Anarchy and Geography: Reclus and Kropotkin in the UK

259 Pages·2018·4.482 MB·English

by  Federico Ferretti

Anarchy and Geography
This book provides a historical account of anarchist geographies in the UK
and the implications for current practice. It looks at the works of Frenchman
Élisée Reclus (1830–1905) and Russian Pyotr Kropotkin (1842–1921) which
were cultivated during their exile in Britain and Ireland.
Anarchist geographies have recently gained considerable interest across
scholarly disciplines. Many aspects of the international anarchist tradition
remain little-known and English-speaking scholarship remains mostly
impenetrable to authors. Inspired by approaches in historiography and mobi-
lities, this book links print culture and Reclus and Kropotkin’s spheres in
Britain and Ireland. The author draws on primary sources, biographical links
and political circles to establish the early networks of anarchist geographies.
Their social, cultural and geographical context played a decisive role in the
formation and dissemination of anarchist ideas on geographies of social
inequalities, anti-colonialism, anti-racism, feminism, civil liberties, animal
rights and ‘humane’ or humanistic approaches to socialism.
This book will be relevant to anarchist geographers and is recommended
supplementary reading for individuals studying historical geography, history,
geopoliticsandanti-colonialism.
Federico Ferretti is a Lecturer in Human Geography at University College
Dublin, Ireland. He discussed a PhD dissertation on Élisée Reclus’s New
Universal Geography at the Universities of Bologna and Paris 1 Panthéon-
Sorbonne. He has taught in Italy, Switzerland, France and Brazil. His main
research interests lie in alternative geographical traditions and the interna-
tionalandmultilingualcirculationofgeographicalknowledge,especiallyfrom
Latin America and continental Europe.
Routledge Research in Historical Geography
Series editors:
Simon Naylor, University of Glasgow, UK and Laura Cameron,
Queen’s University, Canada
This series offers a forum fororiginal and innovative research, exploring awide
range of topics encompassed by the sub-discipline of historical geography and
cognatefieldsinthehumanitiesandsocialsciences.Titleswithintheseriesadopt
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portshistoriographicalandtheoreticaloverviews,andeditedcollectionsofessays
on historical-geographical themes. This series is aimed at upper-level under-
graduates,researchstudentsandacademics.
Cultural Histories, Memories and Extreme Weather
A Historical Geography Perspective
Edited by Georgina H. Endfield and Lucy Veale
Commemorative Spaces of the First World War
Historical Geographies at the Centenary
Edited by James Wallis and David C. Harvey
Architectures of Hurry—Mobilities, Cities and Modernity
Edited by Phillip Gordon Mackintosh, Richard Dennis, and Deryck W.
Holdsworth
Anarchy and Geography
Reclus and Kropotkin in the UK
Federico Ferretti
Twentieth Century Land Settlement Schemes
Edited by Roy Jones and Alexandre M. A. Diniz
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Anarchy and Geography
Reclus and Kropotkin in the UK
Federico Ferretti
Firstpublished2019
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This book is dedicated to my father Angelo Ferretti (Reggio
Emilia, 1930–2018), witness of the anti-fascist memories of my
family and my land, and one of the last representatives of gen-
erations of self-educated proletarians who first experienced read-
ing books in the night, after long days of manual work. It was
from him that I heard the name of Reclus for the first time.
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Contents
List of figures ix
Introduction: alternative geographical traditions 1
1 The Reclus brothers: translating science and radical politics in the
age of empire 13
Exiles in the British Islands: discovering social and colonial
questions 14
Reclus in Ireland: discovering colonialism and landlordism 18
Long-lasting effects of the London experience: dealing with British
science 20
Reclus in London on numerous occasions 24
2 Editorial networks and the publics of science: building pluralist
geographies 38
Kropotkin’s early networks: John Scott Keltie, Patrick Geddes and
Joseph Cowen 39
Geographers, editors and gentlemen: Henry Bates, Hugh Mill,
William Robertson-Smith, Hugh Chisholm 43
The Nineteenth Century: socialism and evolutionary theorising 50
Kropotkin: an anarchist in the editorial business 56
The business world of publishing again: Halford Mackinder and
the anarchists 62
3 Establishing a geographical tradition in the ‘British Isles’:
emergent social and political geographies 69
A universal geography, and an amazing traveller’s guide 70
Showing London to the French 71
The NGU and the Mediterranean metaphor 74
viii Contents
The NGU and the principle of coastal indentation 79
Fields, factories and workshops: an anarchist economic geography
of England 82
4 Striving for Freedom: Reclus’s and Kropotkin’s politics in the UK 90
Charlotte and Pyotr: founding a journal 91
Anarchism, female activism and women’s rights 95
For ‘subject races’ and for Ireland: Nannie Dryhurst and the
others 104
A strenuous anti-colonialist 104
Freedom for Ireland 111
Kropotkin and Alfred Marsh: between activism and
scholarship 116
Decolonizing socialism (and geography): The Black Man’s
Burden 120
Reclus and Freedom against the Empire 120
Jingoes and Matabele 127
Non-European revolutions 133
5 Ripples and waves of anarchist writing: towards humane sciences 152
The most ‘humane’ collaborator: Richard Heath 154
Reclus, and Heath’s French connection 154
Heath, and Kropotkin’s British connection 162
Anarchism, humanism and gay rights: Edward Carpenter and
Havelock Ellis 169
Ethical socialism: Henry Salt, William Morris and Walter
Crane 180
Morris and anarchism 188
The Scottish connection: James Mavor, the Geikies and the
Geddeses 195
208
6 Conclusion: the relevance of early critical geographies
Appendix A: Pyotr Kropotkin, ‘Natural selection and mutual aid’ 212
Appendix B: Élisée Reclus, ‘War’, Freedom, May 1898 214
Appendix C: [Edward Carpenter], To Peter Kropotkin from
Friends in Great Britain and Ireland, 1912 215
Archives 217
References 220
Index 236
Figures
3.1 Égouts de Londres [London’s sewers] 73
3.2 Agrandissements successifs de Londres [London’s historical
development] 76
3.3 Surfaces comparées de Paris et de Londres [Surface area
comparisons of Paris and London] 77
3.4 Londres et l’estuaire de la Tamise [London, and the estuary of
the Thames] 78
4.1 Anti-colonial caricature from Reclus’s last book 123
4.2 L’Angleterre et son cortège [England, and her court] 124
4.3 The Freedom cover dedicated to the Japanese anarchists
executed 138