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Marx published his rebuttal, Misère de la Philosophie , in 1847 (see item 105), “the bitterest attack delivered by one thinker upon another since the celebrated polemics of the Renaissance” (Berlin, p. 108). The split between the two men over the book and its prognosis created the schism between the Marxists and the anarchists which remains to this day. 2 volumes, octavo (214 × 132 mm). Recent red half morocco, spines lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers and sides. Half-titles present. Some foxing, toning to initial and final leaves, a few very light damp stains, vol. I with paper repair at head of pp. 1 and 409 and small nick at fore edge of p. 389. A very good copy. ¶ Mattioli 2921; Sraffa 4787. Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx , Princeton UP, 2013. £2,250 [129329] 133 PROUDHON, Pierre-Joseph. System of Economic Contradictions, or the Philosophy of Misery. Volume I [all published]. New York: The Humboldt Publishing Co., [1888?] First edition in English, separate issue, published as the fourth volume in Tucker’s collected edition of Proudhon’s works, here issued as a single work with a cancel half-title and title page and a variant binding. (For the first edition, see previous item.) Benjamin Tucker (1854–1939) was among the leading American proponents of individualist anarchism, promoting the case in his periodical Liberty from 1881 to 1908. Proudhon was a major influence on Tucker, and Tucker declared him the “profoundest political philosopher that has ever lived” ( Liberty I, January 1882, p. 4 ) . Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, covers panelled with publisher’s device in black and in blind, green floral endpapers. Partially effaced early ownership stamp to front pastedown. Lightly scuffed, front inner hinge cracked but holding, split to front free endpaper, internally clean. A very good copy. £2,250 [133006]
establish social harmony. The First International was, indeed, destroyed in the great fight between those who supported a libertarian socialism of the kind Proudhon had advocated and those who followed the authoritarian pattern, devised by Karl Marx. Kropotkin and Herzen were all his confessed disciples. Even Tolstoy sought him and borrowed the title and much of the theoretical background of his masterpiece War and Peace from Proudhon’s book, La guerre et la paix . . . One can place Proudhon among the great socialist thinkers of the nineteenth century” (Simons, pp. 301–2). Proudhon himself referred to Qu’est-ce que la propriété? as a “diabolical work which frightens even me” ( Correspondance I , p. 296), and he was called to defend himself against insurrection charges at his local court immediately after its publication. Duodecimo. Original buff wrappers printed in black, edges uncut. Later ownership stamp of “Alf. Mathey” to front wrappers. Wrappers professionally restored, contents bright with occasional light foxing, still a very good copy. ¶ Not in Mattioli or Sraffa. See Correspondance de P. -J. Proudhon , Rivière, 1960–74; William Bradford Simons, Private and Civil Law in the Russian Federation , Martinus Nijhoff, 2009. £2,750 [121060] 132 PROUDHON, Pierre-Joseph. Système des Contradictions Économiques, ou Philosophie de la Misère. Paris: Chez Guillaumin et Cie, 1846 His magnum opus First edition of Proudhon’s magnum opus, his analysis of what he saw to be the economic contradictions of 19th-century capitalism, which he felt would lead in time to an anarchist society. Proudhon sent a copy of the book to Karl Marx, then his friend, for review. Marx read it in two days, and was infuriated. “He therefore determined to destroy it, and with it Proudhon’s reputation as a serious thinker, once and for all”;
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