Shawn P. Wilbur

Shawn P. Wilbur is an independent researcher and translator, and the curator of the Libertarian Labyrinth digital archive. His published translations include work by Charles Fourier, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Joseph Déjacque. He is currently at work on the Bakunin Library, an edition of the works of Mikhail Bakunin in English.

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Edited by Shawn

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Praise

“Max Nettlau is the greatest historian of anarchism.”
—Paul McLaughlin, author of Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism

“Nettlau is often called the Herodotus of anarchism, but he was rather its Thucydides. His life work was based on the omnivorous collection and omniscient study of printed and manuscript materials and also on personal acquaintance and detailed interviews with almost all the leaders of the movement.”
—Nicolas Walter, author of About Anarchism

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Praise

“Emma Goldman left a profound legacy of wisdom, insight, and passionate commitment to life. Shawn Wilbur has carefully selected her best writings on that most profound, pleasurable, and challenging of topics: sex. This collection is a great service to anarchist, feminist, and queer communities around the world.”
—Jamie Heckert, coeditor of Anarchism & Sexuality: Ethics, Relationships and Power

“Shawn Wilbur must be congratulated for producing this work. By collecting Emma Goldman’s writings on the ‘Sex Question’—women’s rights and freedom—in one book, he enables current activists to study and learn from one of the key figures of anarchism. The issues then are the same as now: Is women’s equality within a class ridden society enough? Are women becoming bosses and politicians really the best we can aim for? Can sexual equality without social equality really result in true liberation? These were the issues Goldman was discussing and they are all too relevant today. Wilbur’s anthology will undoubtedly become essential reading for a whole new generation of activists.”
—Iain McKay, author of An Anarchist FAQ

“Shawn Wilbur has done a great job assembling and introducing Emma Goldman’s writings on women, feminism, and sexuality. As he notes, Goldman’s essays continue to provoke and inspire. The collection artfully documents the evolution of Goldman’s views on freedom, sex, and human liberation.”
—Robert Graham, editor of Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas

Prefaces by Shawn

Praise

“No historian of anarchism can help but stand upon the shoulders of Max Nettlau. Nearly a century later, much of his scholarship on the origins, evolution, and global spread of anarchism remains unsurpassed. As a ‘participant-observer’ in the movement that he meticulously chronicled, Nettlau was exceptionally knowledgeable, sober in his critiques, and intransigently anti-sectarian and anti-authoritarian in his analysis. This book not only contains the history of how anarchism came to be, but also includes glimpses of what an open-minded and experimental anarchism ‘without adjectives’ may yet become.”
—Kenyon Zimmer, author of Immigrants against the State: Yiddish and Italian Anarchism in America

“Max Nettlau is the greatest historian of anarchism.”
—Paul McLaughlin, author of Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism

“Max Nettlau’s A Short History of Anarchism is a wonderful read: as fascinating as it is accessible. It offers a uniquely rich insight into the influential currents of anarchist praxis over the late eighteenth to early twentieth century; focuses attention toward a number of influential anarchists, including Kropotkin, Reclus, and Malatesta; and explores anarchism in action across England, Europe and the United States. Crucially, A Short History of Anarchism is far more than an ‘historical’ text: the struggles, crises, and tensions that Nettlau explores continue to hold great relevance, insight, and meaning for our own time.”
—Richard J. White, coeditor of The Practice of Freedom: Anarchism, Geography, and the Spirit of Revolt

“This is the best one-volume account of anarchism as it actually was at the time, rather than as later historians have often imagined it to be. Here at least and at last is the best-informed short introduction to the subject.”
—Nicolas Walter, author of About Anarchism

Book Events

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Reviews

• Anarchy and the Sex Question: A Review

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Interviews

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Mentions

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Blog

• Emma Goldman Writes about Birth Control