Socialism: An Actual Experiment | Steward Grahame | SA1309 | Ltd. Ed. of 33

Socialism: An Actual Experiment
by Stewart Grahame
STAND ALONE No. SA1309

Originally published in London around 1910 by the Anti-Socialist Union, this sharp and engaging pamphlet recounts the utopian ambitions—and eventual unraveling—of William Lane’s bold social experiment in Paraguay. Known as the New Australia colony, Lane’s project aimed to build a cooperative society founded on absolute equality, racial purity, and collective labor. What followed was a sobering lesson in human nature and ideological overreach.

This facsimile edition reproduces the original pamphlet that later formed the basis of Grahame’s expanded book, which has since been republished as None But the Crocodiles: The New Australia Experiment. It captures the essential narrative and critique of Lane’s efforts, preserving a concise and readable account for those interested in the history of radical intentional communities, utopian socialism, and Australian political movements.

Of additional interest: Lane was active in Australia at the same time as Arthur Desmond, better known as Ragnar Redbeard, whose own writings in Might is Right offered a starkly opposing vision of human hierarchy and struggle. Together, these contemporaries appear to represent two extremes of late 19th-century radical thought, but with remarkable and interesting overlaps.