William Godwin was the first proclaimed anarchist in history and the first to write about anarchism. Godwin published a book called Political Justice in 1793 which first introduced his ideas about anarchism, Godwin was forgotten about, however, and after his death Pierre Joseph Proudhon became a leading anarchist figure in the world. His book What is Property? incorporated greater meaning to the word anarchism; anarchism became not only a rejection of established auth

The above paragraphs may make you think that I am now a anarchist. If so, I have misled you. I am against the way our nation is run today, but I do not think anarchy is an applicable alternative. Anarchy sounds as if we could actually live as an utopian society. It is a nice dream, but will never be reality (at least not in my lifetime). When people are free, they are uncontrollable. I like the idea of having groups of different people, with equal power determining how the nation be run, but there needs to be control. I think the only way to come close to having an utopian society, is if someone comes up with a way where we can balance both freedom and control fairly, distribute it equally, and get the working class to believe it will work. Who knows? Maybe someone actually will someday.

So, is it possible for anarchy to exist? At the moment capitalism would collapse without the support of the working class. We make everything, we produce all the wealth. The sad thing is, most of the working class does believe America is being run in our interests. So, my answer is no; I don't think anarchy will ever come to be in America.

As the 20th century emerged anarchism began to peak and the definition of anarchism became concrete with the growth of new anarchist writers and movements. The execution and imprisonment of eight anarchists in Chicago in 1886 sparked anarchism's growth in the United States. The "Haymarket Eight" flourished anarchists such as Voltairine de Cleyre and Lucy Parsons. Parsons was born into slavery and later became an anarchist and an ardent speaker and working class rebel; the Chicago police labeled Parsons, "...more dangerous than a thousand rioters."

Although the word anarchism is understood by many in its classic sense (that defined by dictionaries and by anarchists of history), the word often seems to be misused or misunderstood. Anarchism, because of the threat it imposes upon established authority, has been historically, and is still, misused by power holders as violence and chaos. The claim that anarchism is chaos was refuted long ago by Alexander Berkman when he wrote:

ority but a theory opposing ownership of land and property as well.

Anarchism revolves around five basic principles: 1) equality; 2) democracy; 3) free association; 4) mutual aid; 5) diversity. Equality can have many different meanings. In regards to the anarchist political philosophy, they speak of equality in reference to power. This doesn't mea

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Approximate Word count = 1672
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)