Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph

Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph

(born Jan. 15, 1809, Besançon, France—died Jan. 19, 1865, Paris) French journalist and socialist. After working as a printer, he moved to Paris in 1838 and joined the socialist movement. His What Is Property? (1840) created a sensation with such phrases as “property is theft.” While working in Lyon (1843–48), he encountered the Mutualists, a weavers' anarchist society whose name he later adopted for his form of anarchism. His System of Economic Contradictions (1846) was attacked by Karl Marx and initiated the split between anarchists and Marxists. In Paris in 1848, Proudhon published radical newspapers; imprisoned (1849–52), he was harassed by the police after his release and fled to Belgium in 1858. On his return in 1862, he gained influence among the workers, including some of the founders of the First International.