Max Stirner - Essential Works of Anarchism (5 books)

New Anarchist Library: No. 2 in a Series

MAX STIRNER (1806-1856) , the pseudonym of Johann Kaspar Schmidt, was a German antistatist philosopher in whose writings many anarchists of the late 19th and the 20th centuries found ideological inspiration.

Stirner believed that there was no objective social reality independent of the individual; the most commonly accepted social institutions — including the notion of state, property as a right, natural rights in general and the very notion of society — were mere illusions, "spooks" or ghosts in the mind.  The finite, empirical ego was the motive force of every human action.  He therefore advocated egoism and a form of amoralism in which individuals would unite in Unions of egoists only when it was in their self-interest to do so.

His most influential work, THE EGO AND ITS OWN (Der Einzige und sein Eigentum, 1844) , challenged expectations about how political and philosophical argument should be conducted, and sought to shake the reader's confidence in the moral and political superiority of contemporary civilization (over its historical predecessors).  Stirner mounted a radically individualist critique of Christianity, nationalism and traditional morality, as well as humanism, utilitarianism, liberalism and much of the then-burgeoning socialist movement.  He also presents a sketch of a radical "egoistic" alternative in which individual autonomy might flourish.

Although the book received much initial attention, most reviews were negative critiques by left Hegelians such as Ludwig Feuerbach and Moses Hess.  Stirner responded to these critiques in "Stirner's Critics" (1845) and "The Philosophical Reactionaries" (1845).  Marx's ridicule of Stirner in "The German Ideology" assured EGO a place of curious interest among Marxist readers and played a role in the preservation of Stirner's work in popular and academic discourse.

EGO has seen periodic revivals of popular, political and academic interest based around widely divergent translations and interpretations.  Stirner's philosophy had a lasting impact on the development of modern anarchist thought, particularly individualist and egoist anarchism, although he influenced social anarchists such as Emma Goldman and Federica Montseny.  He is also considered a major influence on the development of existentialism, nihilism and postmodernism.  As the art critic and Stirner admirer Herbert Read once observed, Stirner's work has remained "stuck in the gizzard" of Western culture since it first appeared.


The following books are in PDF format unless otherwise noted:

* Ego and Its Own, The (Cambridge, 1995).  D. Leopold, ed.
* Ego and His Own, The (Harper & Row, 1971).  J. Carroll, ed.
* Ego and His Own, The (Verso, 2014).  J. Martin, ed. — ePUB
* Stirner’s Critics (CAL / LBC, 2012).  W. Landstreicher, trans.
* Unique and Its Property (Underworld Amusements, 2017). W. Landstreicher, trans.


These reprints from the Anarchist Library are also included:

* Art and Religion (AL, 2009) [trans. Stepelevich]
* Ego and His Own, The (AL, 2009) [trans. Byington]
* False Principle of Our Education (AL, 2010) [trans. Beebe]
* Philosophical Reactionaries (AL, 2011)
* Stirner's Critics (AL, 2009) [trans. Cordon]
* Unique and Its Property, The [1845] (AL, 2017) [trans. Landstreicher]
* You Only Have the Courage to be Destructive (AL, 2010)

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