Robert Graham (historian)

Robert Graham (born 1958) is a Canadian anarchist historian and writer. He is the editor of Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas, a three-volume collection of anarchist writings from ancient China to the present day. Volume One, subtitled "From Anarchy to Anarchism", covers the period from 300CE to 1939. Volume 2, subtitled "The Emergence of the New Anarchism," covers the period from 1939, when the Spanish anarchists were defeated and the Second World War began, to 1977, by which time the world had witnessed a remarkable resurgence in anarchist ideas and movements. Volume 3, subtitled "The New Anarchism," covers the period from 1974 to 2012, showcasing the different currents in anarchist theory and practice which have developed since the 1970s. The anthology is published by Black Rose Books. Each selection is introduced by Robert Graham, placing each author and selection in their historical and ideological context. The focus of the anthology is on the origins and development of anarchist ideas. It is not a documentary history of the world's various anarchist movements, although there is a wealth of material from many different areas, including not only Europe and North America, but also Latin America, China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Africa and the Middle East.

Graham is also the author of many articles on the history of anarchist ideas and contemporary anarchist theory. He was an editor and contributor to the North American anarchist newsjournal, Open Road, for which he interviewed both Murray Bookchin and Noam Chomsky (the latter interview, "The Manufacture of Consent," has been reprinted in Carlos Otero's collection of Chomsky interviews, Language and Politics). Drawing on the work of the feminist political theorist, Carole Pateman, Graham has argued in favour of a conception of direct democracy based on the notion of self-assumed obligation, which emphasizes the right of minority dissent as opposed to simple majority rule. His view of anarchism is similar to anarchist communists, such as Peter Kropotkin, and communitarian anarchists, such as Colin Ward, advocating horizontal webs of ever-changing voluntary associations dealing with all aspects of social life.

Most recently, he has written a book on the origins of the anarchist movement from the debates and struggles within the International Workingmen's Association (the so-called "First International") during the 1860s and 1870s in Europe, entitled 'We Do Not Fear Anarchy - We Invoke It': The First International and the Origins of the Anarchist Movement,' published by AK Press in July 2015. The quotation in the title is taken from Michael Bakunin, written around the time that he officially joined the International in 1868.

Publications

• Introduction to the 1989 Pluto Press edition of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century
• "The Role of Contract in Anarchist Ideology," in For Anarchism (Routledge, 1989), ed.David Goodway
• "The Anarchist Contract," in Reinventing Anarchy, Again (AK Press, 1996), ed. Howard Ehrlich,
• "Broken Promises: The Politics of Social Ecology Revisited," in Social Anarchism, No. 29, 2000
• "Reinventing Hierarchy: The Political Theory of Social Ecology," in Anarchist Studies, Volume 12, No. 4 (2004)
• "Chomsky's Anarchism". Social Anarchism. 2005.
• "Colin Ward: Anarchy and Organization" in Anarchist Studies, Volume 19 No. 2 (2011).
• "Black Flame: A Commentary," in Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies, No. 1 (2013)
• "Marxism and Anarchism on Communism: The Debate Between the Two Bastions of the Left," in Communism in the 21st Century, Volume 2 (Praeger, 2014), ed. Shannon Brincat.
• 'We Do Not Fear Anarchy - We Invoke it': The First International and the Origins of the Anarchist Movement (AK Press, 2015).
• "Debate: re-inventing hierarchy" (with John Clark) in Anarchist Studies, Volume 14 No.2.

External links

• Robert Graham's Anarchism Weblog