The practical anarchist : writings of Josiah Warren

312 Pages·2011·5.42 MB·English

by  Warren

the practical anarchist
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american philosophy
Douglas R. Anderson and Jude Jones, series editors
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t h e p r a c t i c a l
a n a r c h i s t
Writings of Josiah Warren
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Edited and with an Introduction by
crispin sartwell
fordham university press new york 2011
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Copyright(cid:2)2011FordhamUniversityPress
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,stored
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Fordham University Press also publishes its books in a variety of elec-
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inelectronicbooks.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Warren,Josiah,1798–1874.
Thepracticalanarchist:writingsofJosiahWarren/editedandwith
anintroductionbyCrispinSartwell.—1sted.
p.cm.—(Americanphilosophy)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978–0-8232–3370–0(cloth:alk.paper)
ISBN978–0-8232–3372–4(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Warren,Josiah,1798–1874. 2.Anarchism—UnitedStates.
3.Utopiansocialism—UnitedStates. I.Sartwell,Crispin,1958–
II.Title.
HX843.7.W27 2011
335(cid:2).83092—dc22
2011013452
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
13 12 11 5 4 3 2 1
Firstedition
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Contents
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Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
EquitableCommerce 54
ThePeacefulRevolutionist 99
‘‘NotebookD’’ 124
TrueCivilization 139
NarrativeofPracticalExperiments 184
EphemeraandMiscellanea 219
Early Writings 219
‘‘FromtheMarchofMind’’ 220
‘‘ImprovementoftheMachineryofLaw’’ 222
ModernEducation 225
AgainstCompulsoryEducation 230
WrittenMusicRemodeled 231
‘‘AFewWordstotheWriterinaPaperCalledthe
Circular ontheSovereigntyoftheIndividual’’ 235
‘‘Manifesto’’ 237
‘‘MyDearSir’’ 242
Open LettertoLouis Kossuth 246
Simplicity 249
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viii contents
Appendixes
A. ChronologyofWarren’sLife 253
B. AmericanIndividualist AnarchistsoftheNineteenth
Century 264
C. AmericanUtopias 268
D. JosiahWarren: AnAnnotatedBibliography 273
Notes 281
Index 291
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Acknowledgments
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A
summer grant from Dickinson Collegehelped to fund research
incollectionsandtoobtainphotocopies.IthankDickinsonfor
that and manyother forms of support.My work on Warrenhas pig-
gybacked on the exemplary research of Shawn Wilbur. Dana Ward’s
‘‘Anarchy Archives’’ website gave me my first real contact with War-
ren’s texts, and earlier versions of some of texts reprinted here, in-
cluding versions typeset by Warren, can be found there. The
Wisconsin Historical Society, the Indiana Historical Society, the La-
badieCollectionattheUniversityofMichigan,theHoughtonLibrary
atHarvard University,andtheWorkingMen’s InstituteatNewHar-
mony, Indiana, were of extraordinary aid in obtaining the materials
contained in this book. Finally, I want to express my admiration for
JosiahWarren:ahalf-crackedmonomaniacbutalsoanomni-compe-
tenthumanbeing.Iadmirehisstyleofanti-leadership,basedonanti-
charisma: too reticent to tell you how to live. Rarely have extreme
idealismandextremerealismbeensoidiosyncraticallyorsocompel-
linglycombined. Itisacombinationwemayrequire yet.
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