WHILE PIERRE-JOSEPH PROUDHON produced dozens of books on a wide range of topics from 1839 until his death in 1865, the French autodidact is generally remembered as the first public figure to seriously declare “I am an anarchist” and for his equally provocative declaration that “property is theft.” (He also wrote that “property is liberty,” launching debates about his views that would long outlive him.) Proudhon was seldom far from conflict and controversy, at times paying a considerable price for his bold assertions. After he joined the provisional government following the French Revolution of 1848, his conflicts with soon-to-be emperor Louis Napoleon led to years of prison and exile.
Writing before an anarchist movement existed, Proudhon spent years addressing any audience he thought might listen and any subject that seemed to offer opportunities to develop his ideas. In—he gave us .
