The infamous late 19th-century book Might is Right has secured a unique place in the literature of extremism.
Unlike so many utopian manifestos of the day, the bombastic yet lyrical text attributed to Ragnar Redbeard (a pseudonym) sought to upend all egalitarianism, all theism, and all political idealism.
Such sacrosanct values were, by Redbeard's stentorian decree, swept into the garbage bin-to be replaced with the singular might.
To be sure, the author did not posit this to be a good way, or the best way, but merely the only way things exist and prosper: struggle and strife as the eternal state of life, even when gowned in the pious sackcloth of the church or the saffron sheets of the temple.
Since its original publication in 1896, the influence of Might is Right has been found in curious places, from syndicalist broadsides of the IWW to the canonical texts of the Church of Satan, but perhaps the most surprising historical example of literary Redbeardiana traces to the puritanical paraphrasis of a largely forgotten American writer named Julia Bernie Babcock.
Following the death of her husband in 1897, the 29-year-old Babcock turned to writing as a means of earning income for her large family.
She found some early success and her work was championed by one of the oldest (still active) political parties in the United States: the Prohibitionist Party.
It was during her brief residence in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century that Babcock most likely came across Ragnar Redbeard's inflammatory book, which had already caused a stir in the anarchist and unionist milieu of the time in the US and abroad.
She used the book as many others have since her time: as uncredited primary source material for her own work.
The result of her effort was With Claw and Fang: A Fact Story in a Chicago Setting, a bizarre novel of prohibitionist agitprop that depicted anarchists conspiring with liquor barons to corrupt the hearts and minds of good Christian people.
Babcock's lurid tal.
| Prosper | Struggle and strife as the eternal state of life even when gowned in the pious sackcloth of the church or the saffron sheets of the temple |
|---|---|
| States | The |
| She used the book as many others have since her time | As uncredited primary source material for her own work |
| Fang | A |
Underworld Amusements With claw and fang: a fact story in a chicago setting, paperback/trevor blake
