Anarchism in the United States spans a wide range of anarchist philosophy, from individualist anarchism to anarchist communism and other less known forms. America has two main traditions, native and immigrant, with the native tradition being strongly individualist and the immigrant tradition being collectivist and anarcho-communist. Influential American anarchists include Josiah Warren, Henry David Thoreau, Lysander Spooner, Lucy Parsons, Murray Rothbard, Benjamin Tucker, Voltairine de Cleyre, Johann Most, Luigi Galleani, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, social ecologist Murray Bookchin, Paul Goodman, and linguist Noam Chomsky.
The first American anarchist publication was The Peaceful Revolutionist, edited by Josiah Warren, whose earliest experiments and writings predate Pierre Proudhon. Currently anarchist ideas are undergoing the most massive expansion in American history since its influence dwindled after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Read more about Anarchism In The United States: Indigenous Anarchism, Individualist Anarchism, Social Anarchism, Insurrectionary Anarchism, Re-emergence of Anarchism in The U.S., Notable American Anarchists
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“And hereby hangs a moral highly applicable to our own trustee-ridden universities, if to nothing else. If we really wanted liberty of speech and thought, we could probably get it—Spain fifty years ago certainly had a longer tradition of despotism than has the United States—but do we want it? In these years we will see.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man’s subordination. Anarchism is therefore the teacher of the unity of life; not merely in nature, but in man.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“In the larger view the major forces of the depression now lie outside of the United States, and our recuperation has been retarded by the unwarranted degree of fear and apprehension created by these outside forces.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“I asked myself, “Is it going to prevent me from getting out of here? Is there a risk of death attached to it? Is it permanently disabling? Is it permanently disfiguring? Lastly, is it excruciating?” If it doesn’t fit one of those five categories, then it isn’t important.”
—Rhonda Cornum, United States Army Major. As quoted in Newsweek magazine, “Perspectives” page (July 13, 1992)