Fredy Perlman (August 20, 1934 – July 26, 1985) was a Czech-born, naturalised American author, publisher and militant. His most popular work, the book Against His-Story, Against Leviathan!, details the rise of state domination with a retelling of history through the Hobbesian metaphor of the Leviathan. The book remains a major source of inspiration for anti-civilisation perspectives in contemporary anarchism. Though Perlman detested ideology and would claim that the only "-ist" he would respond to was cellist, his work both as an author and publisher has been very influential on modern anarchist thought.
Contents
[hide]- 1 Childhood and youth
- 2 Travel and study
- 3 Professional life
- 4 Selected publications
- 5 See also
- 6 References
- 7 External links
Childhood and youth[edit]
Perlman was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia. He emigrated with parents to Cochabamba, Bolivia in 1938 just ahead of the Nazi takeover. The Perlman family came to the United States in 1945 and finally settled in Lakeside Park, Kentucky.
In 1952 he attended Morehead State College in Kentucky and then UCLA from 1953-55. Perlman was on the staff of The Daily Bruin, the school newspaper, when the university administration changed the constitution of the newspaper to forbid it from nominating its own editors, as the custom had been. Perlman left the newspaper staff at that time and, with four others, proceeded to publish an independent paper, The Observer, which they handed out on a public sidewalk at the campus bus stop, since they were forbidden by the administration to distribute in on the campus.[1]
In 1956-59 he attended Columbia University, where he met his lifelong companion, Lorraine Nybakken. He enrolled as a student of English literature but soon concentrated his efforts in philosophy, political science and European literature. One particularly influential teacher for him at this time was C. Wright Mills.
