Individualist Anarchism

I pass to the extreme Individualists,–those who hold to the tradition of political economy, and are firm in the idea that the system of employer and employed, buying and selling, banking, and all the other essential institutions of Commercialism, centering upon private property, are in themselves good, and are rendered vicious merely by the interference of the State. Their chief economic propositions are: land to be held by individuals or companies for such time and in such allotments as they use only; redistribution to take place as often as the members of the community shall agree ...

Many of the brightest American radicals and reformers passed through [Liberty]'s pages ... [It] also hosted the best ... European voices of individualism and integrated their ideas into the uniquely American movements of labor, free thought, and free love. Through this integration, Tucker produced the rigorous system of individualist anarchism ... [He] stated the crux of his political philosophy:

The [Individualist] Anarchists are simply unterrified Jeffersonian Democrats. They believe that "the best government is that which governs least," and that which governs least is no government at all.

From a later admiration of ... Spooner, Tucker's voice acquired a radical antipolitical edge as well. To these influences were added the European flavor of Herbert Spencer, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Max Stirner, and Michael Bakounin. In editing Liberty, Tucker both filtered and integrated the theories of such European thinkers with the uniquely American labor, freethought, and free-love movements to produce a rigorous system of individualist anarchism subsequently identified with him. It became known as "philosophical anarchism" or, in a phrase often applied derogatorily, "Boston anarchism."

A labor radical who was deeply skeptical of unions, a medical doctor who opposed state licensing of medicine, a staunch anti-statist who broke with the most prominent individualist anarchists of her day, an ardent feminist who denied that there were "women's rights" as distinct from "human rights" ... who was Gertrude B. Kelly ...? In the opinion of Benjamin Tucker, editor of the pivotal individualist periodical Liberty, "Gertrude B. Kelly, ... by her articles in Liberty, has placed herself at a single bound among the finest writers of this or any other country."

Wendy McElroy: I am an individualist anarchist. In the 19th century, individualist anarchism defined its political goal as a "society by contract" in which all people possessed equal rights and an equal responsibility to respect the rights of others. The only other factor that restrained the peaceful person was contract–that is, the agreement or legal commitment he or she made to another in exchange for a consideration. If someone did not live up to a contract, then the aggrieved party had a legal right to seek redress through arbitration or any other reasonable means ...