The Libertarian Book Club and Libertarian League were two postwar

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

groups in New York City associated with Sam and Esther Dolgoff.

Libertarian Book Club

The Libertarian Book Club was an anarchist circle in

postwar A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...

New York City. Established by Sam and Esther Dolgoff in 1945 at the behest of Grigorii Maksimov, the group held monthly discussion fora and social events in a rented

Workmen's Circle The Workers Circle or Der Arbeter Ring (), formerly The Workmen's Circle, is an American Jews, Jewish nonprofit organization that promotes social and economic justice, Jewish community and education, including Yiddish studies, and Ashkenazi Jews, ...

room and served as a social center for a small, aging group of immigrant radicals whom the Dolgoffs knew from their work on '' Road to Freedom'' and ''

Vanguard The vanguard (sometimes abbreviated to van and also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. ...

''. Sicilian-born anarchist Valerio Isca was one of the co-founders. The Libertarian Book Club published multiple volumes and distributed domestically other major books and international publications from the anarchist movement. The publisher reprinted Steven T. Byington's English translation of Paul Eltzbacher's ''

Anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

'' in 1960.

Libertarian League

In 1954, the Dolgoffs and anarchist Russell Blackwell formed the Libertarian League to supplement the Book Club. In their founding statement, titled "What We Stand For", the League suggested an alternative to the bipolar

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

: a libertarian socialist society with a worldwide federation of free communities, cooperatives, and

workers' councils A workers' council, also called labour council, is a type of council in a workplace or a locality made up of workers or of temporary and instantly revocable delegates elected by the workers in a locality's workplaces. In such a system of poli ...

. Sam Dolgoff described their aims as

anarcho-syndicalist Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade unions as both ...

society with

anarcho-communist Anarchist communism is a far-left political ideology and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private real property but retention of personal property and collectively-owned items, goods, and ser ...

sympathies.The League hosted weekly political discussions and published ''Views and Comments''. Only a few members joined the league at first and though others cycled in and out, attendance at group meetings rarely went above a dozen. Notably, core members of the group were librarians and printers, decidedly more professionalized than the industrial unionism for which they advocated. ''Views and Comments'' began as a mimeographed newsletter and became a monthly journal between 20 and 40 pages. Its aesthetic predated that of the 1980s

zines A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...

. Contributors were commonly anonymous or used pseudonyms, given fears stemming from

McCarthyism McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...

. The League dissolved in mid-1965.

References

Bibliography

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Libertarian Book Club

Libertarian League

References

Bibliography

Further reading