You'll find a complete draft translation of "Bank of Exchange," the fourth of five pamphlets included in the mutual credit collection "Solution of the Social Problem," linked on that project page. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/working-tran...

New translation: "The True Revolutionary Politics" (May 16, 1848) — pdf linked. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/new-proudhon...

The chapter on "Mutualist Accounting" in "Bank of Exchange" is written in a way that may make the operation of the institution clearer than the material that has been available so far. I'll wrap it up shortly — and then probably post a pdf of the pamphlet, lacking only some "Objections and Replies."

I've posted a question over yonder about the arrangement of texts in the journalism and mutual credit volumes, and would love feedback. www.reddit.com/r/mutualism/...

A question about Pierre Leroux's influence on mutualism got me thinking again about the still-unfinished series of reflections that started with "Two-Gun Mutualism and the Golden Rule." www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/contrun/two-...

PREORDER the first English-language collection of Johann Most’s writing from 1882 to 1906 from AK Press!! www.akpress.org/to-the-impat... Interested in Most's life? Check out my new biography: www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=c0...

I have linked a pdf with translations of the articles documenting Proudhon's "liquidation" of the Bank of the People, providing a bridge between "Solution of the Social Problem" and the proposal for the Mutuality of Laborers (which is also linked.) www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/working-tran...

3 of the 5 pamphlets in "Solution of the Social Problem" are translated. I'm now roughly midway through "Summary of the Social Problem: Bank of Exchange," which is the longest of the bunch. After that, there is only the 13,000-word "Bank of the People" and some more previously uncollected material.

The native plant surveys in the local woods have been full of little surprises. I've been pleased to see a real increase in trillium this year and to see one of the native buttercups also apparently spreading. But the march of the Stinky Bob, Shiny Geranium and other invasives is undeniable.

This is a new selection from the manuscript notebook where Proudhon's analysis of the problems of *definition* and *indefinition* is, I think, best developed. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/wp-content/u...

There's translation strategy document coming for the New Proudhon Library, summarizing and extending material that has appeared in various translations, but hasn't had the visibility that it should. It will get its practical test in a new introductory volume, built around "Philosophy of Progress."

Word-counts for each year for the published correspondence of Proudhon (Lacroix):

I've been so sick for a couple of weeks that I haven't been able to even walk the couple of blocks to the woods, but I got a chance today. It's a bounce-back year for trillium, which is lovely, but the unexpected finds were a little stand of Large-leafed avens and another of Disappointing buttercup.

I have been very sick for the past two weeks, but I'm starting to putter again at the usual tasks: www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/working-tran...

My favorite detail about Portland's "beloved" Thompson Elk Fountain, which is being reinstalled: "According to the city, the Exalted Order of Elks refused to dedicate it because they considered the statue "a monstrosity of art.""

Available very soon from @activedistribution.bsky.social, @gdavranche.bsky.social’s ‘Ten Questions on Anarchism’ - a small and very informative book covering all the basics. Lovingly translated from French by yours truly, Paul Bowman and Anthony Zurbrugg.

Work in progress:

The first native wildflower blooming this spring in the local woods is Nuttall's toothwort (Cardamine nuttallii), a little native bittercress that I was unaware of before today. oregonflora.org/taxa/index.p...

New Translation: Ramón de la Sagra, “On the Imprecision of Economic Principles and the Teaching of Political Economy in Colleges” (1847) — This is a nice intro, providing lots to think about when it comes to similarities to and differences from Proudhon. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/wp-content/u...

An entertaining work, which seems to come around as a useful reference more often than one would like or expect: archive.org/details/Brou...

I have added a draft translation of Ramón de la Sagra's "Bank of the People" (1849) to my translations from his work. The book was published in support of Proudhon's free credit project. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/featured-aut...

Ramón de la Sagra wrote "Bank of the People: Theory and Practice" as a general work, with particular attention to Proudhon's project in the first and last chapters. After the failure of the project, it appears he rewrote those chapters and republished it as "Economic Revolution: Causes and Means."

I am working on an expanded edition of "Solution of the Social Problem," which collected Proudhon's work on mutual credit. That project involves collecting writings by his collaborators—a significant selection of which are now linked at the page below: www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/working-tran...

The "Detailed Explanation of the Bank of the People" is sufficiently detailed that we learn how we might have attempted to purchase camels in Paris in 1848, using its circulation vouchers.

My break from the work on Proudhon's property theory was a quick translation of Ramón de la Sagra's "Social Aphorisms," the 1848 version of a work that he appears to have written and rewritten a number of times in the 1840s. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/featured-aut...

I got curious about what — and how many different things — the "Encyclopédie Anarchiste" had to say about "organization." You'll find all of the entries for that term, plus a few related ones, quickly, but newly translated at the link below: www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/anarchist-en...

A minor update to the "Programs and Manifestos" listing, with a couple of new translations linked, including one in support of Ravachol et al. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/anarchist-be...

We can probably safely say that the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building no longer functions as "a metaphor for sustainable and transparent government."

New translation: Daniel Saurin, "Order through Anarchy" (1893) — This was published by "La Révolte" and advertised by the major anarchist papers for years. It's an exploration of anarchist ethics from a what is essentially a natural law perspective. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/working-tran...

"Even so, “Melania” had the best result for a wide-release documentary, excluding concert films, since 2012, when the nature film “Chimpanzee” arrived to $10.7 million, or about $15 million after adjusting for inflation, according to Comscore data." (NYT)

I'm working on a post for the Contr'un blog, "Property: The Sixth Formulation," which proposes a non-exhaustive list of seven characterizations of "property" in Proudhon's works and then sets up some of the apparatus for "The Anarchism of the Encounter." It's a bit of a tiger-by-the-tail affair.

A Schematic Anarchism: Anarchy and the Governmental Series — I've been sitting on this since April 2024, but someone actually asked the question it answers yesterday (and what's one more arcane horror loosed upon the world at this point?) www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/featured-art...

Bestor's "Evolution of the Socialist Vocabulary" is surprisingly weak on the history of "égalitaire"/"egalitarian"—less surprisingly so on "humanitaire"/"humanitary"/"humanitarian"—in their political senses. A deeper dive in the relevant literature is called for, but it appears at first glance...

New translation: Jean-Jacques Pillot, "Neither Castles nor Cottages" (1840) — More neo-babouvism, for your reading pleasure. No, really... www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/wp-content/u...

Best OCR coinage in a while: plushypocrites.

Three essays from "L'Humanitaire," the (proto) anarchist communist paper published in 1841: two essays on social science and a brief biography of Sylvain Maréchal. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/wp-content/u...

Three essays from "L'Humanitaire," the 1841 (proto) anarchist communist paper, are at the top of the translation queue. Soon.

It was only a matter of time: "Multiple monkeys are on the loose in St. Louis, and AI-generated images are complicating the effort to find them." apnews.com/article/monk...

Updates to the Lewis Masquerier bibliography, with links to a pdf of most of his contributions to the "Western Examiner," Ann Tabor's contributions to the "Boston Investigator," etc. The new additions are some of his earliest writings, from 1834-35. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/lewis-masque...

A summary of recent updates, some new translations, etc. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/journal/rese...

I've been transcribing Lewis Masquerier's 1834-35 contributions to the "Western Examiner" (as "Palmer.") I usually think of his social-scientific period as starting with "The Materiality of Mind" in 1836, but there are some beginnings here . He was a kook, but this is interesting material.

They say it's about oil, but really they just heard that Latin America was short on inflatable frog costumes.

I rang in the new year trying to figure out how many small books or pamphlet E. Armand published in 1899 — and under how many names. (A Patreon freebie) www.patreon.com/posts/e-arma...

My memories were correct. A few early issues of Libertad's "l'anarchie" are wall-to-wall goodness — but there are stretches when the paper is downright dull. Around the middle of 1906, E. Armand starts to stir the pot regularly, but it's a bit of a slog getting that far.

Here are some translations from the genre of Anarchist Christmas stories. And, with a little luck, I'll add a few more, from "Le Libertaire," before I drift off to sleep tonight. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/tag/christmas/

I've been struggling to synthesize three kinds of "encounter" in Proudhon's work into a bit of more general theory. Lo and behold, the most seemingly disparate elements all appear to be accounted for among the senses of "se rencontrer." That leaves work to be done, but it's a wonderful step forward.

Based on previous efforts, the "Golden Fleet" seems likely to really lift the spray-paint industry.

Dear Leader announces an "unprecedented four-day athletic event" in which "one young man and one young woman from each state and territory" will battle "a radical IRA splinter cell led by Kevin O'Donnell." No word yet whether Jack Ryan will be featured in the National Garden of American Heroes.

Well, it's that time of year again... when someone stumbles on my largely moribund Redbubble shop and treats themselves or some hard-to-please acquaintance to something from the DRAWNFROMHISTORY collections. www.redbubble.com/people/shawn...