Great Anarchists 7, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (A6)

Proudhon is famous for two reasons. First, he’s the author of What is Property? the book containing the immortal phrase “property is theft!”. Second, he has emerged as the ‘first’ anarchist. This accolade is explained in part by his provocative reclamation of the term ‘anarchy’. Until Proudhon published his critique of property in 1840 the term had only been applied pejoratively. In the other part, it comes from his encounter with Marx when in 1846 Proudhon rebuffed Marx’s tentative advances and hinted that he found his proposals dogmatic.