Volume 44, Number 3 · February 20, 1997
Born Free
By Louis Menand
What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation
by Charles Murray
Broadway Books, 178 pp., $20.00
Charles Murray is the author of two books that have become touchstones (or lightning rods) of a sort in American political debate. Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950-1980 argued that postwar welfare programs have actually made people worse off; The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (written with Richard J. Herrnstein) argued that antidiscrimination policies like affirmative action are futile, since black Americans have lower intelligence than white Americans. These were, in form at least, empirical arguments. What It Means to Be a Libertarian is an attempt to sketch out a complementary political philosophy.
Review, 4332 words
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