International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Perhaps the most important figure in French anarchism after Proudhon , Elisée Reclus made significant contributions to anarchist theory and practice in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Reclus was born in 1830 in the village of sainte-Foy-la-Grande in southwest France. As the son of a pastor, he received a Protestant education and upbringing, and the Christian values he was imbued with at an early age colored his thinking for the rest of his life. Reclus went to school in sainte-Foy and Montauban in France and attended a Moravian school in Neuwied, Germany, where he also taught. Nominally a theology student, Reclus in fact gravitated toward the sciences. During his term at the University of Berlin in 1851 he attended lectures given by the renowned geographer Carl Ritter, which sparked what would become a lifelong passion for geography. It was as a student that Reclus began to develop his radical political ideas; his objections to Napoleon III's coup of 1851 forced him to flee France with his brother Elie. After working as a teacher and a farm laborer in England and Ireland, Reclus spent several years traveling through North and south America. Not only did the trip have a major impact on his geographic sensibilities, it helped to shape his political sentiments as well. His hatred of slavery was emboldened during his employment as a tutor for a slaveholding family in Louisiana, ... log in or subscribe to read full text