Culture & the Libertarian Heritage

A History of Libertarianism

by George Leef April 1, 2008

Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty (Public Affairs, 2007); 741 pages; $35. With Radicals for Capitalism, veteran libertarian journalist Brian Doherty (whose work is most often found in Reason) gives the world what he calls a “freewheeling history of the modern American libertarian ...

I’ll Think of Something!

by Tibor R. Machan March 10, 2008

Often when some unexpected challenge faces a person, someone asks, “What are you going to do about this?” The answer, frequently delivered with casual confidence, tends to be: “I’ll think of something.” No answer and attitude better characterizes how to think about problem solving in a free society. ...

The Media Versus the State

by Wendy McElroy March 1, 2008

Good Night, and Good Luck was the television sign-off of Edward R. Murrow (19081965) the journalistic pioneer often considered to be the finest broadcast news commentator produced by America. Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) is also an Oscar-nominated docudrama that explores the conflict between Murrow (played by David Strathairn) and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy over the anti-Communist crusade he ...

Individualism, the Collectivists’ Nemesis

by Tibor R. Machan February 22, 2008

It is individualism that the American Founders elevated into political prominence and it is individualism that most politicians and governments, including Americas, find most annoying because it is the bulwark against arbitrary power. If, as the Declaration of Independence states, individual human beings have unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, no one may violate these rights. ...

Do Americans Owe Service to the Nation?

by Sheldon Richman September 17, 2007

Why does the idea of “national service” never cease to attract American intellectuals? Every few years some prominent “thinker” proposes that young Americans “serve their country” in either a civilian or military capacity. Such service is always promised to have a profound effect on both the nation and the ...

Benjamin Ricketson Tucker, Part 2

by Wendy McElroy September 1, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 Liberty first appeared on August 6, 1881, from Boston, where Tucker worked as a journalist with the Boston Globe; later, in 1892, Liberty moved to New York City, where it was published until its demise in 1907. Fittingly, Liberty’s superscript was a quotation from Proudhon — “Liberty: not the daughter, but the mother ...

Benjamin Ricketson Tucker, Part 1

by Wendy McElroy August 1, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 The first issue of the radical individualist periodical Liberty (1881–1908) opened with the words, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, these three: but the greatest of these is Liberty. Formerly the price of Liberty was eternal vigilance, but now it can be had for fifty cents a year. The publisher and author of those words, ...

Libertarian Paternalism

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2007

On April 1, 2007, the New York Times published a review of Brian Doherty’s new book, Radicals for Capitalism, an extensive history of the libertarian movement that focuses on such libertarian luminaries as Leonard Read, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Ayn Rand, and Milton Friedman. The book review, “Free for All,” ...

Libertarianism: Left or Right?

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2007

My own notion of politics is that it follows a straight line rather than a circle. The straight line stretches from the far right where (historically) we find monarchy, absolute dictatorships, and other forms of absolutely authoritarian rule. On the far right, law and order means the law of ...

Capitalism and Collectivism

by Scott McPherson June 1, 2007

A free market is one in which the means of production real estate, industrial units, and other physical structures machines, capital, and all types of property are in private hands, to be used by individual owners at their own discretion and for their own ends. Humans are unique animals that must produce in order to survive, and the free market ...

Speaker Spotlight: Ron Paul and Andrew Napolitano

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 4, 2007

This week we spotlight Congressman Ron Paul and Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Andrew Napolitano, our two Sunday dinner speakers for our upcoming June 1-4 conference Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties in Reston, Virginia. If there is a genuine hero of our time with respect to the advancement of liberty, it is Ron Paul. The ...

Sophie Scholl: A Life of Moral Courage

by Wendy McElroy May 1, 2007

The 2005 German film Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (Die letzten Tage) depicts the anti-Nazi heroine Sophie Magdalena Scholl (May 9, 1921 February 22, 1943). Sophie and her brother, Hans, were leading members of a nonviolent resistance group called the White Rose. Five students in their early twenties formed the group in 1942 at the University of Munich. The ...