Archives: July 2026
Excerpts from Reason’s bicentennial vaults
Libertarian History/Philosophy
America's Founders Blended Liberalism and Religion
If the fusionist account of history is correct, the anti-fusionists are engaged in a far more radical project than most of them are willing to admit.
Disillusioned Revolutionaries: Many Founders Died in Despair About the American Experiment
America's Founders helped create a world they were not yet ready to live in.
Ayn Rand Is Alive in Ankara
Objectivism in Turkey has risen and fallen in recent decades, but is newly rejuvenated.
Right-Wing Influencers Don't Understand What Makes America Great
The Dissident Right is furious with Neil Gorsuch for saying America is a creedal nation. That just goes to show how out of touch its obsessions are.
Remembering Brian Doherty, Chronicler of and Participant in Wild and Wonderful Subcultures
The Radicals for Capitalism and This Is Burning Man author was more than an observer of the movements he wrote about.
Brian Doherty, Historian of the Libertarian Movement, Dead at 57
The longtime Reason senior editor accidentally fell to his death in a park along the San Francisco Bay.
250 Years Later, The Wealth of Nations Still Has Lessons To Offer the Political Class
Governments have yet to accept that free societies are also prosperous societies.
100 Years of Murray Rothbard
Remembering America's most radical and definitive modern libertarian intellectual.
Review: The Anarchist Writings of Robert Anton Wilson
"I'm the kind of anarchist whose chief objection to the state is that it kills so many people," Wilson said in a 1976 interview
Ken Levine on BioShock, Ayn Rand, and Libertarianism
"What does completely, completely unregulated commerce look like?" Ken Levine's Bioshock will tell you.
The John Galt of Comic Books
The co-creator of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange later created some failed Ayn Rand–inspired superheroes.
Ayn Rand Denounced the FCC's 'Public Interest' Censorship More Than 60 Years Ago
In her 1962 essay "Have Gun, Will Nudge," Rand foresaw how government officials would seek to silence people they don't like.
What Would Bill Buckley Do?
The National Review founder's flexible approach to politics defined conservatism as we know it.
The Democratic Party Is Offering a False Choice Between Socialism and Technocracy
By looking to the past, Democrats could chart a pro-freedom blueprint for their party’s future.
Review: Frank S. Meyer's Fusionism Melded Classical Liberalism With Traditional Religion
Biographer Daniel J. Flynn uncovered long forgotten documents in the conservative thinker's former home.
New York City Is About To Elect a Socialist Mayor in Zohran Mamdani. Why Won't This Failed Ideology Die?
The troubling rise of Zohran Mamdani is about more than policy. It's about culture.
'The Tension Between Tradition and Individualism'
Conservative founding father Frank Meyer and libertarian founding mother Rose Wilder Lane had rich, friendly debates on how much American liberty relied on old European traditions.
The Libertarian Case for Postmodernism
Political economist Mark Pennington draws on the ideas of Hayek and Foucault to show how expert rule and government surveillance are making it harder for people to think freely and live on their own terms.
Inez Stepman: How Socialism Seduced New Yorkers
How did Zohran Mamdani’s rise happen, and what does it tell us about the future of the Democratic Party?
Put the Libertarians Back in Charge
The libertarians aren't in charge. But the lesson of the last decade of politics is that they should be.
What Ronald Reagan's Fusionist Politics Teach Us About Liberty, Virtue, and Their Limits
Fusionism holds that virtue and liberty are mutually reinforcing, and that neither is possible in any lasting or meaningful way without the other.
Dave Smith and Alex Nowrasteh Debate Immigration
Is it consistently libertarian to support government restrictions on immigration?
Serious Immigration Law Enforcement Means Serious Destruction to American Liberty
Stephen Miller's trial balloon about abrogating habeas corpus in immigration cases shows how any libertarian with pragmatic intelligence should reject so-called "libertarian" arguments for strict immigration laws.
Do These Libertarians Regret Voting for Donald Trump?
Three libertarians—Dave Smith, J.D. Tuccille, and Liz Wolfe—revisit their reluctant votes for Trump, weighing the promises, chaos, and consequences of his second term so far.
Should Libertarians Prioritize Their Own Communities?
Eric Brakey and Andrew Heaton debate whether libertarians should prioritize building local liberty-focused societies like the Free State Project or focus on reforming the federal government.
The Abundant Life of Manny Klausner
The Reason Foundation co-founder took seriously the idea that libertarians should win—not just in the courts but also in the broader culture.
The Worst Parts of Trump's First 100 Days Involved Ignoring Libertarian Principles
Trade and immigration are areas where Trump operates most like a criminal autocrat.
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.
The Anarchist and the Republican
How John McClaughry and Karl Hess fought to decentralize power—one from inside the system, one ever further from it
Manuel Klausner, RIP
The co-founder of Reason Foundation and former editor of Reason fought for liberty in his legal practice and policy advocacy.
The American Right Is Abandoning Mises
The Austrian economist's principled thought once served as a check on the intellectual right.
Ayn Rand in Ukrainian Crimea
What the Russian-born author would have thought of Russia's war in Ukraine
Comic: It's America's Founding Grandfather, John Locke
Decades after his death, the English philosopher's ideas helped shape the American republic.
Tyler Cowen: Why Do We Refuse To Learn From History?
Economist Tyler Cowen on historical lessons, populism today, and the philosophical debates within libertarianism.
Review: Watching Megalopolis Through a Randian Lens
Francis Ford Coppola's new film has traces of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
Libertarianism From the Ground Up
In Common Law Liberalism, legal scholar John Hasnas offers a new vision for a free society.
Yuval Levin: What is Trump's "Mandate"?
A.E.I.'s Yuval Levin discusses Trump's mandate (or lack thereof), building coalitions, and how the classic divide between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine remains relevant.
Abolish Borders
If government-drawn lines within your country don't possess some sort of moral magic that voids your rights, why would government-drawn lines between countries?
That Time Al Franken Kept Telling Me Jokes About Mullets
There was music in the cafés at night, and talk of liberal-libertarian cooperation was in the air.
