Fredy Perlman (20 August 1934 – 26 July 1985) was an American author, publisher, and activist. His best-known work, ''Against His-Story, Against Leviathan!'', retells the historical rise of state domination through the Hobbesian metaphor of the

Leviathan Leviathan (; he, לִוְיָתָן, ) is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and, according to some ...

Early life

Perlman was born August 20, 1934, in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, to Henry and Martha Perlman. His family immigrated to the United States when he was young. Perlman received a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

from

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-ba ...

. He married Lorraine Nybakken in January 1958.

Professional life

His best-known work, ''Against His-Story, Against Leviathan'' (1983) rewrites the history of humanity as a struggle of free people ("zeks") resisting the sovereign nation-state (

). The book influenced ecophilosopher

John Zerzan John Edward Zerzan ( ; born August 10, 1943) is an American anarchist and primitivist ecophilosopher and author. His works criticize agricultural civilization as inherently oppressive, and advocates drawing upon the ways of life of hunter-gath ...

. Philosopher John P. Clark states that ''Against His-Story, Against Leviathan!'' describes Perlman's critique of what he saw as "the millennia-long history of the assault of the technological megamachine on humanity and the Earth." Clark also notes the book discusses "anarchistic spiritual movements" such as the Yellow Turban movement in ancient China and the

Brethren of the Free Spirit The Brethren of the Free Spirit were adherents of a loose set of beliefs deemed heretical by the Catholic Church but held (or at least believed to be held) by some Christians, especially in the Low Countries, Germany, France, Bohemia, and Nort ...

in medieval Europe. In 1984 Perlman wrote a work on the subject of nationalism called ''The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism''.''The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism'' by Fredy Perlman
/ref> In it he argues that "Leftist or revolutionary nationalists insist that their nationalism has nothing in common with the nationalism of fascists and national socialists, that theirs is a nationalism of the oppressed, that it offers personal as well as cultural liberation." And so "To challenge these claims, and to see them in a context," he asks "what nationalism is – not only the new revolutionary nationalism but also the old conservative one." And so he concludes that nationalism is an aid to capitalist control of nature and people regardless of its origin. Nationalism thus provides a form through which "Every oppressed population can become a nation, a photographic negative of the oppressor nation" and that "There's no earthly reason for the descendants of the persecuted to remain persecuted when nationalism offers them the prospect of becoming persecutors. Near and distant relatives of victims can become a racist nation-state; they can themselves herd other people into concentration camps, push other people around at will, perpetrate genocidal war against them, procure preliminary capital by expropriating them." During 1985, Perlman wrote two essays on

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

, whom Perlman regarded – along with Hawthorne's contemporaries Thoreau and Melville – as a critic of

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scien ...

and

imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic powe ...

.''Having Little, Being Much''
/ref>

Personal life

Perlman died on July 26, 1985, while undergoing heart surgery in Detroit's

Ford Hospital The Ford Hospital, also called the Fifth Avenue Hotel, is located in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Built in 1916 by Home Builders Incorporated, the hospital was a privately operated facility built and operated by Dr. Michael J. Ford. Operating until ...

. He was survived by his wife and a brother.

Selected publications

* * "Essay on Commodity Fetishism". ''Telos'' 6 (Fall 1970). New York: Telos Press.
"The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism"
*
Sound recording

''Worker-Student Action Committees, France May '68'' with Roger Gregoire

''Manual for Revolutionary Leaders''
Second Edition Including The Sources of Velli's Thoughts (Black & Red, Detroit, 1974)

"Obituary for Paul Baran"

"The Machine Against the Garden: Two Essays on American Literature and Culture"

"Chicago, 1968"

"Anything can happen"

Illyria Street Commune
1979 (AudioPlay)

1979 (Playscript on The Anarchist Library)

References

External links

Black and Red Books
the press founded by the Perlmans
Fredy Perlman
texts at Libcom
Fredy Perlman
texts at Spunk Library

texts at The Anarchist Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Perlman, Fredy 1934 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century translators American anarchists American anti-capitalists American male non-fiction writers American people of Czech-Jewish descent Anarchist theorists Anarchist writers Anarcho-primitivists Anti-consumerists Bolivian emigrants to the United States Columbia University alumni Czechoslovak emigrants to Bolivia French–English translators Green anarchists Industrial Workers of the World members Jewish American writers Jewish anarchists People from Cochabamba Scholars of nationalism University of Belgrade Faculty of Law alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Western Michigan University faculty Writers on antisemitism