Lysander Spooner: American Anarchist

By (author) Steve J. Shone

Not available to order

Publication date:

25 May 2010

Length of book:

138 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739144527

Lysander Spooner: American Anarchist is the first book-length exposition of the ideas of the American anarchist and abolitionist who lived mostly in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1808 to 1887. Few people today are familiar with Spooner. Nonetheless, there are many interesting strands of original thought to be found in his works that have contemporary significance_for example his reflections on the need for jury nullification or his devastating critique of the social contract. Rediscovering Spooner today is no mere investigation of a bygone nineteenth century thinker, but rather a gateway to a brilliant and original scholar whose counsel should not be ignored.
Shone's book is a varied and historically grounded exploration of the political views of Lysander Spooner, the 19th-century abolitionist and political writer. The volume is welcome, as it competently describes Spooner's intellectual contributions to his era's debates over property law, the constitutional powers of the federal government, jury nullification, and the ends and means of abolitionism....Summing Up: Recommended.