Reclus, Elisée (1830–1905)

The french geographer and anarchist Elisée Reclus wrote extensively but is best remembered for two grandiose works: the Nouvelle Géographie Universelle: La Terre et Les Hommes [New Universal Geography: The Earth and Its Inhabitants], published in 19 volumes between 1876 and 1894, and L'Homme et la Terre [Man and Nature], whose six volumes were published posthumously between 1905 and 1908. His The Earth or Description of the Life Phenomena in the Globe (1867–68) was also probably the first geographic work influenced by Charles Darwin. Reclus's anarchist political orientation motivated his affiliation with the First International, his friendship with Peter Kropotkin (another geographer) and Michael Bakunin, and his participation in the Commune of Paris (1870), after which he had to exile himself from France. He returned ...