Taxonomy and Revolution
Yesterday on this site, Brian Doherty noted the death of the libertarian historian William Marina. In honor of his work—and of last weekend's holiday—I'll link to one more Marina article, originally published in Reason in July 1976, titled "The American Revolution as a People's War." A sample quote: "one need not go to the writings of Lenin, Trotsky, Mao, Che Guevara, or Vo Nguyen Giap nor study the revolutions with which they were associated to learn about the principles of revolutionary warfare. The events of the American Revolution are filled with examples of the discovery and working out of the essentials of those principles."
Another follow-up: Also yesterday, Peter Suderman linked to Tyler Cowen's effort to sort libertarians into five categories. Timothy Virkkala has posted an extended critique of Cowen's post; it should be required reading for anyone who thinks he can taxonomize a movement as diverse and nuanced as this one. (I'm not sure how best to categorize myself. Discordian? Anarcho-Hayekian? Left Jacksonian? Right Kropotkinian? Front-Porch Postmodernist? I better stop before the libertarian categories outnumber the libertarians.)