Editors' Introduction

With this issue, we begin a series of articles on anarchism. Anarchism oft en is associated with violent opposition to the state, and presented or regarded as strictly oppositional, that is, as having little or nothing affirmative about it. Th is caricature has persisted for more than a century. But with this series of articles, we begin to explore the history and complexities of anarchism in its varied dimensions, many of which are in fact affirmative. Anarchism is, after all, not only political, but also social, philosophical, and religious in its implications—it presents challenges to how one understands power relations in a wide array of contexts. In the articles that follow, authors explore various facets of anarchism, beginning with the middle and late twentieth century.

Our first article, by Carl Levy, is an ambitious and important survey of anarchism in modernity and, in particular, of social histories of anarchism. It provides a sweeping overview of anarchism as an -ism, as a social movement, and as a category within historiography, and as such, it offers important historical contextualization for understanding anarchism as both a European and a global phenomenon. Its approach is particularly appropriate for JSR because it is not driven by an overarching ideological imperative, but rather takes an empirical and analytical inductive approach, and suggests promising future lines of inquiry and methodological tools.

Our next article, by Francis Dupuis-Déri, also offers an historical survey, in this case, of the Black Bloc, a relatively recent phenomenon within anarchism. In his article, Dupuis-Déri chronicles the development and the various aspects of the Black Bloc as tactics and as movement within contemporary anarchism. It is important to look closely at this phenomenon within contemporary anarchism, which invokes conflicts over tactics and philosophy that are far from new, even if their expression may seem so in the news photographs of black-clad protestors and wafting tear gas clouds.

The issue concludes with two articles devoted to an influential and provocative figure within contemporary anarchism, Peter Lamborn Wilson, who is equally well known under a nom de plume, Hakim Bey. These articles, by Simon Sellars and by Leonard Williams, provide some introduction and contextualization for our interview with Wilson himself. Sellars and Williams both focus on Wilson/Bey's widely influential concept of the temporary autonomous zone (TAZ), which emerges in all manner of contexts, from explorations of rave culture to theories regarding technology. TAZ has been the subject of fierce critique, not least by those who themselves identify with anarchism, but also by those who identify with Marxism, socialism, communism, or other perspectives on the Left . It goes more or less without saying that Wilson/Bey is not exactly popular on the Right. But references to his work pop up in the most unexpected places, all the same.

We are pleased to include a conversation with Peter Lamborn Wilson, in which he explores not only many of the subjects brought up in the articles about him, but also demonstrates that a strictly political analysis of his work would ignore some of its most important sources and significances. Much of his inspiration and his influence is not in the realm of politics but in religion. And not merely in religion as a generic category, but in precisely those areas of religion that have been marginalized or anathematized in the West. Wilson's reading and sources are vast and frequently obscure, and in the conversation, we discuss not only his familiarity with excluded traditions or forms of knowledge, like Hermeticism and alchemy, but also his critics, contemporary politics, future political possibilities, and technology—to give only a few topics. Controversial and provocative, Wilson's work is also rich, complex, and multifaceted, and cannot be captured or dismissed by recourse to a single term or label.

Finally, we offer a series of book reviews, many of which tie into the continuing theme of the 1960s, that pivotal historical period, the consequences and significances of which are still being revealed. Wilson himself tells us that he is a scion of the counterculture, and the production of books on this...