American Anarchist questions...

[Reznov]

Alright, I have to read for my U.S. History class a "book that relates to the American country, it can be political, social, economic, fiction etc..."

So, I know a little that there were some Anarchists in America I think around the 1920's I believe. Other then that, I've got nothing.

I was wondering if there were any good books on this? The book must have an American author.

[ContrarianLemming]

you dont need to only ask americans about american books :p almost all of my books are american written.

suggest "A Peoples history of America" if you wanna be a good historic commie. By Howard Zinn

takes a look at Americas history from the perspective of the oppressed groups.

[Reznov]

I think you misunderstand me Contrarian, I am asking for any specific books on American Anarchists.

I am asking only for Americans because it has to be written by an American Author because that is one of the things that is required in my U.S. history class.

And I would just like to learn more about the American Anarchists since they are hardly ever talked about here on RevLeft.

[ContrarianLemming]

I think you misunderstand me Contrarian, I am asking for any specific books on American Anarchists.

I am asking only for Americans because it has to be written by an American Author because that is one of the things that is required in my U.S. history class.

And I would just like to learn more about the American Anarchists since they are hardly ever talked about here on RevLeft.

oh my mistake, i thought something by american anarchists

look up a biography for Emma Goldman maybe, she was sort of american lithuanian I think. Or the haymarket anarchists

[JazzRemington]

James J. Martin's Men Against the State is about individualist anarchists in America. You can find a copy here: http://mises.org/books/Men_Against_the_State_Martin.pdf

p.s., I know it's hosted on Mises.org, but it was written in the 1950s and has nothing to do with "anarcho-"capitalists.

[Reznov]

oh my mistake, i thought something by american anarchists

look up a biography for Emma Goldman maybe, she was sort of american lithuanian I think. Or the haymarket anarchists

Oh no, look.

I need a book written by a American Author.

I was interested in reading a book that involved American Anarchists, but it would have to have an American Author.

But I am assuming so since im sure on of the American Anarchists had to write something at the time they were around.

[ContrarianLemming]

Basically anything by the american anarchists would fit this, again, emma goldman

[syndicat]

well, it's not clear whether you want something about American anarchists, their history, or by an American anarchist. Bruce Nelson's "Beyond the Martyrs" is a social history of the Chicago anarchists from the IWPA of the 1880s through about 1900 or so. but he's probably not an anarchist, tho it's a pretty good history. from then until relatively recently there haven't been many anarchists in the USA, apart from immigrant anarchist groups.

[Os Cangaceiros]

You should look into the work of one Paul Avrich.

[Summerspeaker]

I suggest Voltairine de Cleyre (http://www.voltairine.org/). She was a native-born American anarchist, friend/rival of Emma Goldman, and wrote explicitly about anarchism and American traditions. Selected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre (http://books.google.com/books?id=Jd1AAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=voltairine+de+cleyre&hl=en&ei=rFC-TOW_FIr4swPJjKXoDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEsQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false) would be one place to start. Gates of Freedom (http://books.google.com/books?id=rI1jAAAAMAAJ&q=gates+of+freedom&dq=gates+of+freedom&hl=en&ei=kVG-TKWKM5H0swP4ubz_DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAQ) stands out among academic works on de Cleyre. She was not a communist, though, if that matters to you.

[Magón]

If you want an American Author, or at least was a US Citizen for a while, Anarchist, and living in the 1920s, then Emma Goldman's Living My Life is a good place to start. It's all about the Labor Movement in the US.

I would also maybe suggest Cindy Milstein's Anarchism and it's Aspirations, but it's goes into the Greek Anarchists also. But it does talk about the "Battle for Seattle" with the Anarchists v. WTO (World Trade Organization).

[MarxSchmarx]

These are all good suggestions. All else fails you can try Murray Bookchin.

I'd also encourage you look beyond the dead white folk.

There is a healthy literature on the American connection of many libertarian movements during the Mexican civil war, and the contributions of Asian Americans, particularly on the west coast, are now being more widely appreciated. For example, anything by Kotoku Shosui is another possibility, he spent a significant time in America.

If you can get your hand on them, there is a fascinating and burgeoning literature about Chinese radical workers in 1920s America:
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/1610

[Os Cangaceiros]

She was not a communist, though, if that matters to you.

Huh? She was associated with individualists for a time, but have you read works like Direct Action? In her opinion the Paris Commune failed because they didn't abolish private property.

[Summerspeaker]

In 1907 de Cleyre disavowed both communism and individualism. She called herself an anarchist without economic label attached.

As far as avoiding dead white folks goes, I'd suggest something on Ricardo Flores Magón or Lucy Parsons. Flores Magón wasn't technically an American but he spent around half of his life in the states.

[Os Cangaceiros]

In 1907 de Cleyre disavowed both communism and individualism. She called herself an anarchist without economic label attached.

As far as avoiding dead white folks goes, I'd suggest something on Ricardo Flores Magón or Lucy Parsons. Flores Magón wasn't technically an American but he spent around half of his life in the states.


Malatesta embraced "anarchism without adjectives", too. Doesn't mean that he wasn't a communist.

[Summerspeaker]

De Cleyre wrote in 1907, "I am not now, and have never been at any time, a communist." I think that means she wasn't a communist.

[Ovi]

Initially she was an individualist, but later she renounced her individualist ideas for being incompatible with freedom (communism requires a degree of administration more than ideal anarchism, but individualism resting upon property, is incompatible with my notions of freedom, or something like that). She said that the Paris Commune failed because they weren't communist enough and promoted the idea of everyone having free access to the products of society instead of the never ending debate about using money, labor vouchers and other schemes

I concluded that as to the question of exchange and money, it was so exceedingly bewildering, so impossible of settlement among the professors themselves, as to the nature of value, and the representation of value, and the unit of value, and the numberless multiplications and divisions of the subject, that the best thing ordinary workingmen or women could do was to organise their industry so as to get rid of money altogether. I figured it this way: I’m not any more a fool than the rest of ordinary humanity; I’ve figured and figured away on this thing for years, and directly I thought myself middling straight, there came another money reformer and showed me the hole in that scheme, till, at last , it appears that between 'bills of credit,' and 'labour notes' and 'time checks,' and 'mutual bank issues,' and 'the invariable unit of value,' none of them have any sense. How many thousands of years is it going to get this sort of thing into people’s heads by mere preaching of theories. Let it be this way: Let there be an end of the special monopoly on securities for money issues. Let every community go ahead and try some member's money scheme if it wants; - let every individual try it if he pleases. But better for the working people let them all go. Let them produce together, co-operatively rather than as employer and employed; let them fraternise group by group, let each use what he needs of his own product, and deposit the rest in the storage-houses, and let those others who need goods have them as occasion arises.She refused to call herself anything else other than anarchist, probably due to her eventual rejection of individualism, which I tend to agree with.

[Triple A]

I would recommend Lisander Spooner or Henry Thoreau.
They have interesting points of view.