Individualist, translator, publisher, editor, “unterrified Jeffersonian Democrat,” “consistent Manchester man,” socialist, anarchist: Benjamin R. Tucker.

The Benjamin R. Tucker Distinguished Research Scholar in Anarchist Economic Theory is the third academic position created by the Trustees of the Center for a Stateless Society to advance the understanding and application of individualist anarchism – freed market anti-capitalism, laissez-faire socialism.

It is named in honor of the brilliant, prolific and passionate individualist anarchist Benjamin R Tucker. Tucker’s life, work and his Liberty demonstrates a powerful commitment to describing a voluntary world populated by sovereign individuals and detailing why we should channel all available energy towards completely ending exploitation, monopoly and authority; “that all the affairs of men should be managed by individuals or voluntary associations, and that the State should be abolished.”

Liberty insists on the sovereignty of the individual and the just reward of labor; on the abolition of the State and the abolition of usury; on no more government of man by man, and no more exploitation of man by man; on Anarchy and Equity. —Liberty’s war-cry is “Down with authority” and its chief battle with the State — the State that corrupts children; the state that trammels law; the State that stifles thought; the State that monopolizes land; the State that give idle capital the power to increase, and through interest, rent, profit and taxes robs industrious labor of its products.

This is the charge of the Benjamin R. Tucker Distinguished Research Scholar in Anarchist Economic Theory, to communicate, in detail, what stands blocking our way towards that bright future in liberty; to describe where these barriers came from — who put up them up and who maintains them –, how we can tear them down and pulverize their foundations.

To be awarded the Benjamin R. Tucker Distinguished Research Scholar in Anarchist Economic Theory position signals a scholar’s energy and capacity to contribute, in outstanding ways, to that interdisciplinary field of social theory — drawing on resources in economics, philosophy, sociology, history, among other fields – known as Anarchist Economic Theory.