American Liberties Book Series

Edited by Crispin Sartwell

American political theory has many strands. But surely a dominant one is an extreme advocacy of freedom. In fact, insofar as there is a tradition of American political theory that is distinctive, it is individualist and anti-statist. This is true from (at latest) the revolution to the present day, true of neglected as well as celebrated figures, of women as well as men, of figures on the left as well on the right. In fact, the traditional taxonomies of political theories do not do a particularly good job of incorporating or explaining American anti-statism, which unites Emma Goldman and H.L. Mencken, Patrick Henry and Abbie Hoffman. And these figures include some of the very best writers that America has produced.

American Liberties is a book series that presents the history of American political theory interpreted as a libertarian or anarchist tradition through volumes devoted both to obscure and celebrated figures. Some of these writers are more or less completely out of print, while others are celebrated. But in every case, the volumes will provide a new approach to the figure in question.

Provisional list of volumes in the series:

The Anti-Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers (by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay) are rightly celebrated as classics of political theory and advocacy. Had the Federal Constitution not been ratified, however (and at times it was a near thing), American history might have replaced those figures as founding fathers with anti-federalists such as Patrick Henry and George Mason. As fierce defenses of freedom from government intrusion, the anti-federalist arguments have prescience and should be much more widely read than they are. Many were (like the Federalist Papers, printed over the name "Publius") originally published under the pseudonyms of ancient republican statesman such as Brutus and Agrippa.

Thomas Jefferson

The idea of an anti-statist as president of a republic is odd, but fascinating (a contemporary parallel might be Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic). Nevertheless Jefferson's agrarian-oriented libertarianism is an American classic. And though Jefferson's political writing is inconsistent, this anthology of his writings will emphasize Jefferson's advocacy of an ultra-minimal state, and his attacks on state intervention in the economic and social affairs of Americans, as well as his polemics against the Federalists under John Adams.

Josiah Warren

A political thinker of the first rank, Josiah Warren (1798-1874) is entitled, with Proudhon, to be considered the founder of modern anarchism. He established thriving anarchist communities in Indiana and on Long Island, and is remembered among other things for an early version of the labor theory of value, which he attempted to put into practice in the "Time Store," in which labor time served as currency. It is bizarre that Warren's classic writings, which have an eccentric charm, are almost entirely unavailable.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau

Though of course Thoreau's essay on Civil Disobedience is a classic of American letters, Emerson and Thoreau have not been considered as political theorists. And yet their fierce individualism has permeated the consciousness of American identity. And though neither provided any really systematic discussion of politics, the writings of both were rich in perfect formulations of the American political traditions. This will be the first volume to consider the transcendentalists primarily in their role as political writers.

Stephen Pearl Andrews

A follower of Warren's, Andrews (1812-1886) was an important advocacy journalist and innovator in the social sciences. Truly a unique figure, Andrews claimed to be the master of thirty-two languages and to have systematized all human knowledge. And though such claims might be questionable, there is no doubting the ingeniousness of much of his political writing, including The Sovereignty of the Individual.

Lysander Spooner

A kind of polemical prodigy, Lysander Spooner (1808-87) is remembered today as a libertarian legal theorist. His classic history Trial by Jury is his best-known work, but he contributed brilliantly to every aspect of anarchist theory, in such classic essays as "Vices are not Crimes" and "The Constitution of No Authority." He was unalterably opposed to slavery, while also defending the right of the southern states to secede from the Union. Rarely has a writer argued with more pointedness and force. At one point he attempted to establish a private postal service to compete with the US Post Office.

Ezra and Angela Heywood

Advocates of "free love," individualist feminism, abolitionism, and Warren-style anarchism in the mid-nineteenth century, Angela and Ezra Heywood (1829-1893) were by all accounts heads of an exemplary family. And they were, more importantly for present purposes, brilliant, provocative polemicists who have been almost completely forgotten. Angela's essays are stream-of-consciousness outpourings: among the most radical prose written in the century. Ezra, on the other hand, was considerably more staid, with a flair for crystalline formulation.

Voltairine de Cleyre

Almost unknown today, Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912), named by her freethinker father for Voltaire but raised in a Michigan nunnery, is one of the most compelling figures of American history. A marvelous writer, she lived in grinding poverty and ill-health in Philadelphia and died young. She knew Emma Goldman, and though they admired one another, they were also rivals. At one point she was shot by a an obsessed former student. She urged the authorities to release him, and raised money in his defense. She is one of the few strong connections between American individualist anarchism (having written for Benjamin Tucker's Liberty) and the European-oriented radicalism of Goldman and Kropotkin.

John Jay Chapman

Among other things, Chapman (1862-1933) - a student of William James - was a protestant theologian, and his anti-statism emerged from a particular reading of Christianity, somewhat as it did for Tolstoy. And though the cult of Chapman - focused on his exquisite prose - has never completely dissipated, he has also never gotten the attention he deserves. His political thought - notable for its anti-materialism, is subtle and absorbing, expressed in such works as Practical Agitation.

Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman

Goldman (1869-1940), though a writer and an editor and of course a fiercely autonomous woman, was not primarily a theorist. And though several of her essays, especially on feminist topics, are rightly considered innovative, she was essentially Berkman's follower ideologically. Berkman (1870-1936) himself was a gifted writer and theoretician, and though both figures were Russian immigrants who were eventually exiled, there is something uniquely American in their combination of vaudeville and communism, entertainment and agitation.

Randolph Bourne

Bourne (1886-1918) was a student of John Dewey's, most famous for opposing the First World War in the essay "War is the Health of the State." A hunchback bedeviled by health problems, Bourne wrote perfectly-wrought and intensely-felt political, aesthetic, literary, and political essays for The New Republic, Seven Arts, and The Atlantic, among others and was, briefly but deservedly, a major figure in American letters.

Albert Jay Nock

Like Chapman and Bourne, Nock (1875-1945) is as remembered for the quality of his prose as for the quality of his thought. His book Our Enemy, the State is a libertarian classic, but many of his essays develop similarly radical political views. Though celebrated early in his life, he was eventually reviled for his opposition to American involvement in World War II.

H.L. Mencken

Mencken (1880-1956) was an odd combination of left and right, radical democracy and unrepentant elitism. There's probably no plausible way to recruit him as a whole to any political theory, liberal or conservative, anarchist or monarchist. Yet a genuine love of liberty pervades everything he wrote, and of course any collection of his writings is an infuriating joy to read. This volume will be the first collection specifically devoted to Mencken's political views.

Karl Hess

I knew Karl Hess (1923-1994) in the seventies, after he had made a transition from a speechwriter for Barry Goldwater and drafter of the Republican platform to SDS leader and wildly-bearded welder trying to establish a barter economy in downtown DC. His writings are wildly uneven, and he has never been properly anthologized in a way that shows him at his best. His political odyssey, which he regarded as perfectly coherent, is exemplary, and shows that, as for most of these figures, there is no clear way to place him on the left/right axis.

Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin

The yippies were political comedians, and they directly prefigured the contemporary anarchist movements which focus on a critique and disruption of the "global economy." And they were surprisingly excellent writers, especially in the late sixties and early seventies, in such books as Revolution for the Hell of It (Hoffman (1936-1989)) and Do It! (Rubin (1938-1994)). Anarchists of the rock and media eras, they updated a venerable tradition and made it relevant for the baby book generation. They were co-defendants in the celebrated Chicago Seven conspiracy trial. Rubin was killed while jaywalking.