Reflections on Violence
- New York: B.W. Huebsch, [1915]
New York: B.W. Huebsch, [1915]. First American Edition. First edition in English, from the Third French Edition. Bound from British sheets, but American publication preceded the U.K. edition by some months (see below). Octavo; green cloth with gilt spine-title; x,299pp. Spine gilt dulled; rubbing to board edges, with spots of board exposure at corners; text slightly toned – still a tight, unmarked, Very Good copy. With printed bookplate of John L. Elliott to front pastedown.
A book with a complicated publication history, doubtless resulting from the vagaries of British book production during the first years of the Great War. Generally regarded as Sorel's most important work, Reflexions sur la Violence first appeared in Paris in 1906, quickly gaining notoriety as the "Bible of Syndicalism." Reflexions is often read as an unapologetic endorsement of violence as a means to political ends; in particular, Sorel appears to uphold the General Strike – and the cataclysmic violence that would ensue from a worldwide work stoppage – as the ultimate solution to the problem of the subjugation of labor. But (perhaps unsurprisingly for a French philosophical text in the vein of Bergson) the book's argument is rather subtler and more multi-layered than this: Sorel endorses the "ideal" of the General Strike, while simultaneously acknowledging that no such thing can ever take place in reality – the General Strike is simply a necessary illusion, an inspiration and source of energy for all lesser acts of direct resistance. It has been noted that Sorel's de-emphasis of democratic principles in favor of spontaneous eruptions of violence by individuals served as an inspiration to socialists and Fascists alike.
Despite the book's notoriety, including among the intelligentsia of England and America, it was not taken up for translation until 1912. It is in August of this year that we find an announcement in the London Evening Standard that, "...we are to have an English translation of M. Georges Sorel's 'Reflexions sur la Violence,' which is being prepared by Mr. T.E. Hulme, and will be published by Messrs. Stephen Swift..." Unfortunately, the firm of Stephen Swift was liquidated in October of that year, when its proprietor Charles Granville was imprisoned for bigamy and embezzlement. We hear no more of Hulme's translation until it is announced for publication in late 1914; the new English publisher was to be the firm of George Allen & Unwin. What follows next is uncertain, but can probably be extrapolated from the situation in Great Britain in 1914: publishing, like many other industries, was severely disrupted as young men rushed to enlist in the newly-declared war against Germany. Reflections, originally scheduled to appear in January, 1915, did not actually arrive on English booksellers' shelves until September. The delay may well have been the result of wartime conditions. It is also conceivable (though we have found no published evidence of this) that there was political opposition to bringing out such an inflammatory anticapitalist text at a time when war production was an overwhelming imperative. Whatever the case, in the interim the sheets had clearly been shipped to the American publisher B.W. Huebsch – who evidently wasted no time getting the books bound and into the market, as the earliest American reviews for Reflections begin appearing in early March, 1915.
Uncharacteristically – whether inadvertently, or through some agreement with the British publishers – Huebsch did not place a publication date on the title page of Reflections on Violence. The only date present in the book - 1912 - appears at the conclusion of Sorel's introduction (translated from the third Paris edition). This has resulted in a consistent cataloging error, visible in a plurality of OCLC listings, attributing a 1912 date to the Huebsch edition. In fact, a review of contemporary sources as well as Publisher's Weekly show clearly that the book arrived on reviewers' desks sometime in late February or early March, 1915. A second American edition appeared in 1919 (this edition dated), and countless reprints followed. In Great Britain, the earliest reviews (announcing Reflections as "just published") appear in September, 1915.
Reflections on Violence is a landmark of Twentieth Century radicalism, widely referenced as an inspiration for the brutal conflicts that would come to define the two decades following its publication. The first edition is rarely seen in commerce; institutional holdings are difficult to parse, but most copies appear to be in circulating collections.
A book with a complicated publication history, doubtless resulting from the vagaries of British book production during the first years of the Great War. Generally regarded as Sorel's most important work, Reflexions sur la Violence first appeared in Paris in 1906, quickly gaining notoriety as the "Bible of Syndicalism." Reflexions is often read as an unapologetic endorsement of violence as a means to political ends; in particular, Sorel appears to uphold the General Strike – and the cataclysmic violence that would ensue from a worldwide work stoppage – as the ultimate solution to the problem of the subjugation of labor. But (perhaps unsurprisingly for a French philosophical text in the vein of Bergson) the book's argument is rather subtler and more multi-layered than this: Sorel endorses the "ideal" of the General Strike, while simultaneously acknowledging that no such thing can ever take place in reality – the General Strike is simply a necessary illusion, an inspiration and source of energy for all lesser acts of direct resistance. It has been noted that Sorel's de-emphasis of democratic principles in favor of spontaneous eruptions of violence by individuals served as an inspiration to socialists and Fascists alike.
Despite the book's notoriety, including among the intelligentsia of England and America, it was not taken up for translation until 1912. It is in August of this year that we find an announcement in the London Evening Standard that, "...we are to have an English translation of M. Georges Sorel's 'Reflexions sur la Violence,' which is being prepared by Mr. T.E. Hulme, and will be published by Messrs. Stephen Swift..." Unfortunately, the firm of Stephen Swift was liquidated in October of that year, when its proprietor Charles Granville was imprisoned for bigamy and embezzlement. We hear no more of Hulme's translation until it is announced for publication in late 1914; the new English publisher was to be the firm of George Allen & Unwin. What follows next is uncertain, but can probably be extrapolated from the situation in Great Britain in 1914: publishing, like many other industries, was severely disrupted as young men rushed to enlist in the newly-declared war against Germany. Reflections, originally scheduled to appear in January, 1915, did not actually arrive on English booksellers' shelves until September. The delay may well have been the result of wartime conditions. It is also conceivable (though we have found no published evidence of this) that there was political opposition to bringing out such an inflammatory anticapitalist text at a time when war production was an overwhelming imperative. Whatever the case, in the interim the sheets had clearly been shipped to the American publisher B.W. Huebsch – who evidently wasted no time getting the books bound and into the market, as the earliest American reviews for Reflections begin appearing in early March, 1915.
Uncharacteristically – whether inadvertently, or through some agreement with the British publishers – Huebsch did not place a publication date on the title page of Reflections on Violence. The only date present in the book - 1912 - appears at the conclusion of Sorel's introduction (translated from the third Paris edition). This has resulted in a consistent cataloging error, visible in a plurality of OCLC listings, attributing a 1912 date to the Huebsch edition. In fact, a review of contemporary sources as well as Publisher's Weekly show clearly that the book arrived on reviewers' desks sometime in late February or early March, 1915. A second American edition appeared in 1919 (this edition dated), and countless reprints followed. In Great Britain, the earliest reviews (announcing Reflections as "just published") appear in September, 1915.
Reflections on Violence is a landmark of Twentieth Century radicalism, widely referenced as an inspiration for the brutal conflicts that would come to define the two decades following its publication. The first edition is rarely seen in commerce; institutional holdings are difficult to parse, but most copies appear to be in circulating collections.