The Method of Freedom


Book Description

“Anarchy, in common with socialism, has as its basis, its point of departure, its essential environment, equality of conditions; its beacon is solidarity and freedom is its method.”—Errico Malatesta The most distinctive and universal anarchist principle is the principle of coherence between ends and means: human emancipation cannot be achieved by authoritarian means. However, the same principle could also be read in the opposite direction: our ends should not be disconnected from our action; our ideals should not be so lofty as to make no difference to what we do here and now. The anarchist whose deeds and words have best illustrated both sides of that principle—the “idealist” and the “pragmatist”—is Errico Malatesta. Never one to divorce thought from action, or retreat into dogmatism, his life and ideals remain an inspiration the world over. The Method of Freedom is the first collection to capture the full range of Malatesta’s thought over sixty years as an anarchist propagandist. The Method of Freedom collects Malatesta's most enduring long-form essays--including "Anarchy" and "Our Program"--together with previously untranslated articles from the numerous journals he edited over his long newspaper career. In fact, nearly two-thirds of the collected texts have been newly translated into English. Written in Malatesta's clear, accessible style, these essays are sure to excite a new generation of radicals.




The Method of Freedom


Book Description

The Method of Freedom was written at a time of deep anxiety for America and Europe. The worst depression in modem history gripped the world and the rise of dictatorships in Europe and Asia posed a mortal challenge to the essentials of free government. In this volume of a continuing series on the major works of Walter Lippmann, a model for economic recovery and social stability is outlined under a "regime of liberty." Lippmann's work takes on a special pertinence in the 1990s as the nations of Eastern Europe embark on the historically unprecedented transition from Communist centralization to democracy and free market economies. Rejecting both laissez-faire and centrally enforced collectivization, Lippmann described the salutory economic functions of a government with a mandate that rested on the consent of a middle-class constituency, which he termed a "free collectivism." Capitalism, in his view, had become too complex to be regulated by private initiative, and it became the function of government to ensure a compensatory redistribution of income and property in order to make its citizens comfortably secure. Lippmann recognized that market regulation needed to be safeguarded from political demagoguery and the tyranny of the majority. "The Method of Freedom "calls for the formation of an informed and competent managerial class to direct economic policy within the bounds of legislative consent. Lippmann's effort to balance the competing claims of capitalism and democracy anticipated the New Deal achievements of the 1930s and influenced a generation of American statesmen in their understanding of what constituted a good society. "The Method of Freedom "is a work of enduring interest




The Method of Freedom


Book Description

For sixty years, Errico Malatesta's involvement with international anarchism helped fuel the movement's radical approach to class and labor, and directly impacted the workers' movement in Italy. A talented newspaper journalist, Malatesta's biting critiques were frequently short and to the point—and written directly to and for the workers. Though his few long-form essays, including "Anarchy" and "Our Program," have been widely available in English translation since the 1950s, the bulk of Malatesta's most revolutionary writing remains unknown to English-speaking audiences. In The Method of Freedom, editor Davide Turcato presents an expansive collection of Malatesta's work, including new translations of existing works and a wealth of shorter essays translated here for the first time. Offering readers a thorough overview of the evolution of Malatesta's revolutionary thought during his half a century as an anarchist propagandist, The Method of Freedom explores revolutionary violence and workplace democracy, the general strike and the limitations of trade unionism, propaganda by the deed, and the revolution in practice. Errico Malatesta (1853–1932) was an enormously popular Italian anarchist, perhaps most well-known for his strong support of direct action and the general strike. A talented newspaper journalist and editor, Malatesta spent much of his life exiled from Italy because of his political beliefs. Davide Turcato is a computational linguist and an independent historian. He is the author of Making Sense of Anarchism and the editor of Malatesta's collected works, a ten-volume project currently underway in Italy, to be released in English by AK Press.




Property and Freedom


Book Description

"A superb book about a topic that should be front and center in the American political debate" (National Review), from the acclaimed Harvard scholar and historian of the Russian Revolution An exploration of a wide range of national and political systems to demonstrate persuasively that private ownership has served over the centuries to limit the power of the state and enable democratic institutions to evolve and thrive in the Western world. Beginning with Greece and Rome, where the concept of private property as we understand it first developed, Richard Pipes then shows us how, in the late medieval period, the idea matured with the expansion of commerce and the rise of cities. He contrasts England, a country where property rights and parliamentary government advanced hand-in-hand, with Russia, where restrictions on ownership have for centuries consistently abetted authoritarian regimes; finally he provides reflections on current and future trends in the United States. Property and Freedom is a brilliant contribution to political thought and an essential work on a subject of vital importance.




The Paradoxes of Freedom


Book Description

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1962.




Degrees of Freedom


Book Description

As Louisiana and Cuba emerged from slavery in the late nineteenth century, each faced the question of what rights former slaves could claim. Degrees of Freedom compares and contrasts these two societies in which slavery was destroyed by war, and citizenship was redefined through social and political upheaval. Both Louisiana and Cuba were rich in sugar plantations that depended on an enslaved labor force. After abolition, on both sides of the Gulf of Mexico, ordinary people--cane cutters and cigar workers, laundresses and labor organizers--forged alliances to protect and expand the freedoms they had won. But by the beginning of the twentieth century, Louisiana and Cuba diverged sharply in the meanings attributed to race and color in public life, and in the boundaries placed on citizenship. Louisiana had taken the path of disenfranchisement and state-mandated racial segregation; Cuba had enacted universal manhood suffrage and had seen the emergence of a transracial conception of the nation. What might explain these differences? Moving through the cane fields, small farms, and cities of Louisiana and Cuba, Rebecca Scott skillfully observes the people, places, legislation, and leadership that shaped how these societies adjusted to the abolition of slavery. The two distinctive worlds also come together, as Cuban exiles take refuge in New Orleans in the 1880s, and black soldiers from Louisiana garrison small towns in eastern Cuba during the 1899 U.S. military occupation. Crafting her narrative from the words and deeds of the actors themselves, Scott brings to life the historical drama of race and citizenship in postemancipation societies.




Freedom as Marronage


Book Description

" Freedom as Marronage" deepens our understanding of political freedom not only by situating slavery as freedom s opposite condition, but also by investigating the experiential significance of the equally important liminal and transitional social space "between" slavery and freedom. Roberts examines a specific form of flight from slavery"marronage"that was fundamental to the experience of Haitian slavery, but is integral to understanding the Haitian Revolution and has widespread application to European, New World, and black Diasporic societies. He pays close attention to the experience of the process by which people emerge "from "slavery "to "freedom, contending that freedom as marronage presents a useful conceptual device for those interested in understanding both normative ideals of political freedom and the origin of those ideals. Roberts investigates the dual anti-colonial and anti-slavery Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) and especially the ideas of German-Jewish thinker Hannah Arendt, Irish political theorist Philip Pettit, American fugitive-turned ex-slave Frederick Douglass, and the Martinican philosopher Edouard Glissant in developing a theory of freedom that offers a compelling interpretive lens to understand the quandaries of slavery, freedom, and political language that still confront us today."




The Blue Book of Freedom


Book Description

In The Blue Book of Freedom,"" R. J. Rummel asserts that democracy is the solution to the scourges that face the world. A student of war and peace for more than forty years, he has learned that democratic freedom provides a solution to the evils that have plagued mankind. ""The Blue Book of Freedom"" presents the results of his work in everyday language. The main points are: * Freedom is the way to economic and human security. * Free people never have famine. * Where people are free, political violence is minimal. * The more freedom a people enjoy, the less likely their government will murder them. * The less free the people in any two nations are, the bloodier and more destructive any war between them will be. * To do away with famine, mass impoverishment, democide (the murder by a government of its own people), and war, promote freedom. * Democratic freedom is a method of nonviolence and an antidote to war. ""




Saving Freedom


Book Description

Senator DeMint illuminates key principles of freedom and how they are being compromised by big government. The author lays out a complete action plan to reclaim these freedoms and reverse America's cultural decline by restoring a strong spirit of God and country.




Religious Freedom in an Egalitarian Age


Book Description

Tensions between religious freedom and equality law are newly strained in America. As lawmakers work to protect LGBT citizens and women seeking reproductive freedom, religious traditionalists assert their right to dissent from what they see as a new liberal orthodoxy. Some religious advocates are going further and expressing skepticism that egalitarianism can be defended with reasons at all. Legal experts have not offered a satisfying response—until now. Nelson Tebbe argues that these disputes, which are admittedly complex, nevertheless can be resolved without irrationality or arbitrariness. In Religious Freedom in an Egalitarian Age, he advances a method called social coherence, based on the way that people reason through moral problems in everyday life. Social coherence provides a way to reach justified conclusions in constitutional law, even in situations that pit multiple values against each other. Tebbe contends that reasons must play a role in the resolution of these conflicts, alongside interests and ideologies. Otherwise, the health of democratic constitutionalism could suffer. Applying this method to a range of real-world cases, Tebbe offers a set of powerful principles for mediating between religion and equality law, and he shows how they can lead to workable solutions in areas ranging from employment discrimination and public accommodations to government officials and public funding. While social coherence does not guarantee outcomes that will please the liberal Left, it does point the way toward reasoned, nonarbitrary solutions to the current impasse.