There's Nothing New About the 'New Conspiracism'
A pair of political scientists think they've identified a new kind of conspiracy thinking. They haven't.
Book Reviews
What Inmates, the Amish, and Imperial Chinese Law Teach Us About Relying on the State
David Friedman’s Legal Systems Very Different from Ours explores the costs and benefits of various legal systems across time.
Spies in the Media
Journalists have long been used by governments, wittingly or not, to collect intel and spread disinformation.
The Government Can't—and Won't—Give Meaning to Your Life
A conservative technocrat tries to engineer a better world.
Why Do So Many Modern Jobs Seem Pointless?
An investigation into why people are working more without accomplishing more
No, Sex Wasn't Better for Women Under Socialism
It's hard to get in the mood when you're sharing a bedroom with your mother-in-law.
The Wild Rise of Lyndon LaRouche
What a conspiracy theorist, a Vietnam War deserter, and a Trump adviser have in common
When George Orwell Got in a Fight With the Anarchist Author of The Joy of Sex
The future 1984 scribe debated pacifism with Dr. Alex Comfort in 1942.
Vietnam and the Rise of White Power
A new book ties racist reactionary politics to the war, but overreaches when it comes to militias.
Russians and Reactionaries
The on-again, off-again flirtation between Mother Russia and the deplorables of Europe
'My Plan Is to Let People Do Whatever They Please'
The daily newspaper columns of H.L. Mencken
GW Students Organize to Fight Oppression By Oppressing Reading Choices
Obvious propaganda should be labeled propaganda, obviously.
Book recommendations from me and my colleagues
Time travel and originalism (not in the same book!)
Statist Just-So Stories
The author of Seeing Like a State casts a skeptical eye on the conventional wisdom about the cradle of civilization.
Sex and Communism
The times and trajectory of Max Eastman, progressive turned "libertarian conservative"
The Insatiable Utopia
The Soviet elite who built a "dictatorship of the proletariat" and paid with their lives
The Great James Buchanan Conspiracy
A controversial attack on a libertarian-leaning economist mangles the facts beyond recognition. But the book still has something to teach us.
George Washington's 'Founding War of Conquest'
The standing army, Native American opposition, and the high cost of territorial expansion
We Read Hillary's Book So You Don't Have To
Clinton takes complete ownership for how her actions are all your fault.
Breaking Addicts in Order to Fix Them
How Synanon revolutionized drug treatment and poisoned the politics of prohibition.
What Nancy MacLean Gets Wrong About James Buchanan
Democracy in Chains mangles the facts beyond recognition. But the book still has something to teach us.
How Jane Jacobs Challenged the Centralized Urban Planning Groupthink
The death and life of a great American urbanist
American Kingpin Treats Ross Ulbricht's Life and Trial Like a Soap Opera
Author Nick Bilton misses the point on the dark net.
New Book Offers Bleak Look at Paul Ryan's Hometown
In 2008, Obama told GM factory workers in Janesville, Wisconsin, that the plant would "be here for another 100 years." It has since closed, leaving thousands unemployed.
The Best Books, Films, Music, and Television of 2016
Lionel Shriver's The Mandibles, HBO's Westworld, Brian Fallon's Painkillers, and more. What's on your list?
Listening to Sex Offenders
Their stories are stereotypical and repetitive in ways we've all heard a million times, all our lives-and mostly not from sexual offenders.
Stepping in for the State in Detroit
When the government can't or won't provide services, residents step in.