in abolitionism is the biography The Liberator William Lloyd Garrison (1963) by John L. Thomas. http://www.archive.org/stream/liberatorwilliam017641mbp/liberatorwilliam017641mbp_djvu.txt Many in Garrisonian circle are worth investigating as well. For example, the orator and lawyer Wendell Phillips (1811—1884) asked Can an Abolitionist Vote or Take Office Under the United States Constitution? (1845) argued that abolitionists could do neither. Lewis Perry's Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought (1973) provides a valuable overview.In the same period, another uniquely individualist movement also arose in New England. Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement that was transformed into a cultural one through the influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). Emerson's Nature (1836) http://emersoncentral.com/nature.htm was a foundational document. In it, he argues that human beings can understand reality only by studying nature, through which divinity flows. The Emersonian transcendentalists believed that examining how the spirit in all things connected would allow “an active soul” to solve every problem. Although Emerson preferred to dwell on spiritual matters, he was openly anarchist. He once commented, “Massachusetts, in its heroic day, had no government—was an anarchy. Every man stood on his own feet, was his own governor; and there was no breach of peace from Cape Cod to Mount Hoosac.” Self-reliance and individualism were among the prime virtues for transcendentalists. Emerson's book The Conduct of Life (1860) http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39827 offers a window into his personal philosophy. His political views are available in his collected Essays: First Series (1841) http://www.emersoncentral.com/essays1.htm and Essays: Second Series (1844) http://www.emersoncentral.com/essays2.htm The charismatic and prolific Emerson gathered a remarkable group of writers around him which included Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker and Henry David Thoreau. Indeed, it was Emerson who pressed Thoreau to start keeping a journal – a process that led to Thoreau's many works on nature as well as his famous book Walden (1854, also known as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden00.html , which is part memoir, part reflection. It is the best presentation of Thoreau's commitment to living simply and in unison with nature.Thoreau's most significant contribution to anarchism was through his essay Resistance to Civil Government (1849, also known as Civil Disobedience, title varies) http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71 This classic work went on to profoundly impact such human rights activists as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. In it, Thoreau argues in plain but elegant language for the propriety of an individual to disobey an unjust government or law. Thoreau expressed his anarchism by modifying a famous line attributed to Thomas Jefferson: “that government is best which governs least.“ Thoreau completed the logic: “that government is best which governs not at all.” More insight into Thoreau's political views is available through A Voluntary Political Government (1982) edited by Carl Watner; the book is a selection of correspondence between Thoreau and his associate Charles Lane (1800–1870).The two distinctive themes around which individualist anarchism coalesced in mid-to-late 19th century America were the sovereignty of the individual, sometimes called self-ownership, and the labor theory of value, often expressed as “cost the limit of price.” (Because of embracing a labor theory of value, the individualist anarchists are sometimes mistaken for socialists; their commitment to the individual as the basic unit of society grounds them within individualism, however.) A man who epitomized both themes was Josiah Warren (1798–1874). Indeed, both Benjamin Tucker and Stephen Pearl Andrews considered him to be “the founder” of individualist anarchism. “Josiah Warren,” Tucker subsequently wrote, “was the first man to expound and formulate the doctrine now known as Anarchism; the first man to clearly state the theory of individual sovereignty and equal liberty...” William Bailie's biography, The First American Anarchist, (1906) is recommended.In January 1833, Warren issued what is considered to be the first American anarchist periodical, The Peaceful Revolutionist, http://libertarian-labyrinth.org/archive/The_Peaceful_Revolutionist in which he expounded his individualistic, anti-statist philosophy. Warren's Equitable Commerce (1847, also known as A Brief Outline of Equitable Commerce) https://archive.org/details/equitablecommerc00warr was a pioneering work, standing as the first significant presentation of individualist-anarchism in America. His other major work True Civilization expanded upon that theme (1863). http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bright/warren/truecivtoc.html It was largely as a result of meeting Warren and the anarchist free-banking advocate William B. Greene (Mutual Banking, 1850) http://www.anarchism.net/mutualbanking_print.htm at the New England Labor Reform League (NELRL) that Tucker turned to anarchism. The NELRL attracted many of the best individualist anarchist thinkers of the day, including Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) whom Tucker considered “his mentor.”Spooner's writings can be divided into two sections. In the first one, Spooner actively uses constitutional appeals to argue his points. In the second one, he turns just as actively against the constitution, calling it a document “of no authority.” The change came about due to Spooner's disillusionment with the Civil War.The best known of Spooner's pre-war works is probably The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (1845) http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/spooner-the-unconstitutionality-of-slavery in which he takes a strong abolitionist stand. His best known post-war work is No Treason, which issued in three parts; intended as a six-part series, the middle sections were never written. The titles are: I. No Treason (1867) http://lysanderspooner.org/node/44 , II. No Treason. The Constitution (1867) http://lysanderspooner.org/node/63 , VI. No Treason. The Constitution of No Authority (1870) https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/NoTreason/NoTreason.html And then there are the works that transcend the shift such as the famous pamphlet Vices are Not Crimes. His entire works are available online or through The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner (1971).The Impact of Radical Movements on Individualist AnarchismThere was a continuing overlap between individualist anarchism and three radical movements: freethought, free love, and the labor movement. Neither freethought nor free love were explicitly anarchist, however. Free thought called for the separation of church and state; free love sought the separation of all sexual matters from the state. Because of their anti-state approach, individualist anarchists often became radical voices within these movements. For example, the homesteading pioneer George Henry Evans (1805-1856) advertised freethought works in his periodical The Working Man's Advocate. Tucker's periodical Liberty also featured freethought material. A partial list includes:Church and State http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bright/tolstoy/churchandstate.html by Leo Tolstoi;The Deist's Immortality lysanderspooner.org/node/18 by Spooner;God and the State http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bakunin/godandstate/godandstate_ch1.html by Bakounine;and Three Dreams in a Desert http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1439/1439-h/1439-h.htm by Olive Schreiner.The free love movement was also closely linked to individualist anarchism. Most prominently, the anarchist Moses Harman published a periodical entitled Lucifer, the Light Bearer (1883–1907) out of Kansas. Hal D. Sears' book The sex radicals: free love in high Victorian America (1977) offers the best overview of the free love movement and Harman.The free love periodical with which Tucker most closely associated was Ezra and Angelina Heywood's The Word (1872-1893). It began with a focus on free love but also served as the voice of the New England Labor Reform League. Ezra Heywood (1829-1893) is best remembered for the women's rights pamphlets Uncivil Liberty: An Essay to Show the Injustice and Impolicy of Ruling Woman Without Her Consent (1873) http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ezra-heywood-uncivil-liberty-an-essay-to-show-the-injustice-and-impolicy-of-ruling-woman-withou and Cupid's Yokes: The Binding Forces of Conjugal Life (1877) http://alexpeak.com/twr/cy/cy.html James J. Martin rendered a sense of Heywood's importance in writing “[Heywood] is best remembered for his efforts in the propagation of native anti-government thought and literature during a period of transition when radicalism was receding almost to the vanishing point before a wave of post-war sentiment for continued conformity.” Like Lysander Spooner, Heywood provided a bridge from pre-Civil War radicalism to the rebirth of individualist anarchism in the latter part of the 19th century.LaborTucker and other hardcore individualist anarchists tended to identify more closely with the labor movement than with freethought or free love. The NELRL was a magnet. Formed in 1869 by a group including Warren, Stephen Pearl Andrews (1812-1886), Ezra Heywood, and Wendell Phillips, it presented an anti-statist, anti-monopoly, anti-corporation philosophy, with a strong emphasis on the labor theory of value.It was an eclectic collection of reformers. For example, Andrews was already well known in radical circles for his free love book Love, Marriage, and Divorce and the Sovereignty of the Individual. A Discussion Between Henry James, Horace Greeley, and Stephen Pearl Andrews (1853). http://praxeology.net/HJ-HG-SPA-LMD.htm and for The Science of Society: The True Constitution of Government in the Sovereignty of the Individual as the Final Development of Protestantism, Democracy and Socialism. (1848). http://www.anarchism.net/scienceofsociety.htm Tucker published the first issue of Liberty magazine (August 1881-April 1908), which is widely considered to be the best individual anarchist periodical ever published. It addressed a broad range of issues and theoretical points but its focus was upon economics, including labor reform. The publication run constituted the 19th century's golden age for individualist anarchism.To promote its ideas, Liberty published and/or sold an amazing array of books and pamphlets. The following is a representative sample, which omits previously mentioned works, repetitive material and ones that are of lesser interest to anarchists. The descriptions were used in Liberty itself.A Small Sample of Liberty's LibraryAnarchism: Its Aims and Methods. By Victor Yarros. An address delivered at the first public meeting of the Boston Anarchists' Club and adopted by that organization in its authorized exposition of its principles. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=ha002918624 An Anarchist on Anarchy. An eloquent exposition of the beliefs of Anarchists by a man as eminent in science as in reform. By Elisee Reclus. https://archive.org/details/al_Elisee_Reclus_An_Anarchist_on_Anarchy_a4 The Ballad of Reading Gaol. By C.3.3....Oscar Wilde. A poem of more than 600 lines. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/301 [Note: Wilde's Soul of Man Under Socialism http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/hist_texts/wilde_soul.html was discussed elsewhere by Tucker.]The Fallacies in "Progress and Poverty." A bold attack on the position of Henry George. Written for the people, and as revolutionary in sentiment, and even more radical than "Progress and Poverty" itself. By William Hanson. http://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Fallacies_in_Progress_and_Poverty.html?id=wlE2AQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y [Note: Henry George contributed the unique perspective of a Single Tax on land to individualism but he was not an individualist anarchist. His book Progress and Poverty http://www.henrygeorge.org/pcontents.htm was roundly criticized in Liberty.]Free Political Institutions: Their Nature, Essence, and Maintenance. An abridgment and rearrangement of Lysander Spooner's "Trial by Jury." Edited by Victor Yarros. http://books.google.ca/books?id=Q7jyTZ4yKbAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Free+Political+Institutions:+Their+Nature,+Essence,+and+Maintenance%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Drw1U77BNq-02AXMpYD4Bw&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Free%20Political%20Institutions%3A%20Their%20Nature%2C%20Essence%2C%20and%20Maintenance%22&f=false Instead of a Book, By a Man Too Busy to Write One. A Fragmentary Exposition of Philosophical Anarchism. (1893) Culled from the writings of Benj. R. Tucker. http://fair-use.org/benjamin-tucker/instead-of-a-book/ A Politician in Sight of Haven Being a Protest against the Government of Man by Man. By Auberon Herbert. https://archive.org/details/politicianinsigh00herbrich The Rights of Women and the Sexual Relations. An Address to an Unknown Lady Reader. By Karl Heinzen. https://archive.org/details/rightsofwomensex00heinrich A Strike of Millionaires Against Miners: Or, The Story of Spring Valley. By Henry D. Lloyd. A book to be read by everyone who wants to learn the methods by which, in this free and glorious Republic, the people are being robbed of their labors and liberties. https://archive.org/details/strikeofmilliona00lloy The Thirty-Six Trades of the State. By Arsene Alexandre. Translated from the French by Benj. R. Tucker. Showing the state as a jack-at-all-trades and good at none. https://archive.org/details/2916933.0001.001.umich.edu Voluntary Socialism. By F. D. Tandy. A complete and systematic outline of Anarchistic philosophy and economics, written in a clear, concise, and simple style. It is followed by a suggestive bibliography of books of service to those who wish to study the subject more deeply, and contains also a complete index. http://praxeology.net/FDT-VS.htm As well as Instead of a Book, another collection of articles was compiled from Tucker's Liberty writings; Individual Liberty: Selections From the Writings of Benjamin R. Tucker was edited with an introduction by Tucker's friend and associate C.L. Swartz. http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/tucker/tucker.html Tucker's “State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree And Wherein They Differ” (1888) is one of the classic essays of individualist anarchism. http://praxeology.net/BT-SSA.htm Liberty also issued a series of Spooner's works, including Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty (1875) http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lysander-spooner-vices-are-not-crimes-a-vindication-of-moral-liberty and Natural Law; or the Science of Justice (1882) http://lysanderspooner.org/node/59 The fire that destroyed the Liberty office in January 1908 destroyed the center of individualist anarchism in America. World War I followed about ten years thereafter and completed the process. Before moving into the 20th century revival of the tradition, however, it is important to mention a few other figures and to touch in passing upon the British individualist movement that was a counterpart to the American one.Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912)was a strong passionate voice not only for anarchism but also for feminism and free love; she was individualism's version of Emma Goldman. Her Essays and Other Writings &ved=0CEgQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false http://www.voltairine.org/essays.php and The Selected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre (1914) provides a sense of her approach and style. http://books.google.com/books?id=wLmXwmmq10AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=voltairine+de+cleyre&hl=en&ei=juXQTPz2Non0swPdwKWVCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7 Her work Anarchism and American Tradition is also classic. http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voltairine-de-cleyre-anarchism-and-american-traditions Avrich's biography is considered definitive: An American Anarchist, The Life of Voltairine de Cleyre (1978).The labor activist and anarchist Charles Joseph Antoine "Jo" Labadie (1850-1933) moved from socialism to individualist anarchism, and continued his efforts on behalf of labor. Anarchism What it is and what is isn't http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/joseph-labadie-anarchism-what-it-is-and-what-it-is-not may be his best known work. The pamphlet “I Welcome Disorder” (1910) captures his poetic style. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/labadie/2917761.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext All-American anarchist: Joseph A. Labadie and the labor movement (1998) by Carlotta R. Anderson offers a valuable portrait and overview.For a more comprehensive sense of the figures and themes of 19th century individualist anarchism, please see The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881-1908) (1994) edited by Frank Brooks or The Debates of Liberty (2002) by Wendy McElroy. Liberty and the Great Libertarians. An Anthology of Liberty, a Handbook of Freedom (1913) by Charles T. Sprading is also useful but includes several odd choices; for example, it includes Abraham Lincoln. https://archive.org/details/libertygreatlibe00spra The British IndividualistsAt the same time individualist anarchism flourished in America, a vigorous and radical individualism arose in Europe, especially Britain. In his essay, “The English Individualists as They Appear in Liberty,” Carl Watner explained, “The leading English individualists as they appear in Benjamin Tucker's journal, Liberty, are Auberon Herbert, Wordsworth Donisthorpe, Joseph Hiam Levy, Joseph Greevz Fisher, John Badcock, Jr., Albert Tarn, and Henry Seymour.....Although some of the English individualists refused to call themselves anarchists, their doctrines were perilously close to anarchism. Benjamin Tucker defined anarchism as the doctrine that the State should be abolished and all the affairs of men be carried out on a voluntary basis. More than likely, Herbert, Donisthorpe, Tarn, Seymour, and Badcock would have accepted this statement as an expression of their own political beliefs. J. H. Levy definitely would not. ”The most prominent of the British individualists was the prolific Herbert (1838-1906) of whom Tucker stated in eulogy, “"Auberon Herbert is dead. He was a true anarchist in everything but name.” Instead, Herbert used the term “voluntaryism.” His best known and most representative book is The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State and Other Essays (1885) http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/herbert-the-right-and-wrong-of-compulsion-by-the-state-and-other-essays-1978-ed . The Voluntaryist Creed (1908) is also recommended.Donisthorpe (1847-?) published regularly in later issues of Liberty; his book Individualism: A System of Politics (1889) is considered to be a classic. http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/donisthorpe-individualism-a-system-of-politics In 1894, Badcock (1861?-1926) added his book Slaves to Duty to the literature exploring Stirnerite egoism. http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/john-badcock-jr-slaves-to-duty Tarn edited edited the periodical Herald of Anarchy. But the distinction of publishing the first anarchist periodical in Britain was left to Seymour (1861-1938): The Anarchist.The 20th Century DawnsIndividualist anarchism in America fell into neglect after 1908. In his Editor's Foreword to Individual Liberty, C.L. Swartz wrote, “For a number of years practically all of the literature of Individualist Anarchism has been out of print. The great bulk of whatever matter there was had, of course, been in the hands of Benjamin R. Tucker, and up to 1908 it was being constantly augmented by him. But when, in January of that year, his entire wholesale stock of publications, manuscripts, etc., and nearly all of his plates were wiped out by fire, the loss was irreparable, and little attempt has been made to replace any of the material destroyed.”Tucker left America to live the rest of his life in Europe. Although he published in Dora Marsden's periodicals The Freewoman and the Egoist, a disillusioned Tucker turned away from his early activism. Marsden (1882-1960), who has been called the feminist Stirner, is a neglected individualist anarchist and anarcho-feminist; she is enjoying a revival, however, through works such as Bruce Clarke's Dora Marsden and Early Modernism: Gender, Individualism, Science (1996).Individual anarchists still wrote and were active but the movement lacked a core. For example, the journalist Hutchins Hapgood (1869-1944), who embraced both Stirner and Friedrich Nietzsche, produced most of his work in the first part of the century. His autobiography, A Victorian in the Modern World (1933) provides a fascinating glimpse into New York City's anarchist circles.Others vigorously promoted freedom without adopting the term individualist anarchism even though their beliefs were compatible. For example, the newspaper man Raymond Cyrus "R.C." Hoiles (1878–1970) in 1935 purchased the Santa Ana Register that became the flagship of the media empire Freedom News, Inc. An avid fan of laissez-faire capitalism, Hoiles would have been repelled by the labor of theory of value adopted by the 19th century anarchists. Indeed, the early 20th century is when individualist anarchism drifted from the labor theory of value.Notably, the individualist anarchist Robert LeFevre (1911–1986) worked for Hoiles as a writer; LeFevre called his philosophy Autarchism or self rule, which blended pacifism with anarchism. His two most influential books are arguably This Bread is Mine http://mises.org/books/thisbreadismine.pdf , The Power of Congress (As Congress Sees It) (1976) and The Nature of Man and His Government (1959) http://mises.org/daily/1970 with an introduction by Rose Wilder Lane. The definitive overview of LeFevre life and impact is offered in Carl Watner's Robert LeFevre: "Truth Is Not a Half-way Place" (1988).Lane was part of a wave of writers in the mid-century who kept individualism alive through their writing. Her most significant non-fiction book was The Discovery of Freedom (1943) (BK, THE LFC COPY) which argued that freedom was essential to wealth and happiness. The anarchist and contemporary Albert Jay Nock (1870–1945) declared Lane's and Isabel Paterson's nonfiction works to be "the only intelligible books on the philosophy of individualism that have been written in America this century." Paterson's most libertarian book was The God of the Machine (1943) (http://mises.org/books/godofmachine.pdf) Interestingly, in the same year, Ayn Rand issued The Fountainhead; Nock may well have excluded her from his comment because the book was fiction.The journalist and anarchist Nock was profoundly influenced by Franz Oppenheimer's (1864–1943) classic anti-collectivist work The State (1908, German). http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/oppenheimer-the-state In an 1936 article entitled "Isaiah's Job” (http://www.unz.org/Pub/Freeman-1956dec-00031), Nock abandoned the idea of salvaging the political system; instead he focused upon reaching out to what he called “the Remnant” who understood and lived freedom almost intuitively. His significant works include Our Enemy the State (1935) http://mises.org/books/Our_Enemy_The_State_Nock.pdf , The Theory of Education in the United States (1932) http://mises.org/books/education-nock.pdf and Memoirs of a Superfluous Man (1943) http://mises.org/books/nockmemoirs.pdf Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken (1880–1956) was a journalist and an iconoclastic commentator on American culture and politics. In his lifetime, Mencken defied political classification and, perhaps, consciously so. In his path-breaking book The American as Anarchist. Reflections on Indigenous Radicalism (1978), David DeLeon concluded that there was a form of “right anarchism” in America; it is a category into which Mencken may most comfortably fit. His relevant works include: The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1907) the first English language book on Nietzsche; Notes on Democracy (1926); and, Treatise on Right and Wrong (1934). Of the Prejudice series, Prejudices: Fourth Series (1924) is most relevant to anarchism. He wrote an “appreciation” of Tucker which was included in Free Vistas: An Anthology of Life and Letters, edited by Joseph Ishill (1937 edition).Frank Chodorov (1887–1966), an Old Right libertarian, claimed that "the state itself, regardless of its composition, is an exploitative institution." A founder of the periodical The Freeman, he was a close associate of Nock. Chodorov's work is well represented by a collection selected by Charles Hamilton, Fugitive Essays, Selected Writings of Frank Chodorov (1980). Chodorov's autobiography provides a launching point to explore this fascinating man: Out of Step: The Autobiography of an Individualist (1962).The economist Floyd Arthur "Baldy" Harper (1905–1973) is remembered for founding the Institute for Humane Studies in 1961. In his eulogy to Harper, the economist and political theorist Murray Rothbard (1926-1995) stated, “[H]e was a member of a veritable 'lost generation' from the libertarian point of view....Baldy and I came to anarcho-capitalism from laissez faire at about the same time, driven by inexorable logic, in what for us was the memorable winter of 1949–50. I vividly remember one time I was visiting him at FEE and he quietly pulled out a copy of Tolstoy's anarchist Law of Love and the Law of Violence (1908), which he confided that 'some of us are now reading with great interest'." His book Why Wages Rise (1957) mises.org/books/whywagesrise.pdf has been particularly influential on readers such as Charles Koch. There is a two-volume edition of his work entitled The Writings of F. A. Harper (1978, 1979) mises.org/books/writings_of_harper1.pdfLike Harper, the economist Leonard Read (1898-1983) is often best remembered for establishing an institute: the Foundation for Economic Education. Read's philosophy was that society should allow “anything that is peaceful.” His best known work is the essay "I, Pencil" (1958) with the full title being "I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read" (BK as originally published, http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/I,_Pencil) . It is an eloquent defense of how an invisible hand acts in the free market to provide good and services without state 'assistance'. A sense of his broader philosophy can be gleaned from his book Anything That's Peaceful: The Case for the Free Market (1964) http://mises.org/document/4019 In the '60s, individualist anarchism asserted itself through other venues as well, including the Freedom School established by LeFevre in 1956. The historian James J. Martin was a guest lecturer at the school. His definitive work on early American individualist anarchism Men Against the State provided the movement with its history. Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements (1962) by George Woodcock offers a broader, more international context for the history. James Joll's The Anarchists (1964) is also valuable.Rothbard played the seminal role of synthesizing the radicalism of 19th century individualist anarchism with Austrian economics and the isolationism of the American Old Right. Calling his philosophy “anarcho-capitalism,” he detached individualist anarchism from the labor theory of value and folded it into a laissez faire capitalist context. (In doing so, he drew upon the influence and insights of his mentor Ludwig von Mises, especially the masterpiece Human Action published in in English in 1949 http://www.econlib.org/library/Mises/HmA/msHmA1.html.) Rothbard was one of the most prolific writers in the tradition, with many of his books becoming classics. Arguably Rothbard's foundational book is Man, Economy, and State (1962). The original first eight chapters were not included by the publisher and appeared in 1970 under the title Power and Market. His 4 volume Conceived in Liberty (1975-1979) provides an indispensable reinterpretation of early American history just as his book America's Great Depression (1973) provides a free market analysis of that period. His most accessible works may well be For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto (1973) and Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays (1974). BK, I HAVE NOT GIVEN LINKS TO THESE BOOKS BECAUSE THEY WOULD BE FROM THE MISES INST. WHICH IS VERY POSSESSIVE OF ROTHBARD.)Much of Rothbard's profound impact on individualist anarchism, however, came from his personal influence upon a younger generation, as the guide explains later after touching upon other important figures of the '60s and '70s. As with Tucker, the “Rothbardians” have so prolifically addressed political and social issues that a full listing is not possible. A partial listing is offered only to indicate the depth and breadth of Rothbard's legacy. An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (2000) by Justin Raimondo provides more in-depth information.A sampling of Rothbardian anarchists:Hans-Hermann Hoppe, whom some consider to be Rothbard's “heir.” His writings include Economic Science and the Austrian Method (1995) and The Economics and Ethics of Private Property (2nd edition, 2006)Ralph Raico, a noted historian in the Austrian tradition. His latest book is Classical Liberalism and the Austrian School (2012).Walter Block, an Austrian economist and anarchist theorist. Block is best known for his book Defending the Undefendable (1976); his economic approach is captured by The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors (2009).Lew Rockwell, the head of Mises Institute. A representative sample of his writing is The Left, The Right, and The State (2008).David Gordon, a philosopher. His book Resurrecting Marx: The Analytical Marxists on Exploitation, Freedom, and Justice (1990) is recommended.Thomas Woods, an historian and best-selling author. His latest book is Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse (2011).Robert Higgs, an economic hisstorian. Arms, Politics, and the Economy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (1990) is representative of his meticulous scholarship.Apologies to all Rothbardian anarchists who are not mentioned.Karl Hess (1923–1994) came at liberty from a somewhat different angle. Hess is famous for having scripted the line uttered by Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." Influenced by Rothbard, Hess began to read anarchist tracts and found them convincing, especially those by Emma Goldman. (See Goldman's My Disillusionment With Russia (1931) http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/goldman/disillusion/toc.html and Living My Life (1931) http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/goldman/living/livingtoc.html) Hess' best known anarchist work is probably Dear America (1975) which is part autobiography, part manifesto. Hess was a pioneer in two themes that would later come to prominence within libertarian anarchism. 1) He advocated and practiced a self-sufficient survivalist lifestyle, building a house with passive-solar heating and chose to live largely through barter; his philosophy on this point was captured in the book A Common Sense Strategy for Survivalists (1981). 2) He also attempted to bridge the gap between “right libertarians” and left libertarians.”Morris and Linda Tannehill issued the now-classic The Market for Liberty in 1970 http://libertyactivism.info/uploads/6/65/The_Market_for_Liberty_-_Morris_and_Linda_Tannehill.pdf , with a foreword by Hess. A later edition had a foreword by Douglas Casey who had been deeply impacted by the work. (Casey went on to author several books that advocated personal freedom through financial security and becoming “an international” person; his approach is found in The International Man (1978) and Totally Incorrect: Conversations with Doug Casey (2012).) The Market for Liberty was influential because outlined the manner by which businesses and other organizational structures in the free market would interact to keep crime and other social problems to a minimum. It offered a practical view of how 'law' and private defense agencies would function in anarchy.Meanwhile, Samuel E. Konkin III or SEK3 (1947–2004) founded the Movement of the Libertarian Left which considers libertarianism, if properly viewed, as a radically left movement. He called his political philosophy called “agorism”and advocated a voluntary society in which people take their activities underground. Counter-economic activities, such as the black market, would achieve a peaceful revolution. His work New Libertarian Manifesto (1980) http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/nlm/nlm1.html was the first exposition of agorism and is one of the forerunners of the current left libertarianism movement, which is sometimes called libertarian socialism.In 1982, Carl Watner, George H. Smith and Wendy McElroy formed The Voluntaryists organization in order to counter the rise of electoral politics within the libertarian and anarchist movements, and to explore non-political means of achieving a free society. In doing so, they built upon Sy Leon's accessible book None of the Above - The Lesser of Two Evils . . . is Evil (1976). They also drew heavily upon the non-violent and passive resistance philosophy of the anarchis Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948); his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth (two volumes, 1927, 1929) provides a good starting point for investigating this strategy. The Voluntaryists also incorporated the definitive three-volume work by Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (1973).The Voluntaryist's philosophy and approach is captured in the anthology Neither Bullets Nor Ballots (1983). The Voluntaryist appeared in 1982 and continues to this day. The Essential Voluntaryist (2014) reprints many of the best Voluntaryist articles written by Watner. [BK YOU SHOULD HAVE THE LIBERTY.ME LINK. I DON'T.] His other books include Toward a Proprietary Theory of Justice' (1976) and Dissenting Electorate: Those Who Refuse to Vote and the Legitimacy of Their Opposition (2004, with McElroy).George H. Smith's approach is expressed in The System of Liberty: Themes in the History of Classical Liberalism (2013). Wendy McElroy offers an overview of 19th century individualist anarchism in The Debates of Liberty: An Overview of Individualist Anarchism, 1881-1908 (2002) and Individualist Feminism of the Nineteenth Century: Collected Writings and Biographical Profiles (2001).Left Libertarianism/AnarchismLeft libertarianism or anarchism is a new voice within the broader anarchist movement. Roderick Long, who is arguably the central figure in left libertarian anarchism. Long defines libertarianism as "any political position that advocates a radical redistribution of power from the coercive state to voluntary associations of free individuals." The voluntary associations would include communes and other non-free market arrangements, which left libertarians sometimes call “freed markets.” Building on this definition, left libertarians contend that the left-wing answers some social problems better than traditional libertarianism. The sympathetic scholar Sheldon Richman provided a concise explanation,Left-libertarians favor worker solidarity vis-à-vis bosses, support poor people's squatting on government or abandoned property, and prefer that corporate privileges be repealed before the regulatory restrictions on how those privileges may be exercised. They see Walmart as a symbol of corporate favoritism—supported by highway subsidies and eminent domain—view the fictive personhood of the limited-liability corporation with suspicion, and doubt that Third World sweatshops would be the "best alternative" in the absence of government manipulation. Left-libertarians tend to eschew electoral politics, having little confidence in strategies that work through the government. They prefer to develop alternative institutions and methods of working around the state.In economics, the left libertarians harken back to the mutualism of Proudhon and the positions held by the 19th century American individualist anarchists. They favor radical but peaceful solutions to perceived social problems, such as discrimination, because they oppose hierarchies and asymmetries in power.The following anarchists are closed associated with left libertarianism:Roderick T. Long, a professor of philosophy. Reason and Value: Aristotle versus Rand (2000) is representative of his meticulous research.Kevin Carson, a social and political theorist. A prolific writer, his works include Studies in Mutualist Political Economy (2007) and The Homebrew Industrial Revolution: A Low Overhead Manifesto (2010) .Gary Chartier, a legal scholar. His latest book is Anarchy and Legal Order: Law and Politics for a Stateless Society. (2013).Charles Johnson, a self-described “student of philosophy, and sometime teacher of logic.” The anthology he co-edited with Chartier captures a basic theme of left libertarianism: Markets Not Capitalism: Individualist Anarchism Against Bosses, Inequality, Corporate Power, and Structural Poverty (2011).Brad Spangler, a Senior Fellow and Trustee for the Center for a Stateless Society.His book Sedition on the Installment Plan: Collected Notes on Anarchism, Libertarian Theory and More (2012) provides a good overview of Spangler's approach.Figures Too Important To Skip OverImportant contributions have been made by authors who do not easily fit into a category or timeline. [Indeed, I have skipped over entire movements, like the Modern School on inpired by Francis Ferrer: see Avrich's The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States (1980).] The following list indicates a mere handful of contributors without the slightest pretense of being comprehensive.Dorothy Day (1897–1980), a social activist and Catholic anarchist. The best overview of her work is provided in her own words: The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of Dorothy Day (1952).Laurance Labadie (1898-1975), son of Joseph Labadie. Key writings include Origin and Nature of Government http://left-liberty.net/?p=58 and Anarchism Applied to Economics (1933). the easiest way to access Labadie is through James J. Martin's Introduction to Laurance Labadie: Selected Essays (1978).Robert Nozick (1938-2002), a professor of philosophy. His book Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) introduced anarchism into an academic environment and stirred immense debate. It stands as a libertarian response to John Rawls' A Theory of Justice.David Friedman, an economist, legal scholar, and political theorist His best known work is The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to Radical Capitalism (1973) which advances an arguments for a voluntary society based on private property and individual rights.Stephan Kinsella, the leading anti-intellectual property voice. Kinsella publishes anti-IP views largely in periodicals such as Journal of Libertarian Studies. Volume 15, no. 2 (Spring 2001): “Against Intellectual Property.” It is difficult to overstate the impact of his work on this issue.J. Michael Oliver, publisher of the periodical The New Banner. The New Libertarianism: Anarcho-Capitalism (2013) is the only publication of his 1972 dissertation in which Oliver was the first to synthesize the ideas of Rand and Rothbard.In concluding this whirlwind tour of individualist anarchism, I can only repeat a sentiment stated in the introduction. I envy every single reader for the intellectual adventure on which you are embarking. I wish you friends with whom to debate the ideas and arguments long into the night, over a good bottle of wine. Afterward, I hope you post to the anarchist section of liberty.me so that I can experience the “breath of fresh air” vicariously.