Phillip W. Magness is the David J. Theroux Chair in Political Economy at the Independent Institute.
This 1,300-Page Anticapitalist History Gets a Few Things Wrong
Sven Beckert's Capitalism: A Global History is...not a reliable history.
Phillip W. Magness
Latest from Phillip W. Magness
The American New Right Looks Like the European Old Right
When conservatives reject constitutional limits on executive power and foment civil conflict, what exactly are they conserving?
The Anti-Lockdown Imposters of the New Right
Today’s MAGA intellectuals rail against COVID restrictions, but in 2020 many cheered them on—or demanded even harsher crackdowns.
Quinn Slobodian Bastardizes Hayek and Mises
A historian tries to tie two classical liberal economists to the racialist right, and scrambles their words in the process.
Blaming Bill Buckley for Racism, January 6, and More
Historian David Austin Walsh tries and fails to rebut Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism thesis.
The Big Myth Is Full of Recycled Anti-Capitalist Cheap Shots
A new entrant in the anti-neoliberalism genre fails to land any blows.
Hulu's 1619 Project Docuseries Peddles False History
The first episode paints an enslaver, plantation master, and Royalist autocrat as a leading and even celebrated agent of emancipation.
Is Twitter-Famous Princeton Historian Kevin Kruse a Plagiarist?
His 2000 thesis on civil-rights-era Atlanta lifts passages from other people's work.
The 1619 Project Unrepentantly Pushes Junk History
Nikole Hannah-Jones' new book sidesteps scholarly critics while quietly deleting previous factual errors.
America's Cross-Partisan Dalliance With Eugenics
A new book pulls the curtain back—but only partway.
No, Segregationists Weren't the Driving Force Behind School Choice
The anti-voucher polemic is augmented by historical half-truths and selective omissions of countervailing evidence.
Universities Play the Victim in Admissions Scandal, but They're Far From Blameless
Higher education is a moral mess.
No, The Electoral College Isn't Rigged to Favor Rural Trumpism
It's time to put the myth of electoral bias out of its misery.
