Index of The Liberty Site

Welcome to The Liberty Site, an archive of Benjamin R. Tucker's Liberty, which was the most prominent periodical of individualist anarchism in the years 1881-1908, and probably of any period. You can find all 403 issues of Liberty and the 8 issues of the German-language Libertas in pdf form. This is the first stage of a more comprehensive archive, which will eventually feature full-text search capability, extensive indexing and facilities for expansion of the archive and discussion of the material within it. In the meantime, readers are encouraged to make use of Wendy McElroy's excellent Index To Liberty as navigational tool.

This first-phase scanning effort was the work of Shawn P. Wilbur, working from John Zube's microfiche edition of Liberty. For more anarchist and libertarian history, please check out In the Libertarian Labyrinth and From the Libertarian Library. For contemporary individualist anarchism, check out the Alliance of the Libertarian Left.

Liberty, 1881-1908

• Vol. 1, No. 1 — 1 — August 6, 1881
• Vol. 1, No. 2 — 2 — August 20, 1881
• Vol. 1, No. 3 — 3 — September 3, 1881
• Vol. 1, No. 4 — 4 — September 17, 1881
• Vol. 1, No. 5 — 5 — October 1, 1881
• Vol. 1, No. 6 — 6 — October 15, 1881
• Vol. 1, No. 7 — 7 — October 29, 1881
• Vol. 1, No. 8 — 8 — November 12, 1881
• Vol. 1, No. 9 — 9 — November 26, 1881
• Vol. 1, No. 10 — 10 — December 10, 1881
• Vol. 1, No. 11 — 11 — December 24, 1881
• Vol. 1, No. 12 — 12 — January 7, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 13 — 13 — January 21, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 14 — 14 — February 4, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 15 — 15 — February 18, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 16 — 16 — March 4, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 17 — 17 — March 18, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 18 — 18 — April 1, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 19 — 19 — April 15, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 20 — 20 — May 13, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 21 — 21 — May 27, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 22 — 22 — June 10, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 23 — 23 — June 24, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 24 — 24 — July 22, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 25 — 25 — August 19, 1882
• Vol. 1, No. 26 — 26 — September 16, 1882

• Vol. 2, No. 1 — 27 — October 14, 1882
• Vol. 2, No. 2 — 28 — October 28, 1882
• Vol. 2, No. 3 — 29 — November 11, 1882
• Vol. 2, No. 4 — 30 — November 25, 1882
• Vol. 2, No. 5 — 31 — December 9, 1882
• Vol. 2, No. 6 — 32 — January 20, 1883
• Vol. 2, No. 7 — 33 — February 17, 1883
• Vol. 2, No. 8 — 34 — March 17, 1883
• Vol. 2, No. 9 — 35 — April 14, 1883
• Vol. 2, No. 10 — 36 — May 12, 1883
• Vol. 2, No. 11 — 37 — June 9, 1883
• Vol. 2, No. 12 — 38 — July 21, 1883
• Vol. 2, No. 13 — 39 — August 25, 1883
• Vol. 2, No. 14 — 40 — October 6, 1883
• Vol. 2, No. 15 — 41 — December 15, 1883
• Vol. 2, No. 16 — 42 — May 17, 1884
• Vol. 2, No. 17 — 43 — May 31, 1884
• Vol. 2, No. 18 — 44 — June 14, 1884
• Vol. 2, No. 19 — 45 — June 28, 1884
• Vol. 2, No. 20 — 46 — July 12, 1884
• Vol. 2, No. 21 — 47 — July 26, 1884
• Vol. 2, No. 22 — 48 — August 9, 1884
• Vol. 2, No. 23 — 49 — August 23, 1884
• Vol. 2, No. 24 — 50 — September 6, 1884
• Vol. 2, No. 25 — 51 — September 20, 1884
• Vol. 2, No. 26 — 52 — October 4, 1884

• Vol. 3, No. 1 — 53 — October 25, 1884
• Vol. 3, No. 2 — 54 — November 8, 1884
• Vol. 3, No. 3 — 55 — November 22, 1884
• Vol. 3, No. 4 — 56 — December 13, 1884
• Vol. 3, No. 5 — 57 — January 3, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 6 — 58 — January 31, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 7 — 59 — February 28, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 8 — 60 — April 11, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 9 — 61 — April 25, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 10 — 62 — May 23, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 11 — 63 — June 20, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 12 — 64 — July 18, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 13 — 65 — August 15, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 14 — 66 — September 12, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 15 — 67 — October 3, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 16 — 68 — October 24, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 17 — 69 — November 14, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 18 — 70 — November 28, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 19 — 71 — December 12, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 20 — 72 — December 26, 1885
• Vol. 3, No. 21 — 73 — January 8, 1886
• Vol. 3, No. 22 — 74 — January 23, 1886
• Vol. 3, No. 23 — 75 — February 6, 1886
• Vol. 3, No. 24 — 76 — February 20, 1886
• Vol. 3, No. 25 — 77 — March 6, 1886
• Vol. 3, No. 26 — 78 — March 27, 1886

• Vol. 4, No. 1 — 79 — April 17, 1886
• Vol. 4, No. 2 — 80 — May 1, 1886
• Vol. 4, No. 3 — 81 — May 22, 1886
• Vol. 4, No. 4 — 82 — June 19, 1886
• Vol. 4, No. 5 — 83 — July 3, 1886
• Vol. 4, No. 6 — 84 — July 17, 1886
• Vol. 4, No. 7 — 85 — July 31, 1886
• Vol. 4, No. 8 — 86 — August 21, 1886
• Vol. 4, No. 9 — 87 — September 18, 1886
• Vol. 4, No. 10 — 88 — October 30, 1886
• Vol. 4, No. 11 — 89 — November 20, 1886
• Vol. 4, No. 12 — 90 — December 11, 1886
• Vol. 4, No. 13 — 91 — January 1, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 14 — 92 — January 22, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 15 — 93 — February 12, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 16 — 94 — February 26, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 17 — 95 — March 12, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 18 — 96 — March 26, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 19 — 97 — April 9, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 20 — 98 — April 23, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 21 — 99 — May 7, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 22 — 100 — May 28, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 23 — 101 — June 18, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 24 — 102 — July 2, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 25 — 103 — July 16, 1887
• Vol. 4, No. 26 — 104 — July 30, 1887

• Vol. 5, No. 1 — 105 — August 13, 1887
• Vol. 5, No. 2 — 106 — August 27, 1887
• Vol. 5, No. 3 — 107 — September 10, 1887
• Vol. 5, No. 4 — 108 — September 24, 1887
• Vol. 5, No. 5 — 109 — October 8, 1887
• Vol. 5, No. 6 — 110 — October 22, 1887
• Vol. 5, No. 7 — 111 — November 5, 1887
• Vol. 5, No. 8 — 112 — November 19, 1887
• Vol. 5, No. 9 — 113 — December 3, 1887
• Vol. 5, No. 10 — 114 — December 17, 1887
• Vol. 5, No. 11 — 115 — December 31, 1887
• Vol. 5, No. 12 — 116 — January 14, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 13 — 117 — January 28, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 14 — 118 — February 11, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 15 — 119 — February 25, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 16 — 120 — March 10, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 17 — 121 — March 24, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 18 — 122 — April 14, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 19 — 123 — April 28, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 20 — 124 — May 12, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 21 — 125 — May 26, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 22 — 126 — June 9, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 23 — 127 — June 13, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 24 — 128 — July 7, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 25 — 129 — July 21, 1888
• Vol. 5, No. 26 — 130 — August 4, 1888

• Vol. 6, No. 1 — 131 — August 18, 1888
• Vol. 6, No. 2 — 132 — September 1, 1888
• Vol. 6, No. 3 — 133 — September 15, 1888
• Vol. 6, No. 4 — 134 — September 29, 1888
• Vol. 6, No. 5 — 135 — October 13, 1888
• Vol. 6, No. 6 — 136 — October 27, 1888
• Vol. 6, No. 7 — 137 — November 10, 1888
• Vol. 6, No. 8 — 138 — December 1, 1888
• Vol. 6, No. 9 — 139 — December 15, 1888
• Vol. 6, No. 10 — 140 — January 5, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 11 — 141 — January 19. 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 12 — 142 — February 2, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 13 — 143 — February 23, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 14 — 144 — March 16, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 15 — 145 — May 18, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 16 — 146 — June 8, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 17 — 147 — June 19, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 18 — 148 — July 20, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 19 — 149 — August 10, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 20 — 150 — September 7, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 21 — 151 — October 5, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 22 — 152 — November 23, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 23 — 153 — December 28, 1889
• Vol. 6, No. 24 — 154 — January 25, 1890
• Vol. 6, No. 25 — 155 — February 15, 1890
• Vol. 6, No. 26 — 156 — March 8, 1890

• Vol. 7, No. 1 — 157 — April 19, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 2 — 158 — May 24, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 3 — 159 — June 7, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 4 — 160 — June 21, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 5 — 161 — June 28, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 6 — 162 — July 12, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 7 — 163 — July 26, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 8 — 164 — August 2, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 9 — 165 — August 16, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 10 — 166 — August 30, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 11 — 167 — September 13, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 12 — 168 — September 27, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 13 — 169 — October 18, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 14 — 170 — November 1, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 15 — 171 — November 15, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 16 — 172 — November 29, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 17 — 173 — December 13, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 18 — 174 — December 27, 1890
• Vol. 7, No. 19 — 175 — January 10, 1891
• Vol. 7, No. 20 — 176 — January 24, 1891
• Vol. 7, No. 21 — 177 — February 7, 1891
• Vol. 7, No. 22 — 178 — February 21, 1891
• Vol. 7, No. 23 — 179 — March 7, 1891
• Vol. 7, No. 24 — 180 — March 21, 1891
• Vol. 7, No. 25 — 181 — April 4, 1891
• Vol. 7, No. 26 — 182 — April 18, 1891

• Vol. 8, No. 1 — 183 — May 2, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 2 — 184 — May 16, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 3 — 185 — May 30, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 4 — 186 — June 13, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 5 — 187 — June 27, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 6 — 188 — July 11, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 7 — 189 — July 25, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 8 — 190 — August 1, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 9 — 191 — August 8, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 10 — 192 — August 15, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 11 — 193 — August 22, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 12 — 194 — August 29, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 13 — 195 — September 5, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 14 — 196 — September 12, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 15 — 197 — September 19, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 16 — 198 — September 26, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 17 — 199 — October 3, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 18 — 200 — October 10, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 19 — 201 — October 17, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 20 — 202 — October 24, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 21 — 203 — October 31, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 22 — 204 — November 7, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 23 — 205 — November 14 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 24 — 206 — November 21, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 25 — 207 — November 28, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 26 — 208 — December 5, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 27 — 209 — December 12, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 28 — 210 — December 19, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 29 — 211 — December 26, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 30 — 212 — January 2, 1891
• Vol. 8, No. 31 — 213 — January 9, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 32 — 214 — January 16, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 33 — 215 — January 23, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 34 — 216 — January 30, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 35 — 217 — February 6, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 36 — 218 — February 13, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 37 — 219 — April 30, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 38 — 220 — May 7, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 39 — 221 — May 14, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 40 — 222 — May 21, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 41 — 223 — May 28, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 42 — 224 — June 4, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 43 — 225 — June 11, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 44 — 226 — June 18, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 45 — 227 — June 25, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 46 — 228 — July 2, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 47 — 229 — July 16, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 48 — 230 — July 23, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 49 — 231 — July 30, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 50 — 232 — August 6, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 51 — 233 — August 13, 1892
• Vol. 8, No. 52 — 234 — August 20, 1892

• Vol. 9, No. 1 — 235 — September 3, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 2 — 236 — September 10, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 3 — 237 — September 17, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 4 — 238 — September 24, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 5 — 239 — October 1, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 6 — 240 — October 8, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 7 — 241 — October 15, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 8 — 242 — October 22, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 9 — 243 — October 29, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 10 — 244 — November 5, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 11 — 245 — November 12, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 12 — 246 — November 19, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 13 — 247 — November 26, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 14 — 248 — December 3, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 15 — 249 — December 10, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 16 — 250 — December 17, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 17 — 251 — December 24, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 18 — 252 — December 31, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 19 — 253 — January 7, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 20 — 254 — January 14, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 21 — 255 — January 21, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 22 — 256 — January 28, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 23 — 257 — February 4, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 24 — 258 — February 11, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 25 — 259 — February 18, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 26 — 260 — February 25, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 27 — 261 — March 4, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 28 — 262 — March 11, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 29 — 263 — March 18, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 30 — 264 — March 25, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 31 — 265 — April 1, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 32 — 266 — April 8, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 33 — 267 — April 15, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 34 — 268 — April 22, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 35 — 269 — April 29, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 36 — 270 — May 6, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 37 — 271 — May 13, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 38 — 272 — May 20, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 39 — 273 — May 27, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 40 — 274 — June 3, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 41 — 275 — June 10, 1892
• Vol. 9, No. 42 — 276 — June 17, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 43 — 277 — June 24, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 44 — 278 — July 1, 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 45 — 279 — August 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 46 — 280 — September 1893
• Vol. 9, No. 47 — 281 — February 24, 1894
• Vol. 9, No. 48 — 282 — March 10, 1894
• Vol. 9, No. 49 — 283 — March 24, 1894
• Vol. 9, No. 50 — 284 — April 7, 1894
• Vol. 9, No. 51 — 285 — April 21, 2894
• Vol. 9, No. 52 — 286 — May 5, 1894

• Vol. 10, No. 1 — 287 — May 19, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 2 — 288 — June 2, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 3 — 289 — June 16, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 4 — 290 — June 30, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 5 — 291 — July 14, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 6 — 292 — July 28, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 7 — 293 — August 11, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 8 — 294 — August 25, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 9 — 295 — September 8, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 10 — 296 — September 22, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 11 — 297 — October 6, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 12 — 298 — October 20, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 13 — 299 — November 3, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 14 — 300 — November 17, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 15 — 301 — December 1, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 16 — 302 — December 15, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 17 — 303 — December 29, 1894
• Vol. 10, No. 18 — 304 — January 12, 1895
• Vol. 10, No. 19 — 305 — January 26, 1895
• Vol. 10, No. 20 — 306 — February 9, 1895
• Vol. 10, No. 21 — 307 — February 23, 1895
• Vol. 10, No. 22 — 308 — March 9, 1895
• Vol. 10, No. 23 — 309 — March 23, 1895
• Vol. 10, No. 24 — 310 — April 6, 1895
• Vol. 10, No. 25 — 311 — April 20, 1895
• Vol. 10, No. 26 — 312 — May 4, 1895

• Vol. 11, No. 1 — 313 — May 18, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 2 — 314 — June 1, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 3 — 315 — June 15, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 4 — 316 — June 29, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 5 — 317 — July 13, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 6 — 318 — July 27, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 7 — 319 — August 10, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 8 — 320 — August 24, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 9 — 321 — September 7, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 10 — 322 — September 21, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 11 — 323 — October 5, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 12 — 324 — October 19, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 13 — 325 — November 2, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 14 — 326 — November 16, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 15 — 327 — November 30, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 16 — 328 — December 14, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 17 — 329 — December 28, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 18 — 330 — January 11, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 19 — 331 — January 25, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 20 — 332 — February 8, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 21 — 333 — February 22, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 22 — 334 — March 7, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 23 — 335 — March 21, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 24 — 336 — April 4, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 25 — 337 — April 18, 1895
• Vol. 11, No. 26 — 338 — May 2, 1895

• Vol. 12, No. 1 — 339 — May 16, 1896
• Vol. 12, No. 2 — 340 — May 30, 1896
• Vol. 12, No. 3 — 341 — June 13, 1896
• Vol. 12, No. 4 — 342 — June 27, 1896
• Vol. 12, No. 5 — 343 — July 11, 1896
• Vol. 12, No. 6 — 344 — August 1, 1896
• Vol. 12, No. 7 — 345 — August 22, 1896
• Vol. 12, No. 8 — 346 — October, 1896
• Vol. 12, No. 9 — 347 — November, 1896
• Vol. 12, No. 10 — 348 — December, 1896
• Vol. 12, No. 11 — 349 — January, 1897
• Vol. 12, No. 12 — 350 — February, 1897

• Vol. 13, No. 1 — 351 — March, 1897
• Vol. 13, No. 2 — 352 — April, 1897
• Vol. 13, No. 3 — 353 — May, 1897
• Vol. 13, No. 4 — 354 — July, 1897
• Vol. 13, No. 5 — 355 — August, 1897
• Vol. 13, No. 6 — 356 — October, 1897
• Vol. 13, No. 7 — 357 — December, 1897
• Vol. 13, No. 8 — 358 — November, 1898
• Vol. 13, No. 9 — 359 — January, 1899
• Vol. 13, No. 10 — 360 — March, 1899
• Vol. 13, No. 11 — 361 — May, 1899
• Vol. 13, No. 12 — 362 — July, 1899

• Vol. 14, No. 1 — 363 — September, 1889
• Vol. 14, No. 2 — 364 — November, 1889
• Vol. 14, No. 3 — 365 — December, 1900
• Vol. 14, No. 4 — 366 — December, 1902
• Vol. 14, No. 5 — 367 — January, 1903
• Vol. 14, No. 6 — 368 — February, 1903
• Vol. 14, No. 7 — 369 — March, 1903
• Vol. 14, No. 8 — 370 — April, 1903
• Vol. 14, No. 9 — 371 — May, 1903
• Vol. 14, No. 10 — 372 — June, 1903
• Vol. 14, No. 11 — 373 — July, 1903
• Vol. 14, No. 12 — 374 — August, 1903
• Vol. 14, No. 13 — 375 — September, 1903
• Vol. 14, No. 14 — 376 — October, 1903
• Vol. 14, No. 15 — 377 — November, 1903
• Vol. 14, No. 16 — 378 — December, 1903
• Vol. 14, No. 17 — 379 — January, 1904
• Vol. 14, No. 18 — 380 — February, 1904
• Vol. 14, No. 19 — 381 — March, 1904
• Vol. 14, No. 20 — 382 — April, 1904
• Vol. 14, No. 21 — 383 — June, 1904
• Vol. 14, No. 22 — 384 — July, 1904
• Vol. 14, No. 23 — 385 — September, 1904
• Vol. 14, No. 24 — 386 — December, 1904
• Vol. 14, No. 25 — 387 — February, 1905
• Vol. 14, No. 26 — 388 — May, 1905
• Vol. 14, No. 27 — 389 — August, 1905
• Vol. 14, No. 28 — 390 — November, 1905

• Vol. 15, No. 1 — 391 — February, 1906
• Vol. 15, No. 2 — 392 — April, 1906
• Vol. 15, No. 3 — 393 — June, 1906
• Vol. 15, No. 4 — 394 — August, 1906
• Vol. 15, No. 5 — 395 — October, 1906
• Vol. 15, No. 6 — 396 — December, 1906

• Vol. 16, No. 1 — 397 — April, 1907
• Vol. 16, No. 2 — 398 — May, 1907
• Vol. 16, No. 3 — 399 — September, 1907
• Vol. 16, No. 4 — 400 — October, 1907
• Vol. 16, No. 5 — 401 — November, 1907
• Vol. 16, No. 6 — 402 — December, 1907

• Vol. 17, No. 1 — 403 — April, 1908

Libertas (1888)

• Vol. 1, No. 1 — 1 — 17 Maerz 1888
  Vol. 1, No. 2 — 2 — 7 April 1888
  Vol. 1, No. 3 — 3 — 21 April 1888
  Vol. 1, No. 4 — 4 — 5 May 1888
  Vol. 1, No. 5 — 5 — 19 Mai 1888
  Vol. 1, No. 6 — 6 — 2 Juni 1888
  Vol. 1, No. 7 — 7 — 30 Juni 1888

Progress in archiving Liberty

Volumes 1-4 of Liberty and 3 of the 8 issues of Libertas are now available in pdf. The archiving push has brought some offers of assistance. I am hoping to launch a MediaWiki-based site for group discussion and collaborative transcription of the archived material. More news on this, and on indexing for the archive, soon.

embarking again

The lesson here is to take on projects well-adapted to the conditions under which you expect to labor. Now, if only I could get to a place where I could predict those conditions from month to month, or even semester to semester. I've been doing a lot of work on this project, reading, scanning and transcribing material from Liberty and from related sources. I haven't been doing it in a particularly systematic way—until this last week.

Some rethinking has obviously been in order, so here's a new, delightfully doable plan for the start of a relaunch here. I have begun to archive Liberty in pdf form, working from John Zube's microfiche edition. I have archived the first 65 or so issues already, and am working at a pace that ought to have a complete pdf archive of the first 14 volumes of Liberty together in roughly a month. Volumes 15-17 consist of issues in a format much easier to convert to text, and I have already begun the text-conversion process on those 13 issues. I am also in the process of converting the contents listings in Zube's edition into a more usable form, as the beginnings of an archive index. Getting the basic archive together is really a matter of staying on top of the schedule, and being willing to do the scut work. Pdfs will allow everyone free access to the archive, and the completeness of Zube's edition, which includes the issues of Libertas and some issues not found in the APS Online collection, means an improvement even for those with good academic access. Full-text searching is a ways away, as is the much-needed print reprint, but one step at a time.

possible scanning breakthough

This project is always slowed down by my desire to make much of the pertinent original material available as I comment on it. Working from microfiche originals makes this process somewhat cumbersome, expensive and time-consuming. Or, it has done so in the past. I've just changed my scanning process somewhat, while working with material from The Twentieth Century, and have been able to at least double my scanning speed in many cases. I hope to get a chance, perhaps even yet this evening, to attempt the same process with some issues of Liberty. Think good thoughts...

1881 - the first three

[Ah, for the settled life of a scholar, where I could tackle my 1.104 issues of Liberty each day, and keep a regular schedule, rather than the constant fire-fighting and scrambling that goes with part-timing. But the show must go on, however fitfully.]

So what actually appears in the pages of Liberty? The staple, stable source for Tucker's opinions remained, from first to last, the "On Picket Duty" column. From the first issue, of August 6, through the remainder of 1881, this occupied the first two columns on the front page of nearly every issue, while a collection of clippings "About Progressive People," occupied the third column. The two exceptions to this rule are interesting. The very first issue devotes the center column of the front page to a portrait of Sophie Perovskaya, the Russian nihilist martyr, together with a poem by Joaquin Miller. And the ninth issue devotes the entire front page, together with half a column on page four, to a short biography of Michael Bakunine, identified there as "the founder of Russian Nihilism," together with a portrait, which was apparently the object of a long search by Tucker to find an authentic likeness. In that issue, both of the usual front-page features were preempted.

The debates that we associate with Liberty start slowly, in part because Tucker dominates the pages of these early issues. The first issue is full of preliminaries, such as this statement:

Our Purpose

LIBERTY enters the field of journalism to speak for herself because she finds no one willing to speak for her. She hears no voice that always champions her; she knows no pen that always writes in her defence; she sees no hand that is always lifted to avenge her wrongs and vindicate her rights. Many claim to speak in her name, but few really understand her. Still fewer have the courage and the opportunity to consistently fight for her. Her battle, then, is her own, to wage and win. She accepts it fearlessly and with a determined spirit.

Her foe, Authority, takes many shapes, but, broadly speaking, her enemies divide themselves into three classes: first, those who abhor her both as a means and as an end of progress, opposing her openly, avowedly, sincerely, consistently, universally; second, those who profess to believe in her as a means of progress, but who accept her only so far as they think she will subserve their own selfish interests, denying her and her blessings to the rest of the world; third, those who distrust her as a means of progress, believing in her only as an end to be obtained by first trampling upon, violating, and outraging her. These three phases of opposition to Liberty are met in almost every sphere of thought and human activity. Good representatives of the first are seen in the Catholic Church, and the Russian autocracy; of the second, in the Protestant Church and the Manchester school of politics and political economy; of the third, in the atheism of Gambetta and the socialism of Karl Marx.

Through these forms of authority another line of demarcation runs transversely, separating the divine from the human; or better still, the religious from the secular. Liberty's victory over the former is well-nigh achieved. Last century, Voltaire brought the authority of the supernatural into disrepute. The Church has been declining ever since. Her teeth are drawn, and though she still seems to show here and there vigorous signs of life, she does so in the violence of the death-agony upon her, and soon her power will be felt no more. It is human authority that hereafter is to be dreaded, and the State, its organ, that in the future is to be feared. Those who have lost their faith in gods only to put it in governments; those who have ceased to be Church-worshippers only to become State-worshippers; those who have abandoned pope for king or czar, and priest for president or parliament,—have indeed changed their battle-ground, but are no less the foes of Liberty still. The Church has become an object of derision; the State must be made equally so. The State is said by some to be a “necessary evil”; it must be made unnecessary. This century's battle, then, is with the State: the State, that debases man; the State, that prostitutes woman; the State, that corrupts children; the State that trammels law; the State that stifles thought; the State that monopolizes land, the State that limits credit; the State that restricts exchange; the State that gives idle capital the power of increase, and through interest, rent, profit, and taxes, robs industrious labor of its products.

How the State does these things, and how it can be prevented from doing them, Liberty proposes to show in more detail hereafter in the prosecution of her purpose. Enough to say now that monopoly and privilege must be destroyed, opportunity afforded, and competition encouraged. This is Liberty's work, and "Down with Authority" her war-cry.

This is a somewhat different Tucker than we generally think of—one fascinated with the nihilists, taking "pleasure and pride" in presenting their likenesses to the world. "Down with Authority!" is certainly the kind of slogan that Tucker later avoided, or quibbled with. But he is still finding his feet. The remainder of the first issue does contain "Who is the Somebody?," which introduces the anti-monopoly focus and will precipitate the earliest debates. The second issue [more scans to come] is likewise "thin" and heavy on clippings, mixed with commentary on the decline of "free religion." The noteworthy articles include two reports on the International Revolutionary Congress, together with an editorial, "Vive l'Association Internationale!," which refers to William B. Greene's involvement in the IWA, questions the strategy of "propagandism by fact" (propaganda by deed), and takes a wary, but generally enthusiastic approach to the affair. Tucker quotes some of Greene's most mystical notions about the Internationals, from the Address of the Internationals of which he was the primary author. Tucker was clearly capable of partisan tolerance of such stuff.

Issue No. 3 is where things begin to take off. Besides some response to the assassination of President Garfield and more shots at the free religionists, there are a couple of major statements: "Land and Liberty," which praises the Irish World for its radicalism, but damns it for not being fully anarchist; "Two Kinds of Communism," the first of a series of pieces elaborating the difference between libertarian and authoritarian forms within the broad socialist movement [see Lesigne's "The Two Socialisms" and Tucker's "Armies that Overlap"]; and the piece to which the last responds, Wm. Harrison Riley's "Communism versus Commercialism" and W. G. H. Smart's "A Welcome and a Warning." Riley contributed at least one more item to Liberty, and Smart was something of a communist gadfly in most of the periodicals with which Tucker was involved. So we will meet up with both of them again down the road.

Progress and Premises, continued

By the time he started Liberty, Benjamin R. Tucker had his trial by fire as a controversialist in the pages of The Index, where he also debated Stephen Pearl Andrews about the merits of Proudhon, had edited The Word for Ezra Heywood and The Radical Review for himself. He was obviously reading voraciously, and making (and breaking) connections with radicals of all stripes. Reading Liberty is, in large part, reading the public record of his reading, or his connections and disconnections. By the end of 1881, the first debates are beginning to take off in the letters section of the paper, but the rest is all Tucker: translations, digests of his readings, comments on friends and foes, plumb-line epigrams.

Wages is not slavery. Wages is a form of voluntary exchange, and voluntary exchange is a form of Liberty.

Etc. These are the sorts of statements that have gone on to feed a thousand Usenet, blog, and Wikipedia debates, mere quibbles sometimes, certainly pithy and suggestive, but always requiring some real work to figure out exactly what the pith is. One of the reasons for a complete survey of Liberty is to see what all these pithy bits ultimately add up to.

More open questions: To what extent was Tucker consciously a controversialist? There are times when he genuinely does not seem to see what his antagonists are driving at, and he just keeps driving, sometime to the detriment of Liberty's connections with other radicals. In his Reminiscences, Joshua King Ingalls ends his treatment of a debate with Tucker over the merits of mutual banking with these comments:

Mr. I. not being a metaphysician or "master of logic," like his opponent, was slow to apprehend the little game, which had been put up on him; "this little campaign of question and answer for the purpose of silencing this gun," which had been annoying Mr. T. so long. . . . But there can be no doubt as to the silence of the gun, so far as the columns of Liberty are concerned. My name has not appeared in its columns, but once for two years, and that only to designate as "nonsense," a little notice I sent it commending Labadie's lecture at Detroit, one word of which, it was not allowed the readers of Liberty to see.

Interestingly, one point which was never addressed, as the debate was never resumed, was a claim made by Ingalls that:

Col. W. B. Greene informed me forty-five years since that he was pressed by borrowers to form his mutual bank, but found no lenders, except a few philanthropists who would lend their money without interest anyway, and these he was unwilling to risk sacrificing in an untried experiment.

Tucker considered the claim "extraordinary." In 1895, Tucker, debating Alfred B. Westrup, appealed again to his personal acquaintanceship with Greene, in an attempt to settle a point in the "standard of value" debate. I mention them here because I am not sure, in either case, that Tucker was correct about Greene's thought.

Tucker appears to me a paradoxical character, more than a bit fixated on a few principles he considered key, and willing to sacrifice personal connections in philosophical debate. He seems to have been charming and insufferable by turns. That, of course, would make him an almost perfect heir of Proudhon, Greene, and Warren.

Progress and Premises

At this point, I'm putting together "dummy" issues, with titles for all the major articles, and typing or scanning the bits that I think are most significant. I plan to put random free moments to work filling in the blanks in the early issues, while pushing ahead with the general reading and analysis. If anyone would like to help with the project, let me know and I'll add you to the team.

I've read through the issues for 1881 several times now, and am starting to get a feel for Liberty's beginnings. As I've mentioned before, the state of The Index and the "Free Religion" movement generally occupied a good deal of Tucker's attention in those days, as did the consequences of the Garfield assassination. What's apparent in these early issues is that Tucker is in the process of differentiating himself from the socialistic schools that surround him, and distancing himself from the religiously-grounded reformers of an earlier generation. He is also in the midst of a very delicate process of maintaining connections with the mutualists of an earlier generation—Proudhon, Greene, and Warren—while elaborating a "plumb-line" individualism that diverges quite radically in some ways from that earlier mutualism. One of the most interesting questions facing us in the pages of Liberty is to what extent Tucker was able to stay on the tightrope, and to what extent his individualist anarchism was a real break with that of his mentors and influences.

A little review may be in order, though I'll be the first to admit that this "review" contains a good deal of interpretation on my part.

Proudhon is the well-spring. Tucker gets Proudhon first through William Batchelder Greene, and then straight from the source. We know a good deal about Greene's reading of Proudhon, and we have his own account of their meetings. We know that Greene was in many ways as much a partisan of Pierre Leroux's philosophy as of Proudhon's, and that he adapted his own work as the debates between them played out in the wake of the February Revolution in 1848. In those days, Proudhon was clearly committed to some kind of harmonizing of "communism and property," and, influenced by Leroux's "triad," Greene aimed at a similar harmonization of "communism, socialism, and capitalism." Greene was much more immersed in European political thought than his biographers have generally given him credit for, and we can see the influence of the Saint-Simonians (and ex-Saint-Simonians) nearly everywhere in his work, assuming we know to look for it—nearly everywhere, that is, except in the later mutual banking works, which gradually lose the flavor of '48. (As I've previously noted, they also lose the explicit criticisms of Proudhon.) Greene's final writings don't seem to differ substantially from his early ones, when it comes to his religious commitments. He was a radical heretic early, and seems to have remained one. The atheistic tendencies of the anarchist movement pained him, and he said so, late in life, in the page of The Word. He also remained involved in his researches on "universal history," based in the works of Auguste Ott, Philippe Buchez, and others. But there are plenty of reasons to believe that these aspects of Greene's thought, however much they had been the underpinning of his understanding of mutualism, simply made little or no impact on his many disciples in the mutual bank propaganda. As egoism became part of the core of the Liberty group's individualism, many of the philosophical ties between generations were pretty thoroughly snapped. What that means in terms of our understanding of "mutualism" as a continuing tradition is a question I have to leave open for now.

In any event, Tucker also had his direct encounter with Proudhon, and intended to translate his works in their entirety. It would be interesting to know what combination of financial, ideological and philosophical reasons there were for the very limited amount of Proudhon's work that was actually translated. We're over a century down the road from Tucker's announcement of the Proudhon Library, and there have been very few new additions to the translated works, so there's reason to suspect that the "father of anarchism" has been rather systematically neglected by his own tradition. Perhaps it is not merely cynical of me to think that some of this neglect has come from the fact that "property is theft" has considerable value as a slogan, but that Proudhon's full body of work is demanding, and not always reassuring to any of the ideologies that have been built upon its fragments. My own reading suggests that Proudhon was remarkably consistent in his thinking about economic issues, but that his rhetoric changed considerably over the years, and that the tactics he adopted in dealing with an understanding of "property" as always somewhat "impossible" shifted slightly. I'm still wrestling with Proudhon, working on a number of translations. I can only speculate on how far Tucker pursued his thought, or to what extent his failure to translate more reflected a divergence from that influence. This, too, is one of the open questions we'll return to as we work through Liberty.

Josiah Warren was the other obvious influence from the earlier generation. I've quibbled at various times about whether Warren should be considered a "mutualist." He differed quite radically from Proudhon and Greene in his basic philosophy, and professed an opposition to Proudhon's ideas even late in life (again, in the pages of The Word.) But he may, if James J. Martin's sources are correct, have been among the petitioners for a mutual bank in Massachusetts during the ferment of 1850-1. In many ways, he closely resembled the explicit mutualists. Like them, he was philosophically grounded in the thought of the "utopian" socialists. Warren never seems to have repudiated the philosophy he shared with Robert Owen, however much he eventually dissented from his social schemes. He also continued in the experimental pursuit of anarchism now, a much more practical proponent of statelessness than the "philosophical anarchists" who came after. Greene had attempted to describe actual mutualism in this way:

Under the mutual system, each individual will receive the just and exact pay for his work; services equivalent in cost being exchangeable for services equivalent in cost, without profit or discount; and so much as the individual laborer will then get over and above what he has earned will come to him as his share in the general prosperity of the community of which he is an individual member. ("Communism vs. Mutualism," originally in The Word.)

He expected that extention of credit and freeing of markets would accomplish this. Note the way in which a "cost system" (more precisely, for Greene, a cost effect) generates profit as "general prosperty." That's the "mutual" in mutualism, in the realm of economics. For Greene, there was a social-psychological mutualism as well, based in the "doctrine of life" that "life is always objective and subjective." It was, in essence, his recognition of basic "solidarity." But perhaps the two, so tightly bound together in Greene, are ultimately separable, in which case the outcomes of Warren's "cooperation without combination" start to look quite a bit like the "harmonizations" of Proudhon and Greene. Perhaps we can say that, with his philosophy of individualization—"Disconnection, division, individuality the principle of order, harmony, and progress. . ."—he was trying to think himself out of certain "communistic" assumptions that had held sway in New Harmony, while Greene was trying to think himself into humanity, and on much more philosophical terrain. Warren cuts to the chase, and lays down a cost principle. His approach is all practical ethics, grounded in a faith that equitable behavior can compete.

Tucker is, perhaps, more like Greene in his personality, but ultimately closer to Warren in his desire to lay down principles.