Corvus Editions

P.-J. Proudhon, “Solution of the Social Problem” - The Libertarian Labyrinth The Republic is the organization by which, all opinions and all activities remaining free, the People, by the very divergence of opinions and will, think and act as a single man. In the Republic, ever...

I am working on an expanded edition of "Solution of the Social Problem," which collected Proudhon's work on mutual credit. That project involves collecting writings by his collaborators—a significant selection of which are now linked at the page below:
www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/working-tran...

The "Detailed Explanation of the Bank of the People" is sufficiently detailed that we learn how we might have attempted to purchase camels in Paris in 1848, using its circulation vouchers.

Ramón de la Sagra (1798-1871) - The Libertarian Labyrinth Working translations: “On Property” (1848) Social Aphorisms (1848)

My break from the work on Proudhon's property theory was a quick translation of Ramón de la Sagra's "Social Aphorisms," the 1848 version of a work that he appears to have written and rewritten a number of times in the 1840s. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/featured-aut...

This post has really exploded in scope, mostly in useful, if complicated ways. My seven key descriptions of "property" have become ten and I think I find the materials for most of them — including some version of "property is liberty" in "What is Property?" But it's not an easy story to tell.

The Anarchist Encyclopedia — O - The Libertarian Labyrinth THE ANARCHIST ENCYCLOPEDIA: Preface A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z translated entries OBÉIR OBJECTION (DE [...]

I got curious about what — and how many different things — the "Encyclopédie Anarchiste" had to say about "organization." You'll find all of the entries for that term, plus a few related ones, quickly, but newly translated at the link below:

www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/anarchist-en...

Programs and Manifestos - The Libertarian Labyrinth ANARCHIST BEGINNINGS Main page ANARCHIST BEGINNINGS Vol. II — PROGRAMS & MANIFESTOS

A minor update to the "Programs and Manifestos" listing, with a couple of new translations linked, including one in support of Ravachol et al.
www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/anarchist-be...

We can probably safely say that the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building no longer functions as "a metaphor for sustainable and transparent government."

[diagram of panopticon] bottom text: According to an administration spokesman, HUD's new high-density units for low-income families will address the crisis in [checks notes] lost pets.

I had hoped that this might be of use to my current writing. It wasn't particularly useful there, but I'm happy to have reached a point where I have to tools to fairly quickly translate whole books from the anarchist literature just because they are interesting or unexpected in their approach.

Daniel Saurin, "Order through Anarchy" (1893) - The Libertarian Labyrinth I have seen the title L'Ordre par l'Anarchie — published in the "Bibliothèque Anarchiste" of La Révolte —  in the back pages of various anarchist communist papers from the 1890s, but had never tracked...

New translation: Daniel Saurin, "Order through Anarchy" (1893) — This was published by "La Révolte" and advertised by the major anarchist papers for years. It's an exploration of anarchist ethics from a what is essentially a natural law perspective. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/working-tran...

"Even so, “Melania” had the best result for a wide-release documentary, excluding concert films, since 2012, when the nature film “Chimpanzee” arrived to $10.7 million, or about $15 million after adjusting for inflation, according to Comscore data." (NYT)

I'm working on a post for the Contr'un blog, "Property: The Sixth Formulation," which proposes a non-exhaustive list of seven characterizations of "property" in Proudhon's works and then sets up some of the apparatus for "The Anarchism of the Encounter." It's a bit of a tiger-by-the-tail affair.

I'll be stretched to cover the international ground as well as I would like, but I can give a taste of all of that by focusing on E. Armand's attention to the tradition, the translations he published, etc. Finally, it just need to include a lot of curiosities and inducements to wider reading.

So it has to include a general account of essential bodies of work (Proudhon, Warren, Greene, Tucker, etc.) and also has to cover at least a few other figures (Masquerier, for example) in sufficient depth to both highlight their departures from even a broad consensus and explain their inclusion.

It's a general history of what has been called "mutualism," which means its a historiographical study of the uses of the label, together with a history of the really diverse projects brought together under the label. And it's a sort of proof of concept study for a more general anarchist history.

I did not revise the entry for the second edition. I'm not sure that I'll have much more that succinct to say about mutualism until after I've told the story in a more extended form with "What Mutualism Was" (which is itself dependent at the moment on other researches, but is still a live project.)

I have added a lengthy note to the post, drawn from some discussion elsewhere. The question was whether the governmental series should be seen as a "roadmap" for the development of social relations. The answer: "it's complicated."

A Schematic Anarchism: Anarchy and the Governmental Series - The Libertarian Labyrinth OUR LOST CONTINENT Related links: A New Proudhon Library [project page] Voline, “On Synthesis” (1924) Anarchy as a Beacon and as a Focus for Synthesis (2018) EXPLORATIONS: PHASE ONE: RELATED: “Our Los...

A Schematic Anarchism: Anarchy and the Governmental Series — I've been sitting on this since April 2024, but someone actually asked the question it answers yesterday (and what's one more arcane horror loosed upon the world at this point?) www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/featured-art...

...that the 1840s, more or less "neo-babouvist" literature I'm working with now dresses up ideas from Babeuf (etc.) in language from Saint-Simon and his circle. So everything sounds quite a bit like Pierre Leroux.

Bestor's "Evolution of the Socialist Vocabulary" is surprisingly weak on the history of "égalitaire"/"egalitarian"—less surprisingly so on "humanitaire"/"humanitary"/"humanitarian"—in their political senses. A deeper dive in the relevant literature is called for, but it appears at first glance...

New translation: Jean-Jacques Pillot, "Neither Castles nor Cottages" (1840) — More neo-babouvism, for your reading pleasure. No, really...
www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/wp-content/u...

Best OCR coinage in a while: plushypocrites.

There's no timeline for completion right now, but I will be working on Dézamy's "Code of Community" over the next month or so as well.

Three essays from "L'Humanitaire," the (proto) anarchist communist paper published in 1841: two essays on social science and a brief biography of Sylvain Maréchal.
www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/wp-content/u...

Three essays from "L'Humanitaire," the 1841 (proto) anarchist communist paper, are at the top of the translation queue. Soon.

Monkeys are on the loose in St. Louis and AI is complicating efforts to capture them Multiple monkeys are on the loose in St. Louis. And AI generated images are complicating the effort to find them.

It was only a matter of time: "Multiple monkeys are on the loose in St. Louis, and AI-generated images are complicating the effort to find them."
apnews.com/article/monk...

Lewis Masquerier (1802–1888) - The Libertarian Labyrinth Related Links: Masquerier in the “Western Examiner” (1834-1835) Masquerier in the “Boston Investigator” (1834-1888) Masquerier in “The Crisis” (1834) Masquerier in “The Free Enquirer” (1834) Masquerie...

Updates to the Lewis Masquerier bibliography, with links to a pdf of most of his contributions to the "Western Examiner," Ann Tabor's contributions to the "Boston Investigator," etc. The new additions are some of his earliest writings, from 1834-35. www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/lewis-masque...

Research and Translation Journal (December 28, 2025 – January 10, 2026) - The Libertarian Labyrinth Links: This the first in a series of posts documenting the kinds of work that tends to fill my days lately, wide-ranging research and on-the-fly translation that often goes undocumented on the site. I...

A summary of recent updates, some new translations, etc.
www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/journal/rese...

I've been transcribing Lewis Masquerier's 1834-35 contributions to the "Western Examiner" (as "Palmer.") I usually think of his social-scientific period as starting with "The Materiality of Mind" in 1836, but there are some beginnings here . He was a kook, but this is interesting material.

They say it's about oil, but really they just heard that Latin America was short on inflatable frog costumes.