Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism

1119 Pages·2009·6.22 MB·English

by  Peter Marshall

For Dylan and Emily
Demanding The Impossible: A History Of Anarchism
Peter Marshall
ISBN: 978-1-60486-064-1
Library Of Congress Control Number: 2009901374
Copyright © Peter Marshall 1992, 1993, 2008
This edition copyright © 2010 PM Press
All Rights Reserved
PM Press
PO Box 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
www.pmpress.org
Cover design by John Yates/Stealworks
Printed in the USA on recycled paper.
PETER MARSHALL is a philosopher, historian, biographer and travel
writer. He has written fifteen highly acclaimed books which are being
translated into fourteen different languages. They include William Godwin,
Nature’s Web, Riding the Wind, The Philosopher’s Stone and Europe’s Lost
Civilization. His circumnavigation of Africa was made into a TV series. His
website is www.petermarshall.net
From the reviews of Demanding the Impossible:
“Large, labyrinthine, tentative: for me these are all adjectives of praise
when applied to works of history, and Demanding the Impossible meets all
of them.’
GEORGE WOODCOCK, Independent
“I trust that Marshall’s survey of the whole heart-warming, head-
challenging subject will have a large circulation … It is a handbook of real
history, which should make it more valuable in the long run than all the
mighty textbooks on market economics and such-like ephemeral topics.’
MICHAEL FOOT, Evening Standard
“Infectious in its enthusiasm, attractive to read … There is more
information about anarchism in this than in any other single volume.’
NICOLAS WALTER, London Review of Books
“Immense in its scope and meticulous in its detail … It covers every
conceivable strand in the libertarian little black book.’
ARTHUR NESLEN, City Limits
“A wide-ranging and warm-hearted survey of anarchist ideas and
movements … that avoids the touchy sectarianism that often weakens the
anarchist position.’
JAMES JOLL, Times Literary Supplement
“There’s no mistaking the fact that Demanding the Impossible is timely
… a gigantic mural in which every celebrated figure who has ever felt
hemmed in by law and government finds a place.’
KENNETH MINOGUE, Sunday Telegraph
“Peter Marshall, clearly a convinced impossibilist, has set himself a
sisyphean task. His book is a kind of model of what it talks about — a
sphere of near-structureless coexistence, a commune or “phalanstery” for
all the friends of libertarianism from Wat Tyler to Walt Whitman to Tristan
Tzara.’
LORNA SAGE, Independent on Sunday
“Peter Marshall’s massive but very readable survey … deserves a wide
readership.’
ANTHONY ARBLASTER, Tribune
“The most compendious, most studied and most enlightening read of
anarchist history.’
ANDREW DOBSON, Anarchist Studies
“Excellent … a lively and heartening study.’
RONALD SHEEHAN, The Irish Press
“Reading about anarchism is stimulating, funny and sad. What more can
you ask of a book?’
ISABEL COLEGATE, The Times
“Interest in anarchy … was reawakened by the publication of Peter
Marshall’s massively comprehensive Demanding the Impossible.’
PETER BEAUMONT, Observer
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
William Godwin
Journey through Tanzania
Into Cuba
Cuba Libre: Breaking the Chains?
William Blake: Visionary Anarchist
Journey through Maldives
Nature’s Web: An Exploration of Ecological Thinking
Around Africa: From the Pillars of Hercules to the Strait of Gibraltar
Celtic Gold: A Voyage around Ireland
Riding the Wind: A New Philosophy for a New Era
The Philosopher’s Stone: A Quest for the Secrets of Alchemy
World Astrology: The Astrologer’s Quest to Understand the Human
Character
Europe’s Lost Civilization: Uncovering the Mysteries of the Megaliths
The Theatre of the World: Alchemy, Astrology and Magic in
Renaissance Prague
CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART ONE: Anarchism in Theory
1 The River of Anarchy
2 Society and the State
3 Freedom and Equality
PART TWO: Forerunners of Anarchism
4 Taoism and Buddhism
5 The Greeks
6 Christianity
7 The Middle Ages
8 The English Revolution
9 The French Renaissance and Enlightenment
10 The British Enlightenment
PART THREE: Great Libertarians
11 French Libertarians
12 German Libertarians
13 British Libertarians
14 American Libertarians
PART FOUR: Classic Anarchist Thinkers
15 William Godwin: The Lover of Order
16 Max Stirner: The Conscious Egoist
17 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: The Philosopher of Poverty
18 Michael Bakunin: The Fanatic of Freedom
19 Peter Kropotkin: The Revolutionary Evolutionist
20 Elisée Reclus: The Geographer of Liberty
21 Errico Malatesta: The Electrician of Revolution
22 Leo Tolstoy: The Count of Peace
23 American Individualists and Communists
24 Emma Goldman: The Most Dangerous Woman
25 German Communists
26 Mohandas Gandhi: The Gentle Revolutionary
PART FIVE: Anarchism in Action
27 France
28 Italy
29 Spain
30 Russia and the Ukraine
31 Northern Europe
32 United States
33 Latin America
34 Asia
PART SIX: Modern Anarchism
35 The New Left and the Counterculture
36 The New Right and Anarcho-capitalism
37 Modern Libertarians
38 Modern Anarchists
39 Murray Bookchin and the Ecology of Freedom
PART SEVEN: The Legacy of Anarchism
40 Ends and Means
41 The Relevance of Anarchism
EPILOGUE
Reftrence Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Heiner Becker, John Clark, John Crump, Caroline
Cahm, David Goodway, Carl Levy, Geoffrey Ostergaard, Hans Ramaer, and
Vernon Richards for commenting on different chapters of this work. Tom
Cahill and Graham Kelsey kindly provided me with materials. I am
indebted to John Burrow for encouraging, many years ago, my interest in
the history of anarchist ideas. I much appreciate the pioneering work in the
history of anarchism undertaken by Paul Avrich, Daniel Guérin, James Joll,
Jean Maitron, Max Nettlau and George Woodcock, although I do not
always share their emphases or interpretations. In preparing the book for
publication, the editorial advice of Philip Gwyn Jones has proved
unfailingly perceptive and relevant.
My thanks are due to the staff of both the National Library of Wales and
the British Library, and to the librarians of Coleg Harlech, the University
College of North Wales, and the University of London for facilitating my
research.
My children Dylan and Emily have been bemused by my work on
something impossibly called ‘anarchism’, but have been an inspiring
example of constructive anarchy in action. I am grateful to my mother Vera
for first awakening in me a sense of justice and equality. My brother
Michael has given his warm support at all times. Above all, I must thank
Jenny Zobel for her constant help and encouragement during the
composition of this long study; only she knows the depth of my
indebtedness. My friends Richard Feesey, Jeremy Gane, Graham Hancock,
David Lea, and John Schlapobersky have in their different ways all inspired
me to complete my task.
For this new edition, I have added an epilogue bringing anarchism up to
date in the twenty-first century and given my own suggestions on the way