Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement | 
| Author: Brian Doherty
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy Used: $3.60
You Save: $31.40 (90%)
New (41) Used (34) Collectible (5) from $3.60
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 160662
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 768
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 2
ISBN: 1586483501
Dewey Decimal Number: 320.512
EAN: 9781586483500
ASIN: 1586483501
Publication Date: February 12, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Very Good Condition, Tight Binding,text Very Clean , Immediate Shipping, Email Notification, Professional Service, MILLIONS Served, SATISFACTION GUARANTEED!
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
On Wall Street, in the culture of high tech, in American government: Libertarianism—the simple but radical idea that the only purpose of government is to protect its citizens and their property against direct violence and threat— has become an extremely influential strain of thought. But while many books talk about libertarian ideas, none until now has explored the history of this uniquely American movement—where and who it came from, how it evolved, and what impact it has had on our country.
In this revelatory book, based on original research and interviews with more than 100 key sources, Brian Doherty traces the evolution of the movement through the unconventional life stories of its most influential leaders— Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and Milton Friedman—and through the personal battles, character flaws, love affairs, and historical events that altered its course. And by doing so, he provides a fascinating new perspective on American history—from the New Deal through the culture wars of the 1960s to today's most divisive political issues. Neither an expose nor a political polemic, this entertaining historical narrative will enlighten anyone interested in American politics.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Somebody had to do it! October 11, 2008
This is to my knowledge the only book of its kid in existence: A history of modern American libertarianism. (Note the small "l" here: Though the Libertarian Party does make an appearance in the latter half of the book, RFC is concerned with libertarianism as an ideology - the belief that individuals should be as free from coercion and restraint as possible, as long as they are not infringing upon the individual rights of others.)
In RADICALS FOR CAPITALISM, Brian Doherty, an editor at the libertarian-minded magazine REASON, has produced what clearly was to him a labor of love: A history of the intellectual, aesthetic, and political movement that is libertarianism. Doherty writes extremely well and tells the story in such an entertaining fashion that even non-libertarians should find the story intriguing (and, who knows, they may just end up being converted.) As you would expect, radical individualists tend to be eccentric, quirky people, which makes for an interesting read. The subject matter is clearly close to Doherty's heart, but that doesn't stop him from poking fun at his fellow libertarians on a regular basis - often hilariously so. I found myself laughing out loud more than once while reading. And though RFC is `freewheeling' (and complete to an almost overwhelming degree), Doherty drives the story in a way that it seems to all fit together into a coherent whole.
Doherty leaves no stone unturned, no individualist unmentioned: proto-libertarians such as William Graham Sumner, Benjamin Tucker, and Lysander Spooner; founders and headliners of the twentieth-century libertarian movement such as Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Leonard Read, Ayn Rand, and, most of all, Murray Rothbard; modern libertarian-minded politicians such as Dana Rohrabacher and Ron Paul; and the myriad individualist organizations such as FEE (the Foundation for Economic Education), the Cato Institute, of course the Libertarian Party itself, and many more.
If you're a libertarian, or if you think you might be one, or if you're just interested in learning about a movement that the mainstream Left and Right do their best to ignore and suppress (see the media blackout of the Ron Paul & Bob Barr campaigns for evidence), you owe it to yourself to check this book out.
[Personal note: Keep in mind that in the nineteenth century, socialists were in a similar predicament as libertarians were in the twentieth and are in the early twenty-first: a radical sect, out of the mainstream, whose ideas were not even seriously considered by the majority, relegated to the fringes of academia and a few small political movements. And yet from those beginnings, socialism as a system (in one permutation or another) grew to take over much of the world. For those of us who are believers in individualism, in liberty, and in free market economics, that astonishing takeover of an idea - though of course it was an idea diametrically opposed to libertarianism - should offer us a glimmer of hope: perhaps the twenty-first century will become the century of libertarianism, when that philosophy will go from fringe to mainstream. Perhaps the present financial crises will show that the statist economic systems of the world have failed, and that all of their statist solutions will just make the problems worse. Perhaps more people will learn the right lessons, will stop believing the incorrect explanations and false promises of the politicians, and will begin to consider trusting freedom rather than coercion. Perhaps. One can hope.]
WooT September 6, 2008
What a rich tapestry is our history!
I've been a part of the libertarian movement (both upper and lower case "L's") since the late sixties. Brian Doherty has gathered together the threads which reveal the full picture in all it's interconnectedness. This work is a wonderful compendium of information about and relationships between people whose works I've read, people I've had the pleasure to meet, and people of whom I've only vaguely heard.
This work is both nostalgic and inspirational. The epilogue - where we are now and the prospects for the future - are both realistic and uplifting.
4 liberty.
Almost overwhelming July 9, 2008
In researching this book, Brian Doherty took on a monumental task, and for the most part he succeeded admirably. "Radicals for Capitalism" spans seven decades, and mentions about 500 individuals (including myself) who have played some role in advancing free-market ideas in America during that period. The narrative gets a bit choppy in places, and some of Doherty's sentences and paragraphs are HORRENDOUSLY long, but if the subject matter interests you, there's no better place to find this much information between two covers.
 A Wild Romp Through Some Neglected Political History June 27, 2008
The organization of the book is, as the title would suggest, a bit 'freewheeling.' And the name-dropping can make one dizzy at times. But it is very entertaining and no matter how well-versed you are in libertarian historical lore, you will come away from it with both a better understanding of the history of the American movement, and a host of wonderful anecdotes.
Well-written and very informative chirping June 3, 2008
The conservative author Russell Kirk once described libertarians as a movement of "chirping sectaries" who are "forever splitting...rarely conjugating." It is highly fitting that Kirk based this severe verdict on the mentality of Murray Rothbard, who emerges as one of the primary heroes of this book and who, as many libertarians are often reluctant to acknowledge, was everything Kirk described. However, despite his disdain for the excesses of Rothbard, one imagines that even Kirk himself would have been tickled by this book, for within it Doherty does for libertarianism what Kirk did for conservatism - he roots it in the American tradition with a scrupulously researched, fabulously written historical account filled with lively insights, larger-than-life characters and above all, fresh and unpredictable ideas.
Doherty locates the original libertarian ideas with Thomas Jefferson, and claims that the libertarian tradition necessarily corresponds with the antifederalist tradition in American politics. As the book progresses, however, it becomes apparent that though Jefferson's ideas certainly leaned in the libertarian direction, he would probably have been dismissed as a "statist" or a "socialist" by the colorful characters who populate the rest of this book. In that capacity, the title is especially apt, for whether it's Mises, Rothbard, Lefevre or Rand, every person profiled in this book is both in favor of capitalism and extremely radical (often to the point of insanity). Also, for those who think that anti-capitalist Leftists have a monopoly on idealism, this book will function as a dose of cold water to the face, since many libertarians were exceedingly utopian-minded and sometimes even allied themselves with the anti-capitalist Leftists in pursuit of this utopianism, rather than submit to the more predictable alliance with conservatives, who they saw as carrying on the tradition of "the thumbscrew, the rack and the whip."
Another particularly interesting theme that emerges from the pages of this book is the constant battle between pro-Government libertarians and anarcho-capitalists, but unfortunately, it's not a dispute in which Doherty is entirely neutral. The entire book sometimes devolves to an apology for anarcho-capitalism, and the only libertarians whose warts show up in any relief are the more Governmentally friendly characters such as Leonard Read and even Ayn Rand. This seeming hardline bias does do some violence to the book's effectiveness - one gets the sense that Doherty wrote it specifically for already hardcore libertarians, rather than for their ideologically heterogeneous fellow travelers. Perhaps, however, this tone is not conscious on Doherty's part, but rather simply a function of the numerous libertarians he quotes who seemed not only ambivalent, but outright hostile to fellow travelers. Certainly, insularity is a problem which the book exposes in hardline libertarians, though the battle between the "Marxists and Fabians" which Doherty describes gives some hope that this insularity will evaporate. Interestingly, despite being on the "Right", the group the libertarians seem to despise the most is not the Left or even liberals, but rather conservatives, who they see as primitive apes who want to revive the Spanish Inquisition. Doherty himself seems to share this view, for he frequently makes snide side-comments about the "cold-warriorism" of Buckley and depicts the traditionalist wing of the conservative movement as an assortment of violence-loving thugs whose only intellectual contribution is an injunction to "kill the lazy fairies!" During moments like this, the book is weakest, but thankfully, they are few and far between.
However, in terms of scholarship, the book is a tour de force. It gives one not only a sense of the libertarian past, but also a hopefulness for the future of this unique, intellectually rich and frequently correct political movement. Certainly, given the current state of the Right, Doherty's insights and the insights of his libertarian brethren on the nature of State power and the inherently corrupt nature of government are desperately, deeply needed. One only hopes that, like Doherty, these individuals will be willing to exit their cocoons and begin to persuade those of us for whom privatization of the fire department is not a foregone conclusion. In the meantime, for anyone desiring to understand who the libertarians are, this book is the best, most well-documented, most impressive description available today.
|
|
|
