In this essay, John-Erik Hansson examines how and why the 18th-century philosopher William Godwin has been portrayed – positively and negatively – as an anarchist by writers in the 20th century. In so doing, it sheds light on the ideological dynamics and possibilities implicit in the formation and circulation of an anarchist theoretical canon.
John-Erik Hansson is Lecturer in British History at the University of Paris. He recently authored two essays on Godwin’s children’s literature, ‘Through the Looking-Glasses: Godwin’s Biographies for Children’ (2021) and ‘William Godwin, Romantic-Era Historiography and the Political Cultures of Infancy’ (2020), in edited volumes. He is also co-editor of the Ideology, Theory, Practice blog.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
Essay #60: Chi Shing LEE, ‘Anarchism and Nationalism: Ng Chung-yin’s Anarchist Envisioning of Hong Kong in the Early 1970s’
Essay #59: DaN Mckee, ‘Anarchist: Subverting the System from Within’
Essay #58: Pablo Angel Lugo, ‘Practices of Disobedience and Clandestine Citizenship: A Proposal Towards an Anarchist Theory of Art’
Essay #57: Richard White, ‘A Purity of Rebellion: Anarchism, Animals, and More Than Human Worlds’
Essay #56: Jesse Cohn, ‘White Anarchism’s Trouble with Modernity’
Essay #55: Spencer Beswick, ‘Anarchist Anti-Fascism’
Essay #54: Chris Rossdale, ‘The Limits of Rebellion’
Essay #53: Charlotte Lowell, ‘Is Love a Synonym for Anarchism?’
Essay #52: Nora Ziegler, ‘Radical Hospitality’
Essay #51: Kiara Mohamed Amin & Priya Sharma, ‘Psychedelic Liberation’
Essay #50: Dai O’Brien & Steve Emery, ‘Deaf People and Anarchism’
Essay #49: Kim Kelly, ‘Guns aren’t just for right-wingers’
Essay #48: Gloria Truly Estrelita, ‘A Short History of Anarchism in Indonesia’
Essay #47: Jim Donaghey, ‘Smash All Systems!’
Essay #46: Maia Ramnath, ‘The Not So Postcolonial and the Racial Capitalocene’
Special episode: Black Autonomy Podcast, ‘Black Anarchism Across the Generations’
Essay #45: Hannah Kass, ‘Food Anarchy and the State Monopoly on Hunger’
Essay #44: Jennifer Cole, ‘Social Kropotkinism: The Best New Normal for Survival’
Essay #43: Laura Galián, ‘Anarchism in the South of the Mediterranean’
Essay #42: Sophie Scott-Brown, ‘Adventures in Anarchist Autobiography’
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL