Timeline of libertarian thinkers

This article is a list of major figures in the theory of libertarianism, a philosophy asserting that individuals have a right to be free. Originally coined by French anarchist Joseph Déjacque as an alternative to anarchism, in the 1950s American classical liberals decided to appropriate the term to for their philosophy which asserts that individuals have a right to acquire, keep, and exchange their holdings and that the primary purpose of government is to protect these rights.[1]

Libertarian thinkers

  • Étienne de La Boétie (1530–1563): French judge, writer, and "a founder of modern political philosophy in France."
  • Josiah Warren (1798–1874): Inventor, social theorist, and believer in "individual sovereignty." Influenced John Stuart Mill. States "commit more crimes upon persons and property than all criminals put together."[2]
  • Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850): French classical liberal theorist, political economist, author of The Law.
  • Adin Ballou (1803–1890): American Christian anarchist.[2]
  • William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879): American abolitionist libertarian and journalist. Influenced Frederick Douglass, ex-slave and anti-slavery crusader.[2]
  • Lysander Spooner (1808–1887): American abolitionist, lawyer, entrepreneur, and individualist anarchist theorist. Author of The Unconstitutionality of Slavery and No Treason.
  • Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865): French socialist thinker, first person to call themselves an Anarchist.
  • Stephen Pearl Andrews (1812–1886): Abolitionist who tried to sell Texas to Britain to prevent it becoming a slave state.[2]
  • Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876): Russian revolutionary Anarchist
  • Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) : Advocate of minimal or no government, and civil disobedience against the authoritarian state.
  • Joseph Déjacque (1821-1864): French communist-anarchist, first person to coin the term "libertarian" in its modern sense.
  • Gustave de Molinari (1819–1912): French liberal economist and author of The Production of Security in which he argued that security can be produced better through the market than through government monopoly policing.
  • Herbert Spencer (1820–1903): Anarchist British parliamentarian. Advocated the "right of people to ignore the state." [2]
  • Auberon Herbert (1838–1906): Anarchist British parliamentarian, founder of "voluntaryism" and anti-democrat. Advocated that the voting majority has no more right to decide a man's life than "either the bayonet-surrounded emperor or the infallible church."[2]
  • Henry George (1839-1897): American political economist and journalist, author of "Progress and Poverty" (1879), "Social Problems" (1883), and "Protection or Free Trade" (1886). Advocated for protecting the common right of all to Nature, free trade, and the secret ballot, among other ideas seminal to modern libertarianism. His ideas form the basis for Georgism and Geolibertarianism, and are additionally considered as formative for beginning the Progressive Era in the United States.
  • Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921): Russian anarchist, one of the key thinkers of anarchist-communism.
  • John Sherwin Crosby (1842-1914) : American educator and attorney, author of "The Orthocratic State" (1915), in which he presented a comprehensive justification for the formation of the state and its rightful powers.
  • Errico Malatesta (1853-1932): Leading Italian anarchist-communist.
  • Benjamin Tucker (1854–1939): American editor and publisher of the individualist anarchist periodical Liberty. Called anarchists "simply unterrified Jeffersonian Democrats."
  • Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912): American anarchist.
  • Alexander Berkman (1870-1936): Russian-American Revolutionary anarchist communist, author of the classic exposition of anarchist principles, Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism
  • Emma Goldman (1869-1940): Russian-American Revolutionary anarchist communist.
  • Albert Jay Nock (1870-1945) : American author and editor opposing state socialism in the 20th century, including the New Deal, and one of the first people to identify as "libertarian" in the 20th century American sense.
  • Rudolf Rocker (1873-1958): German anarcho-syndicalist.
  • H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) : Writer strongly opposed to authoritarian government, published a periodical containing libertarian authors like Emma Goldman and Albert Jay Nock.
  • Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973): Austrian philosopher, economist, and author of Human Action. After his death, his name was used for the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
  • Voline (1882-1945): Russian anarchist, author of The Unknown Revolution.
  • Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968): American journalist, travel writer, novelist, and libertarian political theorist.
  • Ralph Borsodi (1886-1977): American agrarian theorist, Georgist, founder of The School of Living, and author of "The Distribution Age" (1927), "This Ugly Civilization" (1929), and "Flight from the City" (1933).
  • Gregori Maximoff (1893-1950): Russian anarcho-syndicalist
  • Leonard Read (1898–1983): American economist and founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, America's first libertarian think-tank.
  • Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992): Austrian economist and political thinker, author of The Road to Serfdom.
  • Sam Dolgoff (1902-1990): American anarcho-syndicalist activist and writer.
  • Daniel Guerin (1904-1988): French libertarian socialist writer and activist.
  • Ayn Rand (1905–1982): American philosopher and novelist whose books The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged influenced many towards libertarianism.
  • Milton Friedman (1912–2006): Nobel Prize–winning American economist and professor at the University of Chicago. Advocated free market capitalism in books like Capitalism and Freedom.
  • Albert Camus (1913-1960): French author and libertarian socialist.
  • Vernon Richards (1915-2001): British anarchist and editor of Freedom newspaper.
  • Albert Meltzer (1920-1996): British anarchist and editor of Black Flag magazine.
  • Murray Bookchin (1921-2006): Eco-Anarchist thinker
  • Howard Zinn (1922-2010): American historian.
  • Chris Pallis (1923-2005): British libertarian socialist, better known as Maurice Brinton.
  • Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995): American philosopher, economist, historian, and the leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism. Authored For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto and The Ethics of Liberty.
  • Noam Chomsky (1928-present): American linguist and libertarian socialist thinker
  • Ron Paul (1935–present): American author of The Revolution: A Manifesto and Liberty Defined, physician, and former politician who has been characterized as the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party movement.
  • Robert Nozick (1938–2002): American philosopher and author of Anarchy, State, and Utopia.
  • Samuel Edward Konkin III (1947–2004): American political philosopher and author of New Libertarian Manifesto in which he promotes a philosophy he named agorism, a revolutionary form of market anarchism that aims to dissolve the state through counter-economic activity.
  • John Stossel (1947-present) : American journalist advocating for free markets and minimal government regulation, first to describe the double thank-you of capitalism.
  • Hans-Hermann Hoppe (1949–present): German-born American Austrian School economist, and paleolibertarian anarcho-capitalist philosopher.
  • Wendy McElroy (1951–present): Canadian individualist anarchist, individualist feminist, and cofounder of The Voluntaryist magazine.

References

  1. ↑ Vallentyne, Peter. "Libertarianism". Stanford. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Doherty, Radicals for Capitalism


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