As I mentioned before on this blog, I’m running a Virtual Reading Group with Students for Liberty this semester on “The Origins of Radical Libertarian Thought in America.” The start of this group has been delayed a bit, so if you’re interested there’s still just a little time left to apply. More info and an application on the SFL webpage here, but given that we had some problems with that page you might be better off just emailing Jason Byas directly at jbyas@studentsforliberty.org.

Here’s a week-by-week breakdown of what we’ll be covering. In selecting the readings, I was greatly influence by both Frank Brooks’ The Individualist Anarchists, and Wendy McElroy’s The Debates of Liberty, and I highly recommend these two books to anyone interested in exploring these people and ideas further.

1. Lysander Spooner’s Philosophical Anarchism
   1. “A Letter to Grover Cleveland,” Sections I – XII [1886]
2. Egoism vs. Natural Rights
   1. Tak Kak, “What is Justice” [1886]
   2. Tak Kak, “Killing Chinese” [1886]
   3. John F. Kelly, “Morality And Its Origin” [1887]
   4. Tak Kak, “Egoism” [1887]
   5. John F. Kelly, “A Final Statement” [1887]
   6. Victor Yarros, “The Reasons Why” [1887]
   7. Dyer D. Lum, “The Fiction of Natural Rights” [1890]
   8. Benjamin Tucker and William Lloyd , “Rights and Contract” [1895]
3. General Theories of Individualist Anarchism
   1. Benjamin Tucker, “Anarchism and Consent” [1882]
   2. An English Anarchist, “The Beliefs of Anarchists” [1885]
   3. Benjamin Tucker, “The Relation of the State to the Individual” [1890]
   4. John Beverly Robinson, “A Business Government” [1894]
   5. Victor Yarros and William Salter, “Anarchy or Government” [1896]
4. Libertarian Socialism
   1. Benjamin Tucker, “State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree, and Wherein They Differ” [1888]
   2. Henry Appleton, “Anarchism, True and False” [1884]
   3. H. Simpson, “The Two Socialisms” [1889]
   4. Victor Yarros, “Unscientific Socialism: Anarchist Communism” [1890]
   5. Benjamin Tucker, “Karl Marx as Friend and Foe” [1883]
   6. Victor Yarros, “Unscientific Socialism: Marxian Socialism” [1890]
   7. Saint-Georges de Bouhelier, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” [1907]
5. Sex, Gender, and Liberty
   1. Gertrude B. Kelly, “The Root of Prostitution” [1885]
   2. Florence Finch Kelly, “The Economic Freedom of Women” [1885]
   3. John Beverly Robinson, “The Abolition of Marriage” [1889]
   4. Victor [Yarros], “The Woman Question” [1888]
   5. Zelm [Sarah Holmes], “A Reply to Victor” [1888]
   6. Voltairine de Cleyre, “Those Who Marry Do Ill” [1908]
6. Children’s Rights
   1. Benjamin Tucker, “Anarchism and the Children”[1895]
   2. Benjamin Tucker: “A Sound Criticism” [1895]
   3. John Badcock Jr “The Life More than the Creed” [1895]
   4. Benjamin Tucker, “The Creed Essential To Life” [1895]
   5. Benjamin Tucker, “L’Enfant Terribe” [1895]
   6. William Lloyd, “The Anarchist Child” [1895]
   7. Benjamin Tucker, “What is Property” [1895]
7. Intellectual Property
   1. Lysander Spooner, “The Law of Intellectual Property,” chapter 1 [1855]
   2. Benjamin Tucker, “Ergo and Presto!” [1888]
   3. Victor Yarros, “Property in Ideas and Equal Liberty” [1891]
   4. Victor Yarros, “More on Copyright” [1890]
   5. Benjamin Tucker, commentary on “More on Copyright” [1890]
8. On Strategy – Ballots and Bullets
   1. William Appleton, “Anarchism and Expediency” [1886]
   2. Benjamin Tucker, “Plum-Line or Cork-Screw, Which?” [1886]
   3. Victor Yarros, “Anarchists in Politics” [1896]
   4. Lysander Spooner, “A Plan for the Abolition of Slavery” [1858]
   5. Auberon Herbert, “The Ethics of Dynamite” [1894]
   6. Victor Yarros, “Auberon Herbert on Dynamite” [1894]