Élisée Reclus (1830-1905) was a French geographer and anarchist. His work was characterized, mainly, for being profoundly different from most Geography thinkers of his time. Despite carrying out positivist work and opposing Marxism, he used some of its categories, such as the class struggle.
Reclus was exiled from France for having militated in the Paris Commune (1871) and for that reason he made extensive trips around the world, passing through Ireland, the United States, Colombia, Switzerland and even writing a work about Brazil, entitled "United States of Brazil".
In his works, he was based on the descriptive method, trying not to make any kind of opposition of the characteristics physical and natural with human and social, which differed his thinking from practically all geographers of his era. He was a student of the German geographer Carl Ritter, as well as the notorious geographer Vidal de La Blache, producing as much as he did. However, La Blache gained more notoriety for presenting a theory that favored the aspirations of the French state in his time, unlike Reclus who defended an ideology that preached the end of the state modern.
It is important to point out, however, that Élisée's anarchism did not reverberate so deeply in her geographical works. This fact was due, firstly, to the very nature of anarchism, which condemned the ideological character of the sciences and, secondly, place, because of the constant censorship that he suffered from the editors regarding the quality and direction of their criticism.
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Even so, your encyclopedia land was one of the most widespread works in academic teaching due to its voluminous scope, being adopted by countless university professors until the 1900s, when it lost importance due to the launch of the constructions Physical Geography Treaty, by Emanuel de Martonne.
Even with all the difficulties of inserting his libertarian ideals in the context of the geographical thought of his time, Reclus published important considerations about social issues, such as the class struggle, income concentration, the struggle for land and colonial expansion, being a staunch critic of this practice, the only one among the geographers.
Over the years, his works gradually lost their importance in the geographical context, being read basically by left-wing intellectuals and anarchists. However, at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century, with the hegemony of the so-called "Critical Geography", his thought was rescued and comes revealing more and more contributions regarding the possibilities and directions of Geography, which demonstrates the relevance of his works.
By Rodolfo Alves Pena
Graduated in Geography
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PENA, Rodolfo F. Alves. "Élisée Reclus and Libertarian Geography"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/Elisee-reclus-geografia-libertaria.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.