Can Traditional Legal Customs Coexist With Western-Style State Law?
Geoffrey Swenson’s book Contending Orders tackles Afghanistan and Timor-Leste.
book
Review: Choose Your Own Adventure in American Futures
The author, whose libertarian leanings are evident, makes readers consider the impact of the choices they make in the voting booth.
Prison Ministry Group Sues Indiana Jail for Banning Amazon Books
The lawsuit claims the ban has no "legitimate penological justification"
Thank Dutch Merchants, Not a Strong State, for Capitalism
Pioneers of Capitalism chronicles centuries of bottom-up economic evolution in the Netherlands.
How Pirates in Madagascar Spread Enlightenment Ideas
Pirate Enlightenment documents an interracial experiment in stateless self-governance.
Review: Henry George's Many Children
The 19th century reformer's influence on 20th century progressives, conservatives, and libertarians
Review: Everything I Need I Get from You Gives a Fangirl's View of the Internet
Author Kaitlyn Tiffany offers a history of fandoms.
Review: The Man Who Hacked the World Captures the Chaos of John McAfee
Author Alex Cody Foster went deep with McAfee for months in an ill-fated attempt to ghostwrite his memoir.
Review: Imperfect Victims Documents Women Who Are Prosecuted for Defending Themselves
Author Leigh Goodmark's end goals of abolishing prisons and defunding police are hard to swallow.
Graphic Novels Bear Brunt of New Library Wars Over Access to Books
One of America's richest art forms suffers for seeming realer than other literature. But the war against "graphic imagery" is really a war against certain truths.
Review: Egg Is a Theory of Everything
The book's 12 thematic chapters are dense and rich—like flan, but good.
Internet Archive Loses Lawsuit Over National Emergency Library, Will Appeal
Plus: "Sensitivity readers" rewrite Agatha Christie, a Little Free Library battle, and more...
E.E. Cummings Celebrated Libertarian Utopia
His most popular book, The Enormous Room, was recently reprinted for its 100th anniversary.
Review: You Must Remember This Grapples With the Dangers of Nostalgia
A new novel by Reason contributor Kat Rosenfield
Review: The Progressive Backlash Against Influencer Moms
Momfluenced bemoans unrealistic expectations set on American mothers but then establishes new ones.
Review: Are Memes Upending Democracy?
In Meme Wars, so-called "disinformation" experts call for the suppression of more ideas and speakers to protect democracy.
Rousseau, Malthus, and Thanos Were Wrong
The authors of Superabundance make a strong case that more people and industrialization mean a richer, more prosperous world.
The Big Myth Is Full of Recycled Anti-Capitalist Cheap Shots
A new entrant in the anti-neoliberalism genre fails to land any blows.
Review: The Army of the Potomac Trilogy Brings Together Bruce Catton's 3 Civil War Chronicles
These superb books recount events from the viewpoints of both soldier and statesman, providing a greater understanding of the why and how of the Civil War.
Review: Raising the Bar Brings the Cocktail Revolution Home
Jacob Grier and Brett Adams help aspiring home bartenders build a bar via a carefully sequenced collection of about two dozen bottles.
Review: Gangsters vs. Nazis Greenlights Meeting Speech With Violence
Praising violence as a response to speech we don't like is a hallmark not of admirable Americanism but of oppressive regimes like Hitler’s.
Review: 'How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex'
Samantha Cole's book is marred by vague animosity toward tech companies.
North Dakota Legislators Consider Bill To Ban 'Sexually Explicit' Material From Public Libraries
"If you don't like a book, don't read it. The First Amendment's guarantee of the freedom of speech and the right to access information has created a beautiful marketplace of ideas in our country," said one ACLU representative opposing the bill.
Now Anybody Can Write a Sherlock Holmes Story
Nearly a century after author Arthur Conan Doyle's death, the character is finally free.
Keri Blakinger Is a Figure Skater and a Felon
"The most valuable thing taken away while in prison is time," says the author of Corrections in Ink.
How Venture Capital Made the Future
Sebastian Mallaby's The Power Law explores how venture capital and public policy helped shape modern technology.
Psychiatrists Do Not Know What They Are Treating
The mysteries of the mind are harder to unravel than psychiatrists pretend.
Martin Morse Wooster's Front Row Seat
RIP to a prolific and colorful Reason contributor and author.
Review: Buckminster Fuller Helped Inspire Our Future
The new book Inventor of the Future prefers to show him as a credit hog.
What We Owe the Future Is Liberalism
What does "longtermism" offer those of us who favor limited government and free markets?
Review: 1947's Prelude to Space Envisioned We'd Be on Mars by Now
Reality has failed to match author Arthur C. Clarke's hopes.
The Fractal, Fractious Politics of The Expanse
Taking humanity from Earth to the stars isn't easy.
Review: Corporate Rock Sucks Covers the Slow Decline of Punk's Most Important Label
Perhaps boutique businesses with hip tastes can be as bad for bands as the biggest corporation.
Review: Can Legal Weed Win? Yes, but Only Through Deregulation
Extreme taxes and regulations are hampering legal marijuana markets.
Review: Is Prison for Rehabilitation or Punishment?
High recidivism rates are not surprising when life in prison features the same factors that drive crime.
Counting Neurons and the Moral Standing of People vs. Animals
Total human neurons outweigh all farmed animals by a factor of 30–1.
Review: The Brutality of British Empire on Display in Legacy of Violence
Caroline Elkins' book raises an important question for people today, particularly liberals—an issue that Elkins herself sidesteps.
Virginia Can't Force Bookstores To Card Kids for Books on Gender and Sexuality
An effort to ban sales of two books to minors ended with a Virginia judge saying that the state’s obscenity statute is “unconstitutional on its face."
The Social Media Mob vs. the Novel
Are “extremely over-sensitive, Twitter activist people" ruining literature?
The Case for Drinking
Alcohol facilitates human cooperation and creativity on a grand scale, says Edward Slingerland, a philosophy professor at the University of British Columbia.
Review: Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System
M. Chris Fabricant's new book details how flawed techniques have led to numerous wrongful convictions.
Labor Econ Versus the World
Bryan Caplan's latest book covers the hypocrisy of unpaid collegiate internships and a defense of the professoriate against the charges of laziness.
Artist Ai Weiwei Warns of Chinese and American Authoritarianism
In 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, the renowned artist details his struggles with censorship.
The Great Libertarian Gift Guide of 2021
It's time to spread cheer. Reason is here to help.
Best-Selling Author Alice Sebold Apologizes to Innocent Man Who Served 16 Years for Her Rape
Her publisher will stop distributing her memoir Lucky, which detailed the attack and aftermath.
The Family Firm
Context, tradeoffs, and preferences matter—both in parenting and outside of it.
