Review: Victoria 3 Lacks Spontaneous Order
The video game is a 100-year simulation of the Victorian era where the player has centralized control over the government of their chosen country.
Reviews
An Anarchist's Guide to War
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's most controversial book has finally been fully translated into English.
Review: The Menu Is Another Movie Mocking Wealthy People
In this film, it's mean and funny enough to work.
Review: Egg Is a Theory of Everything
The book's 12 thematic chapters are dense and rich—like flan, but good.
Review: The White Lotus Explores the Misery of Wealth
The HBO series features what Ayn Rand would call "second-handers."
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
Who Owns Your Brain Data?
Nita A. Farahany's The Battle for Your Brain shows how neurotech can help, or hurt, human liberty.
Review: The Progressive Backlash Against Influencer Moms
Momfluenced bemoans unrealistic expectations set on American mothers but then establishes new ones.
Review: I Saw Humans Working at the 'Automated' McDonald's
McDonald's invested in some spiffy new toys, but almost everything else stayed the same.
Review: The Clumsy Anti-Muskism of Glass Onion
Hating tech billionaires is The Current Thing.
Review: Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
Jason Statham in an underpowered Guy Ritchie spy flick.
Review: Are Memes Upending Democracy?
In Meme Wars, so-called "disinformation" experts call for the suppression of more ideas and speakers to protect democracy.
Review: Pelosi in the House Is a Nepotistic Puff Piece
The glowing documentary makes no mention of her failures or even shortcomings as speaker.
Waco Offers New Insights From ATF Agents
Historian Jeff Guinn's account focuses on the ATF's oft-overlooked fiasco in the 1993 affair rather than the FBI's widely reported involvement.
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: Mastodon Decentralizes Social Media
Elon Musk’s shambolic takeover may not have been great for Twitter, but it was fantastic for Mastodon.
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: Mother Country Radicals Spotlights the Weather Underground
Perhaps unintentionally, this podcast holds up a mirror to the social justice movements of today.
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: The Crown Pits British Tradition Against Reform
The lightly fictionalized historical drama shows that it’s hard for staid institutions to grow and change with the times, especially when they aren’t forced to.
Review: Inside Job Reinvents the Workplace Comedy
The Netflix show ostensibly satirizes government control, but it is not made for anyone truly suspicious of government power.
Review: Naomi Novik's Magic Math Actually Makes Sense
The Golden Enclaves is the third installment of Novik's best-selling Scholomance trilogy.
Review: Even in Tolkien's Middle Earth, You Can't Escape Immigration Restrictions
Elves need not apply.
Review: 'Me So Horny' and 59 Other Songs That Explain the '90s
Podcaster and music critic Rob Harvilla reminds us of the debts we owe to the tunes of that often cringeworthy decade.
How the Fed Redistributed Wealth and Encouraged Reckless Corporate Behavior
The Lords of Easy Money argues that the Fed created an economy with nearly irresistible incentives for foolish choices.
Review: Post-Roe America Is Unlikely To Resemble the One Seen in The Janes
An underground network in Chicago helped women terminate thousands of pregnancies amid abortion prohibition.
Review: Time Meddling Becomes Altruism in Amazon's The Peripheral
It's the story of a distant future where rich denizens meddle in the affairs of the past.
Review: God Forbid Chronicles Jerry Falwell Jr.'s Fall From Grace
Falwell and his wife engaged in extramarital trysts with a younger man and introduced him to powerful friends, such as future president Donald Trump.
The Case for 50 Percent Open Borders
A call for restricting immigration in The Culture Transplant accidentally makes the case for radical liberalization.
How Venture Capital Made the Future
Sebastian Mallaby's The Power Law explores how venture capital and public policy helped shape modern technology.
Review: Why Does the CIA Need a Podcast?
The director worries that the public doesn't trust his spy agency.
Review: D.C.'s Planet Word Museum Celebrates Language
Libertarians should recognize language as a quintessential example of spontaneous order.
Review: In Defense of Cultural Appropriation on The Great British Baking Show
For the first time, The Great British Baking Show's three best bakers are immigrants to the U.K.
Review: When Americans Turned Their Backs on Holocaust Refugees
The U.S. and the Holocaust condemns anti-refugee policies of the World War II era.
Review: Is Andor the Most Political Live-Action Star Wars Release?
Star Wars remains an epic tale of good vs. evil, but underneath the myth are ordinary human motivations.
Review: Buckminster Fuller Helped Inspire Our Future
The new book Inventor of the Future prefers to show him as a credit hog.
Dwarf Fortress, the Deepest, Most Insane Computer Simulation Game Ever, Just Got a Shiny New Makeover
The game is one of the greatest pieces of outsider art created in the 21st century, and it just got a lot easier to play.
The End of Astronauts: Should We Send Robots to Space Instead?
Robots don't get cabin fever, develop cancer from cosmic radiation, miss their families, or go insane.
What We Owe the Future Is Liberalism
What does "longtermism" offer those of us who favor limited government and free markets?
Review: The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Is Good, Actually
The millennial generation has had enough anti-prequel propaganda.
Review: Be Your Own Boss in Space With 1993's Wing Commander: Privateer
The video game merges free market trading with exciting space combat, and your ethics and goals are up to you.
Review: The Libertarianism of Firefly
What if our interplanetary future involved train heists, legal sex work, and a lot of running from the feds?
Review: When Homer Simpson Went to Space
"Deep Space Homer" aired only eight years after the real-life Challenger disaster.
Review: The Cat Video Game That Public Health Authoritarians Will Love
Stray began development in 2015, so it's not intended to be an allegory about COVID-19 lockdowns, but it sure seems like one.
Review: Better Call Saul Could Only Happen Under Drug Prohibition
The black market for drugs empowers bad actors while imposing serious burdens on innocents.
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.
