Max Nettlau, born on the 30th of April in 1865, was an anarchist historian whose biographical subjects included Bakunin, Malatesta, and Élisée Reclus. His enormous collection of primary materials is held by the International Institute of Social History.
Max Nettlau was born in Neuwaldegg (Austria) to an affluent family. Nettlau's skepticism of state authority began at a young age; his memoirs state that, even as a child, he 'somehow considered the supporter of any government system as a seriously defective person'.
Formally, Nettlau studied linguistics, authoring his doctoral thesis on the Welsh language. While a student in London, he became a member of the Socialist League, the only organization he was ever to join according to the International Institute of Social History (IISG).
As an anarchist activist, Nettlau wrote articles for John Most's Freiheit and befriended famous anarchists such as Peter Kropotkin, Elisée Reclus, and Errico Malatesta.
Nettlau was an avid collector of materials of social movements. Not just manuscripts by anarchist authors (although original texts by Bakunin became a part of his collection), but the actual pamphlets, bulletins, and papers of social movements themselves.
Among Nettlau's works as an author are the first major biography of Michael Bakunin, biographies of anarchists Elisée Reclus and Errico Malatesta, and a seven volume work on the history of anarchism. A significantly shorter, one volume version is available in English as "A Short History of Anarchism".
In 1935, Nettlau sold his archive (described by the IISH as "enormous") to the newly found International Institute of Social History, where it remains to this day.
Nettlau died 1944 from stomach cancer in Amsterdam, having fled his native Austria follow the country's "Anschluss" to Nazi Germany in 1938.
"Do I want to propose my own system? Not at all! I am an advocate of all systems, i.e. of all forms of government that find followers."
- Max Nettlau in "PANARCHY. A Forgotten Idea of 1860" (1905)
A Short History of Anarchism by Max Nettlau
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Am reading a bourgeois macroeconomics textbook right now (why do I torture myself so), and the example they give to explain the theory of comparative advantage made me physically cringe. It goes something like this:
"Suppose that South America can produce 400 units of food or 200 units of computers, and Europe can produce 200 units of food or 400 units of computers. South America has a comparative advantage in producing food, while Europe has a comparative advantage in producing computers. So it would be mutually beneficial for South America to specialize in making food and Europe to specialize in making computers"
My god, what a painfully ironic example, given that the theory of comparative advantage originated from 19th century Britain, which promoted the theory because it wanted to force foreign nations to open themselves up to British exploitation. But neither the colonialist interests behind the origin of the theory nor the way in which this racist example perfectly plays to said colonialist origins ever crossed the minds of the author.
Death to bourgeois economics
"Are you smarter than a fifth grader?" show but it's just kids reading that textbook and making fun of it.
Comparative advantage assumes every country has full employment.