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.)

Preface to the PM Press Edition One of the best-known images from Reclus’ works originally appeared above the preface of his magnum opus, L’Homme et la Terre, and is reproduced here. It depicts two hands holding the earth, coupled with the statement in French that “Humanity is nature becoming self-conscious.” It is clear that the image indicates not only that the fate of the earth is now in the hands of humanity, but also that humanity can only fulfill its weighty responsibility by acting with an awareness that we are an integral part of nature, rather than continuing under the illusion that we are a power over and above the natural world. Reclus’ message is that the “hands” in the image are those o... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

A Philosophy of Progress
4: A Philosophy of Progress Although the myth of progress has taken on myriad forms over the ages, it has remained powerful through much of the history of Western civilization. Indeed, in various guises it has constituted the dominant myth of modernity. Even radical critics of existing society have had difficulty challenging it, and the classical anarchist thinkers, including Bakunin, Kropotkin, and Reclus, were no exception. Indeed, they sometimes rivaled their capitalist and statist opponents in their confidence in the inexorable advance toward a better future. When one examines Reclus’ view of history, one is struck by the strongly progressivist nature of his thought. In this, he seems to be quintessentially modern in his thought, ... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

The Earth Story, the Human Story
Part I: An Introduction to Reclus’ Social Thought 1: The Earth Story, the Human Story Elisée Reclus begins his magnum opus of social theory, Man and the Earth, with the words “L’Homme est la nature prenant conscience d’ellemême”—“Humanity is nature becoming self-conscious.” Above this statement is an image of the earth, held in two upward-stretching hands. In an important sense, the purpose of that work, and indeed, of Reclus’ entire life’s work, is to draw out the implications of these words and this image. He wishes to trace the course of human history, showing the unity of development underlying the diversity of cultures and epochs, and then to situate the history o... (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.)

To My Brother the Peasant (1893)
9: To My Brother the Peasant In 1873, Reclus wrote an article entitled “Quelques mots sur la propriété” for L’Almanach du peuple. He later revised and expanded it, publishing it as a pamphlet under the title A mon frère le paysan. In his “Biographie d’Elisée Reclus” in Les Frères Elie et Elisée Reclus (Paris: Les Amis d’Elisée Reclus, 1964), Paul Reclus writes that “it was translated into a dozen European languages, even including two dialects of Breton” . While this small work is a classic of anarchist propaganda and possesses all the rhetorical qualities appropriate to the genre, it is also of interest for its comments on the relationshi... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)