Anarchy, Geography, Modernity : Selected Writings of Elisée Reclus

Notes
Notes Preface to the PM Press Edition Preface to the First Edition 1 The Earth Story, the Human Story 2 The Anarchist Geographer 3 The Dialectic of Nature and Culture 4 A Philosophy of Progress 5 Anarchism and Social Transformation 6 The Critique of Domination 7 The Legacy of Reclus: Liberty, Equality, Geography 8 The Feeling for Nature in Modern Society 10 Anarchy 11 The Extended Family 12 Evolution, Revolution, and the Anarchist Ideal 13 On Vegetarianism 14 The History of Cities 15 The Modern State 16 Culture and Property 17 Progress Perhaps by chance, Natur... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

About the Contributors
About the Contributors John Clark is Curtin Distinguished Professor of Humane Studies and the Professions, professor of philosophy, and a member of the environmental studies faculty at Loyola University. He has written a number of works on ecological philosophy and anarchist political theory, including, most recently, The Impossible Community: Realizing Communitarian Anarchism (Bloomsbury, 2013). He is completing a critical reinterpretation of social ecology entitled Between Earth and Empire. He writes for the journal Capitalism Nature Socialism and co-moderates the Research on Anarchism List. For many years he has been an activist in the anarchist, green, and bioregional movements. He is a member of the Education Workers’ Union of the IWW. Camille Martin is the author of four collections of poetry: Looms , Sonnets , Codes of Public Sleep , and Sesame Kiosk . She earned a PhD... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Bibliography
Bibliography Those seeking additional primary and secondary materials on Reclus are directed to the Research on Anarchism Forum’s Elisée Reclus collection at raforum.info. It contains extensive materials, including an up-to-date bibliography of books and articles. Much useful material can also be found in the Elisée Reclus collection of the Anarchy Archives at dwardmac.pitzer. The French journal Itinéraire devoted a special issue in 1998 to Reclus that included an extensive listing of his works in French. Bakunin, Michael. La Polémique avec Mazzini: Ecrits et Matériaux. Part 1 of Michel Bakunin et L’Italie 1875–1882, vol. 1 of Oeuvres Complètes de Bakunin. Edited by Arthur Lehning (Paris: Editions Champ Libre, 1973). . “Ecrit contre Marx.” In Michel Bakunin et les Conflits dans l’Internationale 1... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Part 2, Chapter 18 : Advice to My Anarchist Comrades (1901)
18: Advice to My Anarchist Comrades Reclus wrote the following letter on the occasion of the opening of an anarchist congress. It was subsequently published in Il Pensiero (June 16, 1907), in Réveil de Genève (January 7, 1911), and in volume 3 of Correspondance, 238–40. To the Editors of la Huelga General in Barcelona Brussels, December 4, 1901 Dear comrades, It is our usual habit to exaggerate both our strengths and our weaknesses. During revolutionary periods, it seems that the least of our actions has incalculably great consequences. On the other hand, during times of stagnation, even though we have dedicated ourselves completely to the cause, our lives seem barren and useless. We may even feel swept away by the winds of reaction. What then should we do to maintain our intellectual vigor, our moral energy, and our faith in the go... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Part 2, Chapter 17 : Progress (1905)
17: Progress “Progress” is the final chapter of Reclus’ final work, L’Homme et la Terre. It is one of the most comprehensive statements of his view of human nature, historical development, and social values. This text is translated in its entirety from volume 6 of L’Homme et la Terre (Paris: Librairie Universelle, 1905–8), 501–41. “Progress,” in the strictest sense of the word, is meaningless, for the world is infinite, and in its unlimited vastness, one is always as distant from the beginning as from the end. The movement of society ultimately reduces to the movements of the individuals who are its constitutive elements. In view of this fact, we must ask what progress in itself can be determined for each of these beings whose total life span from birth to death is only a few years. Is it no more than that of a spark of light glancing off a pebble and vanishing instantly into the... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

The Legacy of Reclus: Liberty, Equality, Geography
7: The Legacy of Reclus: Liberty, Equality, Geography We will conclude by returning to the beginning—to the beginning of Man and the Earth, and to the beginning of Reclus’ entire problematic, both as a thinker and as a human being. He begins his great work of social geography with the image of human hands holding the earth, an image that reveals much about what is most essential to his outlook and about the nature of the ecological imaginary implicit in his work. First, the earth is held aloft almost as if it were a sacramental object. It is presented as the object of awe, reverence, deep love, and respect. Second, and perhaps more obviously at first glance, the image depicts the earth as being “in the hands” of a pe... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

The Anarchist Geographer
2: The Anarchist Geographer Elisée Reclus was born on March 15, 1830, in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, a small town on the Dordogne River in southwestern France. His father, Jacques Reclus, was a minister in Sainte-Foy and a professor at the nearby Protestant college. He was, in effect, a Protestant among Protestants, deciding to leave the French Reformed Church to become the pastor of a “Free Church” in the town of Orthez. By leaving an established church, Jacques Reclus rejected, for the sake of his beliefs, the possibilities of personal advancement and greater material security for himself and his large family. According to Elisée’s nephew and biographer, Paul Reclus, Jacques powerfully influenced his children by ... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Anarchism and Social Transformation
5: Anarchism and Social Transformation Reclus is the anarchist geographer par excellence. The term “anarchist geography” captures perfectly the idea of his work: writing (graphein) the history of the struggle to free the earth (Gaia) from domination (archein). Yves Lacoste calls the work of Reclus, and above all his book Man and the Earth, the “epistemological moment,” indeed the “epistemological turning point,” in the history of geography. Before Reclus, he says, geography “was linked essentially to the state apparatus, not only as a tool of power, but also as an ideological and propagandistic representation. Reclus turned this tool against the state apparatus, the oppressors and the dominant class... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Culture and Property (1905)
16: Culture and Property Some of Reclus’ most extensive comments on historical forms of property are found in “Culture and Property,” which is in volume 6 of L’Homme et la Terre (Paris: Librairie Universelle, 1905–8), 225–311. There he discusses the differences between large and small property holdings, individual and communal property, and cooperative and competitive practices. The following selections are taken from that chapter (268–71, 280–85). The text includes some of Reclus’ most eloquent encomiums to cooperation and stinging criticisms of concentrated economic power. There is not a single European country in which the traditions of the old communal property have entirely disappea... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Preface to the First Edition Elisée Reclus’ life and ideas have been an inspiration to both of us ever since we first discovered his fascinating account of his voyage to New Orleans. We both have a strong interest in French culture and ideas and in the history of the French in America—an interest that was influenced by our Louisiana French family backgrounds. One of us has long been interested in anarchist theory and social ecology, and has written several books on these subjects. For these reasons, we were intrigued by this French anarchist geographer and his acute observations on the land of our ancestors, la Louisiane. We went on to translate the text of Reclus’ voyage, which was published as A Voyage to New Orle... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)