Looking for a history of the anti-statist intellectual movement in the USA

[Alfonso Jones]

I'm looking for a book which which would provide a good/reasonably accurate history of the history of the anti-statist intellectual movement in the USA.

I'm thinking of such disparate elements as:

William F. Buckley, Jr. and the National Review, and that cluster of folk

Ayn Rand and Objectivism

Isabel Paterson

etc...

Anyone have a suggestion? I can think of books looking at one of the above elements, but am struggling to find one which attempts to capture the anti-statist movement in general.

Bill P

[Selene]

Interesting topic Bill

http://www.cato.org/...nti-statist.pdf

Adam

http://www.isi.org/conservative_tho/PDF/tenbooks.pdf

The Road to Serfdom ........................... F. A. Hayek

Socialism ................................... Ludwig von Mises

Memoirs of a Superfluous Man ...... Albert Jay Nock

Witness ................................. Whittaker Chambers

The New Science of Politics ............... Eric Voegelin

In Defense of Freedom ........................ Frank Meyer

The Conservative Mind ....................... Russell Kirk

Ideas Have Consequences ............... Richard Weaver

The Quest for Community .................Robert Nisbet

On the Democratic Idea in America .... Irving Kristol

APPENDIX

Some of the Best Historical Introductions

to and Short Studies of Conservatism

HISTORY

*The Conservative Intellectual Movement

in America Since 1945 ............. George H. Nash

*Each of the “Ten Best” books can by ordered at discounted

prices from ISI by calling 1-800-526-7022. Note:

Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea is

offered in place of On the Democratic Idea in America.

28 Ten Books

Short Introduction

to Conservatism

Conservatism: Dream and Reality.....Robert Nisbet

Short Introduction

to Classical Liberalism

Liberalism ............................................... John Gray

History of

Pre-WWII American Conservatives

Superfluous Men............................ Robert Crunden

Anthology

*Portable Conservative Reader ............. Russell Kirk

Essay Collection

The Public Philosophy

Reader ........................... Ed., Richard Bishirjian

Sourcebook

of Conservative Thought

Right Minds ................................... Gregory Wolfe

Primary Sources

Reflections on the Revolution

in France ................................... Edmund Burke

Democracy in America ...........Alexis de Tocqueville

The Federalist Papers ....... Hamilton, Madison, Jay

Other Great Books of

the Conservative Tradition

*The Roots of American Order .............. Russell Kirk

Bureaucracy ............................... Ludwig von Mises

The Law ........................................ Frédéric Bastiat

*The Conservative Affirmation

in America ........................... Willmoore Kendall

*A Humane Economy ................... Wilhelm Roepke

*The Constitution of Liberty ................ F. A. Hayek

Natural Right and History .................... Leo Strauss

A Better Guide Than Reason ......... M. E. Bradford

The Crisis of

Western Education .............Christopher Dawson

The Anti-Capitalist Mentality .. Ludwig von Mises

*Democracy and Leadership ............... Irving Babbitt

*The Social Crisis of Our Time ..... Wilhelm Roepke

The Servile State ............................... Hilaire Belloc

I’ll Take My Stand.................. Twelve Southerners

*Visions of Order ........................... Richard Weaver

Notes Toward the

Definition of Culture ......................... T. S. Eliot

The Managerial Revolution ........... James Burnham

Attack on Leviathan (retitled Regionalism and

Nationalism in the U.S.) ........ Donald Davidson

Christianity and Political

Philosophy .................. Frederick D. Wilhelmsen

Enemies of the Permanent Things ........ Russell Kirk

Reflections of a Neoconservative.......... Irving Kristol

Our Enemy, The State .................. Albert Jay Nock

Crowd Culture ...................... Bernard Iddings Bell

*The Politics of Prudence ...................... Russell Kirk

*Literature and the American College Irving Babbitt

Order and History (5 vols) ................ Eric Voegelin

Up from Liberalism .......... William F. Buckley, Jr.

Historical Consciousness ....................... John Lukacs

Original Intentions ........................ M. E. Bradford

The Decline of the Intellectual ....... Thomas Molnar

Human Action .......................... Ludwig von Mises

Law, Legislation, & Liberty (3 vols) .. F. A. Hayek

Suicide of the West ......................... James Burnham

The Theory of Education in

the United States ...................... Albert Jay Nock

Edited December 29, 2009 by Selene

[Selene]

This from the New Republic

Americans’ skepticism about government dates at least from the Revolution. In The Liberal Tradition in America, published in 1955, political scientist Louis Hartz described the Americans of 1776 as “Lockean liberals.” He was using the term “liberal” in its classic connotation--more like today’s free-market conservative or libertarian. Americans, he perceived, envisaged the state as strictly limited to protecting property relations among equal producers. They saw strong government--which they identified with the British crown--as a threat to economic and political freedom. Government, in Thomas Paine’s words, was a “necessary evil.”

The first adherents to this Lockean liberalism were followers of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson--small farmers and (in Jackson’s case) urban workingmen who attacked the statism of the Federalist elite. But, after the Civil War, a rising business class invoked it against the political left, claiming that a policy of laissez-faire would best ensure a prosperous America. Lockean liberalism became free-market conservatism.

http://www.tnr.com/article/anti-statism-america?page=0,0

[Max Eichelberger]

I'd recommend "Radicals For Capitalism (A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement)" By Brian Doherty. It is exactly what you are looking for. It's arguably light on Ayn Rand's contributions, and that of the National Review/Buckley. But still encompasses large swaths of history not commonly known. It's great if you're looking for a light brush over of the entire anti-statist movement (and by 'light,' I mean 700+ pages).

Edited December 29, 2009 by Areopagitican

[Selene]

I'd recommend "Radicals For Capitalism (A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement)" By Brian Doherty. It is exactly what you are looking for. It's arguably light on Ayn Rand's contributions, and that of the National Review/Buckley. But still encompasses large swaths of history not commonly known. It's great if you're looking for a light brush over of the entire anti-statist movement (and by 'light,' I mean 700+ pages).

Nice call "Ap":

This should work perfectly. Thanks. Even emphasizes one of my all time heroes [sp?]...Lysander Spooner.

http://www.reasontofreedom.com/radicals_for_capitalism_by_brian_doherty.html

This link has a long excerpt from the book.

Ebay link

http://www.amazon.com/Radicals-Capitalism-Freewheeling-American-Libertarian/dp/1586485725?tag=dogpile-20

Adam

[Max Eichelberger]

Lysander Spooner is an intellectual machine. His essay on the "Constitution of No Authority," so directly mirrors my own thoughts it's frightening.

One of my gifts for Christmas was "The Libertarian Reader," Edited By David Boaz, and there was a section on Mr. Spooner. Very, very, interesting.

Edited December 29, 2009 by Areopagitican

[Jerry Biggers]

Firstly, I would consult the recently published Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, edited bt Ronald Hamowy (sp?) and published by Cato in 2008, I think.

There is also an Encyclopedia of Conservatism. I don't remember the editor, but the book was published by ISI (Intercollegiate Studies Institute). It has discussion of some libertarian issues and thinkers due to the uneasy close association between the two bodies of thought.

Other people have recommended here Radicals for Capitalism, by Brian Doherty. Very good but not comprehensive and not strictly following scholarly procedures (hence the subtitle, "A freewheeling history...").

George H. Nash's The Conservative Intellectual Tradition in America came out in the mid-seventies. Nash, a National Review editor, interprets everything from a Buckleyite perspective.

Don't miss James J. Martin's Men Against the State. It came out in the midfifties and was revised in the 1960's. It is an intellectual history of the litle-known inividualist-anarchist movement in America from the nineteenth century into the early 20th century, concentrating on Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker whose magazine, Liberty, published many works from authors now unknown. Tucker also championed the egoist philosophy of Max Stirner (a member of the "Young Hegelians" along with the early Karl Marx. Marx devoted a good portion of his "The German Ideology" to denouncing Stirner's brand of egoism).

Martin, a professor of intellectual history, also discusses other, even less well-known figures including a number of egoist and individualist authors and publications from across America. One of the startling findings in Martin's book is, after describing what must have been a vibrant intellectual movement, is that it almost completely died-out around World War I and disappeared from the American scene. Perhaps Spooner and Stirner were not rigorous enough in their thought to have had a continuing tradition following from them. When I first read this book, my thoughts were: How come I have never heard of all these thinkers? It sounded like it was a vibrant growing intellectual trend and then,....it just disappeared until Martin, LeFevre, Rothbard and a few others attempted to revive it in the last half of the 20th century.

[Chris Grieb]

Radicals for Capitalism is a very good place to start. Look for books Doherty references to find more things to read.

[Alfonso Jones]

Thanks to the many responders for what appear to be some very interesting suggestions!

Bill P

[Robert Campbell]

Bill P,

I also recommend the Doherty book.

And George Nash's book, while going too light on the more libertarian elements, explains with great clarity how the post-WWII conservative movement was always a rather patchy coalition.

Robert C

[Alfonso Jones]

Bill P,

I also recommend the Doherty book.

And George Nash's book, while going too light on the more libertarian elements, explains with great clarity how the post-WWII conservative movement was always a rather patchy coalition.

Robert C

Interesting: I had the Doherty book already on my Kindle, in my "to read soon" stack. I have a copy of Nash (Conservative History of . . .) somewhere in the portion of my library which is in storage. As I recall it was very much written from a Kirk/Buckley sort of point of view. (Religious Conservativism)

Thanks,

Bill P