History
Ayn Rand & Objectivism, Economics, History, Philosophy, Politics & Rights
Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, and the Philosophic Foundation for Freedom
Jon Hersey May 24, 2023
Adam Smith and Ayn Rand are widely considered to offer merely different flavors of pro-capitalist thought. But their differences are greater—and far more consequential—than their similarities.
History, Politics & Rights
Brits Should Reject Monarchy and Embrace Rights
Thomas Walker-Werth May 3, 2023
If freedom-loving Brits are serious about the moral principles on which liberty depends, they must oppose the monarchy and advance a vision of a free British republic.
History, Reviews
The Stasi Poetry Circle: The Creative Writing Class That Tried to Win the Cold War by Philip Oltermann
Timothy Sandefur February 28, 2023
The Stasi Poetry Circle offers an unusual glimpse of the relationship between communist totalitarianism and the poetic impulses of both its victims and their victimizers.
History, Politics & Rights, Reviews
And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham
Timothy Sandefur February 13, 2023
What many of Lincoln's contemporaries—and many today—mistook for paradoxes or even contradictions more often reflected the prudence of a leader facing the horrendous task of guiding the United States toward a philosophic principle when unprecedented bloodshed made it sometimes seem safer to disregard that principle.
Arts & Culture, History
The Life and Fate of Vasily Grossman, Banned Russian Novelist
Timothy Sandefur October 29, 2022
The life and fate of banned Russian novelist Vasily Grossman is a tragedy worthy of his own novelistic skills. More than fifty years after his passing, we can only imagine what he might have achieved had communist tyranny not stifled him.
History, Politics & Rights
Iranian Freedom Fighters and the Winds of Reason
Jon Hersey October 6, 2022
Ayatollah Khamenei has said that an Islamic revival is spreading through the Middle East, not by conscious intent, but “like the scent of spring flowers that is carried by the breeze.” Maybe so, but a headwind is blowing steadily and insistently from the West.
History, Philosophy, Politics & Rights
Elihu Palmer’s Journey from Religion to Reason
Thomas Walker-Werth September 27, 2022
Elihu Palmer bravely advocated a philosophy of reason, based on observation of nature, when religion and superstition dominated the culture. He did this not only in spite of fierce popular resistance but also in defiance of tragic personal circumstances.
History, Politics & Rights
Does Gorbachev Deserve All the Praise?
Nicholas Baum September 15, 2022
Although he foresaw and avoided the deadly consequences of both armed conflict in Soviet republics and the continuation of Cold War hostilities, Gorbachev’s legacy falls far short of the praise heaped on it. Instead, the final Soviet leader’s legacy should serve to illuminate the evils of communism and collectivism more broadly.
Ayn Rand & Objectivism, History, Reviews
What Went Right? An Objectivist Theory of History by Robert Tracinski
Jon Hersey September 8, 2022
“Who sets the tone of a culture?,” asked Ayn Rand. “A small handful of men: the philosophers.” According to Robert Tracinski, many of Rand’s followers have taken this to mean that efforts toward a better future should focus on university humanities departments. But, in his latest book, Tracinski argues that this is only part of the story.
Ayn Rand & Objectivism, Biographies, History
How Isabel Paterson Helped Ayn Rand Find Atlantis
Timothy Sandefur August 19, 2022
Isabel Paterson considered herself the last survivor of a golden age. But she helped bequeath to us a vision of that free world—and not just a vision, but something more precious: a rational intellectual argument for it.