Anarchy, Geography, Modernity: Selected Writings of Elisee Reclus

(Paperback)

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Anarchy, Geography, Modernity is the first comprehensive introduction to the thoughts and philosophy of Elisee Reclus (1830-1905), the great French anarchist geographer and political theorist. Reclus is best known for Universal Geography, a masterwork that he spent two decades completing. This volume analyses Universal Geography and presents his ground-breaking critique of all forms of domination: not only capitalism, the state and authoritarian religion, but also patriarchy, racism, technological domination and the domination of nature.

Reviews

"For far too long Elise Reclus has stood in the shadow of Godwin, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, and Emma Goldman. Now John Clark has pulled Reclus forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Anarchism's cynosures. Reclus' light brought into anarchism's compass not only a focus on ecology, but a struggle against both patriarchy and racism, contributions which can now be fully appreciated thanks to John Clark's exegesis and [his and Camille Martin's] translations of works previously unavailable in English. No serious reader can afford to neglect this book."
--Dana Ward, Pitzer College

"Finally! A century after his death, the great French geographer and anarchist Elise Reclus has been honored by a vibrant selection of his writings expertly translated into English."
--Kent Mathewson, Louisiana State University

"Maintaining an appropriately scholarly style, marked by deep background knowledge, nuanced argument, and careful qualifications, Clark and Martin nevertheless reveal a passionate love for their subject and adopt a stance of political engagement that they hope does justice to Reclus' own commitments."
--Historical Geography

"Clark and Martin have opened the door, through their deep introduction and selected reprints, to one of the great thinkers of 19th century anarchist thought."
--Anarchy

"This inspiring analysis and anthology does an excellent job of placing Reclus in his anarchist and social context."
--Anarchist Studies

Author Bio

John Clark is the Curtin Distinguished Professor in Humane Letters and the Professions, a professor of philosophy, and a member of the environmental studies faculty at Loyola University-New Orleans. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, most recently, The Impossible Community: Realizing Communitarian Anarchism; comoderator of Research on Anarchism, an international multilingual discussion list and research archives; editor of the online journal Psychic Swamp: The Surregional Review; and the author of the "Imagined Ecologies" column for the journal Capitalism Nature Socialism. He lives in New Orleans. Camille Martin is the author of four books of poetry, most recently, Looms and Sonnets. She is the founder of Rogue Embryo, a literary blog. She lives in Toronto. Elise Reclus was a renowned French geographer, writer, and anarchist. In 1892 he was awarded the prestigious Gold Medal of the Paris Geographical Society for his 19-volume masterwork La Nouvelle Gographie universelle, la terre et les hommes (Universal Geography), despite his having been banished from France because of his political activism.