Collected Works of Lysander Spooner

by Lysander Spooner, Charles Shively

34 works in six volumes Spooner, an intellectual activist and later a philosophical anarchist, was one of 19th century America's most profound minds, producing some of the finest constitutional arguments ever devised against slavery, concerning himself equally with the subtle subjugation of free citizens by a governmental system which he saw become increasingly restrictive of personal rights. Spooner had a genius for opposing the government. His protests were not limited to brilliant writings on slavery, the Constitution, the jury system, copyright practices, and the economics of our rapidly industrializing country. In the mid-1840s Spooner actually forced a reduction in postal rates by setting up his own private mail company in competition with the U.S. Post Office.

Genres: Politics, Anarchism

2400 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Lysander Spooner was an American individualist anarchist, entrepreneur, political philosopher, abolitionist, supporter of the labor movement, and legal theorist of the nineteenth century. He is also known for competing with the U.S. Post Office with his American Letter Mail Company, which was forced out of business by the United States government. He has been identified by some contemporary writers as an anarcho-capitalist,while at least one writer is convinced that his advocacy of self-employment over working for an employer for wages qualifies him as an anti-capitalist or a socialist, notwithstanding his support for private ownership of the means of production and a free-market economy.