Native American Anarchism: A Study Of Left Wing American Individualism (The American Scene, Comments and Commentators)

By Eunice Minette Schuster

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306718383
• ISBN13: 9780306718380
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.8" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Native American Anarchism.

_Native American Anarchism: A Study of Left-Wing American Individualism_ was originally published in 1932 as part of Smith College Studies in History, and republished from the Loompanics edition in 1999 by Breakout Productions, written by Eunice Minette Schuster. This book is the classic history of the American individualist and anarchist tradition. To begin with the author notes the difficulties inherent in defining anarchism, but also the need to come to terms with a native American anarchism. The author maintains that anarchism seeks freedom from man-made law and that for the anarchist the only thing that matters is the Individual and not society itself. As Proudhon (the father of anarchism) has put it "Liberty is the Mother not the Daughter of Order." The author notes that etymologically anarchism derives from the Greek for "without authority". He then distinguishes between Individualist Anarchism (which seeks to preserve the distinction between "mine and thine") and Anarchist-Communism which seeks to preserve a "recognition of my right and your right as an individual to the satisfaction of physical need and the rendering of service according to ability." The author also relates the central idea of anarchism to the thinking of Rousseau, arguing that a State is not necessary, and that without a State there will not arise a "war of all against all" as maintained by Hobbes. The author then precedes to consider different forms of anarchism including Individualist Anarchism, Christian Anarchism, Mutualist Anarchism, Anarcho-Syndicalism, and Communist-Anarchism. The first chapter of this book is dedicated to "Anarchism Conceived - Individualism in the Colonial Period". It begins with a discussion of the puritan rebellion and the subsequent arrival of the puritans in the New World, but also shows how once the puritans arrived there they set up strict authoritarian Calvinistic colonies. Antinominianism developed as a means of rebellion of the individual against such authority. In an effort to root out antinominianism, individuals such as Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright in the colonies were banished, something the author compares to the later deportation of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. The term itself was first used by Martin Luther to describe the teachings of John Agricola that the Gospel precepts enabled the Elect to move above the Law. In colonial times, Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright represented the antinomians against such orthodox Calvinists as Cotton Mather and Governor Withrop. A second group considered in this chapter are the Quakers, whose doctrine of radical pacifism when taken to its logical conclusion would imply anarchism. Some Quakers did take this doctrine to its logical conclusion, but most ended up siding with William Penn who maintained that the Quakers were not enemies of government. The author regards the Quakers as a sort of "disillusioned radicalism", forced to decide between submitting to