American Anarchism Studies in Critical Social Sciences Series Editor David Fasenfest Wayne State University Editorial Board Chris Chase-Dunn, University of California-Riverside G. William Domhoff, University of California-Santa Cruz Colette Fagan, Manchester University Matha Gimenez, University of Colorado, Boulder Heidi Gottfried, Wayne State University Karin Gottschall, University of Bremen Bob Jessop, Lancaster University Rhonda Levine, Colgate University Jacqueline O’Reilly, University of Brighton Mary Romero, Arizona State University Chizuko Ueno, University of Tokyo VOLUME 57 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/scss American Anarchism By Steve J. Shone LEIDEN • BOSTON 2013 Cover illustration: Statue of Liberty, New York. Source: Sunipix. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shone, Steve J. American anarchism / by Steve J. Shone. pages cm. -- (Studies in critical social sciences ; volume 57) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-25194-6 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-25195-3 (e-book) 1. Anarchism-- United States--History--19th century. I. Title. HX828.S546 2013 335’.83092273--dc23 2013030105 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1573-4234 ISBN 978-90-04-25194-6 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25195-3 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. PG1636 PG1636 CONTENTS Foreword by Nathan J. Jun .....................................................................................vii Introduction ................................................................................................................1 1. Benjamin R. Tucker: Anarchism, Tyranny, and Despair ....................... 12 2. Voltairine de Cleyre: More of an Anarchist than a Feminist? ������������ 38 3. Lucy Parsons on the Lives of the Poor: An Alternative Democracy........................................................................................................ 60 4. Peter Kropotkin’s Just Community ............................................................ 87 5. Samuel Fielden: Forlorn Chartist at Haymarket ����������������������������������103 6. Alexander Berkman: Generally a Straight Shooter ������������������������������143 7. Luigi Galleani: Is Anarchism Dead? ��������������������������������������������������������193 8. Max Stirner: Hanging Out with One’s Own ...........................................207 9. William Graham Sumner: Cultural Relativism and the Savage �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������236 10. The Heart of Anarchism: Innate Knowledge of Virtue Reconsidered .................................................................................................251 Bibliography ...........................................................................................................267 Index .........................................................................................................................291 PG3298 PG3298 PG3298 PG3298 FOREWORD Perhaps the most noble effort of the anarchist studies milieu has been its attempt, still ongoing, to recover and redeem the lost history of anarchism. Less noble is the near total failure of those within the milieu to explain to those outside why they ought to care about this history. Steve Shone’s American Anarchism does not make this mistake and, for this reason alone, immediately stands apart from similar works that have been pub- lished in recent years. From the outset, Shone makes a powerful case that the figures and ideas he aims to discuss are more relevant today than at any point since their heyday in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The result is that American Anarchism is not just intellectual history; it is also a work of social criticism. As intellectual history, however, American Anarchism is masterful. Self-consciously working against the longstanding and wrongheaded ten- dency to reduce the entire “classical anarchist” tradition to two or three white, European men, Shone enlists as his representatives non-whites (Lucy Parsons), women (Voltairine de Cleyre), Jews (Alexander Berkman), and immigrants (Samuel Fielden and Luigi Galleani). He includes communists (Peter Kropotkin) as well as individualists (Benjamin Tucker and Max Stirner), and even makes a brilliant and creative case on behalf of the anarchist bona fides of William Graham Sumner. The result is a refreshingly thorough and accurate picture of the diversity – both demo- graphic and intellectual – that characterized the “classical anarchist” movement. Also commendable is Shone’s decision to provide a general overview rather than an exhaustive and comprehensive analysis of these figures’ ideas. The latter course would not only have been too ambitious for a book this size but also would have eliminated another of American Anarchism’s principal virtues – namely, the sense of connectedness and coherence which exists between chapters. By privileging general anarchist themes over idiosyncratic ideas, Shone clearly and skillfully articulates what these otherwise diverse thinkers share in common, rather than how they differ amongst themselves. As a political theorist and historian of philosophy I am often dismayed by the superficial, myopic rubbish that passes for exegesis and analysis in so much contemporary scholarship. Just the PG3298 PG3298 viii foreword opposite is on display in American Anarchism; this is a work which takes its subject matter seriously, giving it the careful attention it so richly deserves. Nathan J. Jun, Ph.D. Department of Philosophy Midwestern State University Wichita Falls, Texas PG3298 PG3298 INTRODUCTION The span of this book, which is mainly devoted to nineteenth-century American Anarchism,1 includes also the ideas of Peter Kropotkin (the sub- ject of Chapters Four and Ten), who influenced, among others, Voltairine de Cleyre (covered in Chapter Two), Lucy Parsons (Chapter Three), Alexander Berkman (Chapter Six), and Luigi Galleani (Chapter Seven), as well as the thought of Max Stirner (Chapter Eight), whose writings had a considerable impact on Benjamin Tucker, the topic of Chapter One. As Buhle (1983, 21) suggests when discussing Berkman’s confederate, Emma Goldman, “[w]e need most especially to reassess American working class anarchism.” Of the anarchists discussed in detail here, three – Berkman (and Goldman), Samuel Fielden (Chapter Five), and Galleani – emigrated to the United States from other countries, with Berkman, Goldman, and Galleani all eventually being deported; Fielden was sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in the Haymarket bombing (which is discussed in Chapter Five), and eventually pardoned, while Parsons’ husband, Albert, was executed in connection with that event, an act that many scholars today consider to have been an instance of official murder. In a time of crisis, of widespread dissatisfaction with the government of the United States, it is perhaps time to reevaluate the potential contributions that nineteenth century anarchists might yet be able to make toward achieve- ment of a more satisfactory political system. There is space here only to sketch some possible arguments for the exis- tence of a widespread lack of confidence in the current system of govern- ment of the United States. Indeed, there might be a thousand possible versions that could be proffered to justify the conclusion that “democracy” has failed. Some commentators would point to a great unhappiness with administration officials, even among their own number. For example, the US House of Representatives’ report on the executive branch’s response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was titled “A Failure of Initiative.” The 2006 statement, written by eleven Republican members, put much of the blame for the inability to respond adequately to a natural disaster (which had a 1 The phrase, “American Anarchism” is used here in its capitalized form to denote the specific ideology of US-based, often individualistic, anarchism of which Josiah Warren, Benjamin Tucker, and Lysander Spooner are the most obvious adherents. PG3298 PG3298 2 introduction devastating effect on the lives of many of New Orleans’ poorest residents) on the newly formed federal Department of Homeland Security (Hsu 2006). A January 2007 poll by Gallup found that only 26% of Americans were satisfied with the way their nation was being governed.2 Others, including a majority of those protesters shouting at their legis- lators back home in their districts and organizing “tea parties” and “Occupy” movements around the nation in recent years