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

Leviathan Leviathan ( ; ; ) is a sea serpent demon 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, and the pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch. Leviathan is of ...

Early life

Perlman was born August 20, 1934, in

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, to Henry and Martha Perlman. His family immigrated first to Cochabamba, Bolivia to escape

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

and later to the United States. Perlman received a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate 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 prac ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, 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 me ...

. He married Lorraine Nybakken in January 1958.

Career

His best-known work, ''Against His-Story, Against Leviathan'' (1983) rewrites the history of humanity as a struggle of free people resisting being turned into "zeks" (a Soviet term for forced labour that Perlman borrowed from

The Gulag Archipelago ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' () is a three-volume nonfiction series written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet dissident. It was first published in 1973 by the Parisian ...

) by Leviathans (a term used by

Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher, best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan (Hobbes book), Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory. He is considered t ...

for the sovereign nation-state). The book influenced the anarcho-primitivist author

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

. 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 in medieval Europe.John P. Clark, "Anarchism" in ''Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature'', edited by Bron Taylor; New York : Continuum, 2008, pp.49–56.

Death

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

Henry Ford Hospital Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) is an 877-bed tertiary care hospital, education and research complex at the western edge of the New Center, Detroit, New Center area in Detroit, Michigan. The flagship facility for the Henry Ford Health System, it wa ...

. 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 Jews 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American translators 20th-century anarchists American anarchist writers American anti-capitalists American male non-fiction writers American people of Czech-Jewish descent Anarchist theorists Anarcho-primitivists Anti-consumerists Bolivian emigrants to the United States Columbia University alumni Czechoslovak emigrants Immigrants to Bolivia French–English translators Green anarchists Industrial Workers of the World members Jewish American non-fiction 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