It will be hard for any honest libertarian to read this book – or others like it – and ever again be taken in by the big business-financed policy institutes and think tanks. In a world where libertarianism has mostly been deformed into a defense of corporate privilege, it is worth being told or reminded what a free market actually is. Our ideal society is not ‘Tesco/Wal-Mart minus the State.’ It is a community of communities of free people. All thanks to the authors and editors of this book. – Sean Gabb, director, UK Libertarian Alliance

Libertarianism is often seen as a callous defense of privilege in the face of existing (and unjust) inequalities. That’s because it too often is. But it doesn’t have to be, and this fascinating collection of historic and current argument and scholarship shows why. Even readers who disagree will find much to think about. – Ken MacLeod, author of The Fall Revolution

Anarchy is not chaos; nor is it violence. This rich and provocative gathering of essays by anarchists past and present imagines society unburdened by state, markets un-warped by capitalism. Those whose preference is for an economy that is humane, decentralized, and free will read this book with – dare I use the word? – profit. – Bill Kaufmann, author of Bye Bye, Miss American Empire

We on the left need a good shake to get us thinking, and these arguments for market anarchism do the job in lively and thoughtful fashion. – Alexander Cockburn, editor and publisher, CounterPunch

I’m absolutely giddy about The Conscience of an Anarchist; this book could electrify a generation! – Brad Spangler, Center for a Stateless Society

Given the popular myth that anarchists are masked kids in Circle-A T-shirts smashing windows, this book couldn't have come at a better time. Clear and easy to understand, it’s the best basic explication of anarchist ideas since Alexander Berkman’s The ABCs of Anarchism. – Kevin A. Carson author, The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand

The best of the political ‘conscience’ books. – Stephan Kinsella, Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom

Anarchism, it has been said, is the radical notion that other people are not your property. Gary Chartier eloquently demonstrates that, far from being a recipe for disorder – as the centers of power self-servingly wish us to believe – anarchism is rather the surest foundation for social cooperation, freedom, prosperity, and peace. – Sheldon Richman, author, Tethered Citizens.

Chartier’s book is vital reading for libertarians. – David Gordon, The Mises Review

As long as free-market advocates continue to embrace a theory of the firm that is contradicted by the daily experience of millions of ordinary people, they will continue to be regarded as apologists for big business – and deservedly so. Carson does a brilliant job of showing how the swollen, hierarchical, exploitative firms that dominate our economy are the product not of the free market but of systematic government intervention on behalf of the corporate elite. Carson’s work offers a compelling alternative to both the right-wing package deal (embrace predatory capitalism in order to get the benefits of free markets) and the left-wing package deal (reject free markets in order to avoid the evils of predatory capitalism), and lays out an inspiring blueprint for workers and consumers to take back power from the bureaucrats and plutocrats. – Roderick T. Long, professor of philosophy, Auburn University

Kevin Carson’s book touches many of the key subjects regarding the transformation of our political economy into a post-capitalist, ‘peer to peer’ logic, examining not just the organisational logic of productive organizations, but also the transformation in the nature of machinery and capital goods (which are becoming more and more distributed and miniaturized) and the new culture of cooperation that is taking root in open design communities. I don’t think there is an equivalent book that look so seriously and deeply into the real potential of social and economic transformation, anchored in a detailed study of contemporary productive capacities. – Michel Bauwens, P2P Foundation

Carson brings so-called ‘economies of scale’ down from the clouds so that we can compare them with different economies of different scales we might otherwise have enjoyed of states and corporations had not so helpfully inflicted a particular pattern of artificial bigness on us for nearly 200 years. He analyzes in great detail the top-down bossism of large-scale organizations. Conversant with a wide range of literature on management questions, he applies the Austrian theorem on economic calculation to a critique of corporate capitalism – an area where Austrians fear to tread. At the same time, Carson sketches out an alternate set of arrangements – without large-scale accumulations of political-economic power. All who have followed this book’s emergence will be very happy to see it in its final form; not least because of the work’s systematic and synoptic vision, which brings empirical reality into focus in reltion with the relevant theory. – Joseph Stromberg, Independent Institute

Kevin Carson’s new book offers another remarkable contribution to the theory of the freed market, and his defense of cottage industry and cooperative organization strikes a powerful blow against the ideological underpinnings of Progressive managerialism and state capitalism – an ideology shared by the statist Left and Right, and by all too many libertarian apologists for actually-existing capitalism. In the individualist tradition we have written a great deal about the need for consensual and respectful free association, but not nearly enough about just what our organizations, networks, and cooperative projects might look like in a world free from the coercion of the State; Carson argues exhaustively and persuasively for a vision of a cooperative, localized, green and durable economy – a vision which calls libertarians back to our historical roots in the radical (anarchistic Left), while prodding us forward to a new and fuller understanding of the full social and economic implications of radical freed-market ideas. – Charles Johnson, Molinari Institute

Richman brilliantly explains how the government breaks its citizens’ legs and then hands them crutches. This is a fine book. – Lowell Ponte, national radio talk show host

This book is an eloquent debunking of the welfare state, from its Prussian origins to its Iron Fist contemporary reality. – James Bovard, author, Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Power in the Clinton-Gore Years

This book is essential reading for understanding how the welfare state is incompatible with constitutional government and a free society. – Congressman Ron Paul

This volume is a much needed revival of a debate critical to libertarians, but also of significance to political theorists generally. The issue itself goes to the heart of what it means to do political philosophy, and the contributions found here skillfully keep those basic concerns in sight. In addition, I found the writing lucid and fair minded – something often missing in scholarly debate anthologies. I have no doubt that this volume will become a standard reference source for those interested in this particular debate and among the sources one consults when considering the foundations of the state generally. – Douglas J. Den Uyl, Liberty Fund

The forceful philosophical and historical challenges to the state presented in this volume should be read not just by libertarians, but by everyone who believes that government is either necessary or legitimate. – Elaine Sternberg, London School of Economics

While many mainstream social liberals take libertarianism seriously, few are interested in anarchism. But, as Tibor Machan, Charles Johnson, Lester Hunt, and others point out in their contributions, both anarchism and the debates between libertarians and anarchists should be of broader interest to social liberals. Anarchism should be of interest because it plays the role in political philosophy that skepticism plays in epistemology – raising the question of what, if anything, could justify a state in the way that brains in vats, etc. raise the question of what, if anything, could justify beliefs. The debate between anarchists and libertarians should be of interest because if the anarchists are right then libertarianism commits one to anarchism. So, social liberals who take libertarianism seriously may have to take anarchism seriously too. ... Liberals of all sorts would do well to take the arguments presented in this collection seriously. – Nicole Hassoun, professor of philosophy, Carnegie Mellon

Anarchism’s case, against the state and for the viability and desirability of a polycentric legal order, receives its most challenging and detailed articulation in Chartier’s book. – Hillel Steiner, FBA, Professor of Political Philosophy, University of Manchester

Those who defend the legitimacy of the state (even a minimal one) will be forced to reconsider their views by Gary Chartier’s clear, sparkling, and trenchant defense of anarchism. This is required reading, not only within the libertarian movement, but by anyone who works in political philosophy. – Fernando R. Tesón, Tobias Simon Eminent Scholar and Professor of Law, Florida State University

Anarchy and Legal Order is one of the most important books of libertarian political theory to be published in the last forty years. Libertarians have long appealed to the natural law tradition, but no one has done so with the depth and sophistication of Gary Chartier. And no one has done a better job of showing how the insights of libertarian natural law theory can help us see the ways in which real-world capitalism has been deeply unjust. – Matt Zwolinski, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of San Diego

Chartier takes the insight that there can be law without legislation and develops it into a manifesto, a vision of what socialism could have and should have been: socialism that does not pander to the urge to run other people’s lives. Chartier finds kindred spirits across a wide array of traditions, yet the synthesis that emerges is all his own. Anarchist it is, but this is the anarchism of a humanist, not a terrorist, a deeply thoughtful anarchism unlike anything yet seen. – David Schmidtz, Professor of Philosophy, University of Arizona

Gary Chartier’s book brings together the natural law and anarchist traditions in ways that are illuminating for both. It illustrates the richness of the natural law approach to ethics, using it to make a compelling case for a stateless society. The book is original, insightful and closely argued. It will help to cement Chartier’s growing reputation as a leader in natural law and anarchist thought. – Jonathan Crowe, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Queensland

This book is a major contribution to debates on the status of anarchism. It deftly combines moral justification with a concern for institutional practicality and bridges the divide between socialist and libertarian standpoints. One of the very best books on the subject I have ever encountered. – Mark Pennington, Professor of Public Policy and Political Economy, King’s College, London

At a time when libertarian and anarchist ideas are becoming part of mainstream discourse on both the left (the Occupy movement) and the right (the Ron Paul movement), this project seems especially timely. And given that the idea that law and anarchy are at odds is widespread not only among the general public but even among many anarchists – and likewise given that those anarchists who do look favorably on the rule of law tend to be of a capitalist bent – the proposal to develop an anarchist theory of law from an anticapitalist perspective gives Chartier’s proposal an attractive novelty. I’m pleased to see that Chartier pulls the task off beautifully, with careful argument, impressive coverage, and remarkable clarity. – Roderick T. Long, professor of philosophy, Auburn University

Anarchists tend to look embarrassed when the subject of economics comes up. Or we mumble something about Proudhon and then sheepishly borrow ideas from Karl Marx. It has always struck me as ironic that anarchism began largely as an economic theory, think only of Josiah Warren, Proudhon and Tucker, but then abandoned the field to the Marxists. A specifically anarchistic approach to economic analysis has lain dormant for the last 130 years. However, with the publication of Kevin A. Carson’s Studies in Mutualist Political Economy this period of dormancy has finally come to an end. Carson starts off by critiquing post-classical economists such as the Marginalists, Marxists, and Austrians. But his critique is not a simple dismissal of these views, but is dialectical in form. What stands up after analysis, no matter what the school of economics, is incorporated into his anarchist synthesis. Without too much exaggeration, Carson has produced our Das Capital. ... The most important aspect of this book, the one that should overshadow other differences, is that the economic analysis of exploitation and capitalism has been placed on a solid anarchist basis. We need no longer play second fiddle to the Marxists. – Larry Gambone, Red Lion Press

Overall it is a valuable contribution to political economy and a timely reminder ... to libertarians of how radical their creed actually is. In my view, one cannot overstate the importance of Carson’s asking libertarians: what are you defending, the free market or the political-economic system we currently live in? – Sheldon Richman, author, Tethered Citizens, and former editor of The Freeman

Studies in Mutualist Political Economy, a work which attempts to integrate the insights of two schools of thought not often thought compatible: the Marxian and the Austrian ... displays an admirable range of reading and the style invests the driest economic questions with a certain peculiar charm. – Ken MacLeod, author, The Fall Revolution

I highly recommend Carson’s book .... That doesn’t mean I agree with everything in the book .... But where I agree with it I think it is an excellent defense of the sort of anti-corporatist, pro-labour, left-libertarianism I embrace; and where I disagree with it I think it makes intelligent arguments that deserve careful consideration. – Roderick T. Long, former editor of the Journal of Libertarian Studies

Consider this the essential argument of the anti-income tax movement. – Booklist

Most tax critics focus their criticism of our tax code on its wastefulness, complexity, and social engineering, and on the size of the government take. While their criticism has unquestionable merit, Richman rightly and adroitly focuses on the more important moral issues the income tax raises and how it stands the Constitution’s Framers’ vision of a just society on its head. – Walter E. Williams, John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University

In the centuries to come, when scholars want to know how America evolved from a free society to a totalitarian state, Sheldon Richman’s book will provide them with the answer. ... This book is a must read for every person who loves liberty. – Charles Adams, author of For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on Civilization and Those Dirty Rotten Taxes

Darian Worden’s powerful first novel [is] about the self-destructive compulsion of modern society to forsake freedom for the illusion of security, to retard the capacity for critical thought in our youth, and to stamp out any trace of real individuality wherever it is found. As a condemnation of the modern police state and nanny state, it succeeds brilliantly. Equally as important, it succeeds as a drama and a character study. ... This is an important debut work by a talented storyteller and social commentator. – Jim Lesczynski, author of The Walton Street Tycoons

The revival of natural law theory with respect to foundational issues in ethics and politics has been matched stride for stride with an application of that view to controversial issues of public morality - abortion, euthanasia, stem-cell research, homosexual conduct, and so forth. What we had not yet seen is anything like a systematic account of how the natural law view should be brought to bear on central issues of economic justice. But we now have Gary Chartier’s Economic Justice and Natural Law, a book exhibiting the dual virtues of a subtle understanding of natural law ethics with a richly detailed awareness of the economic matters about which the natural law should have something to say. We are all, whether friend or foe of the natural law view, in Chartier’s debt for his putting natural law theory to the test in this way. – Mark C. Murphy, PhD, Fr. Joseph T. Durkin, S. J. Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University

The new natural law theory of ethics is a powerful and important way of thinking about how to live in today’s world. The question how to apply that theory in the political, economic, and legal spheres is only just beginning to be asked. Gary Chartier’s book provides an elegant, clear, and well-informed guide to how natural law theorists might go about answering that question in detail. It will be essential reading for anyone who wants to think hard about these issues. – Timothy Chappel, MA, PhD, Professor of Philosophy, The Open University

Gary Chartier’s perceptive, timely, and beautifully ordered book moves easily between the theoretical and the concrete. It demonstrates how the new classical natural law theory illuminates the ideal foundations of economic justice and the measures needed to rectify injustice in a non-ideal world. Chartier’s examination of issues including at-will employment, peasants’ property interests in the land they work, workplace democracy, and urban renewal is probing and trenchant. This fine study reflects broad reading without descending into pedantry, and its lucid organization and graceful style make it accessible to a wide range of readers. – Stephen R. Munzer, BPhil, JD, Professor of Law, University of California at Los Angeles

Gary Chartier's important and original book sets out a rich, illuminating framework for addressing questions of economic justice. The arguments are thoughtful and wide-ranging, and the writing is crisp and elegant. A valuable reference point for future work. – Jonathan Crowe, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Queensland

Thumbs up for this important work. It is one of the cultural creative writings of the times, aimed at breaking through society’s limited consciousness on technology and production as a means of evolving to freedom.– Marcin Jakubowski, Ph.D., Founding Director of Open Source Ecology

This is educational polemics at their most bracing. – Ray Olson, Booklist

A dynamic new book on compulsory education. – The Tropical Homeschooler

A truly engaging book. – The Michigan Review

Mr. Richman traces the origins of government schools. The modern concept of compulsory, state-financed schooling arose in 18th-century Prussia. The primary goal was not to educate, but to turn children into pliant citizens who would revere the state. ... I also think Mr. Richman is right to fear that state education undermines personal responsibility. ... I recommend this book. – Michael Prowse, London Financial Times

Mr. Richman’s premise will be a troubling one for many, that state schooling doesn’t work because it can’t work. He is certainly right. Separating School & State makes it clear that even with the best of intentions, force and compulsion set processes in motion which mutilate family life, replace education with indoctrination, and bring the myth of Procrustes to life. The solutions proposed make such good sense, the ‘official’ reform crowd should hang its head in shame. – John Taylor Gatto, New York Teacher of the Year, 1991, and author of Dumbing Us Down

If we needed more proof that government schools are in shambles and that privatization and parental choice are the solutions, this book makes a powerful contribution. It offers both insight and compassionate solutions. – Walter E. Williams, John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University

This book Rand me over!!! Full (Aris)throttle!!! This book has changed my life. Seriously. Amazingly enough, the author easily commands an intellect far greater than those his book is about, combined! I sleep with this book at night ... if you know what I mean. – Jeremy Henderson, Editor, The War Eagle Reader

Everything substantive Long says about Plato and his writings is wrong. – Fred Seddon, adjunct professor of philosophy, Penn State Altoona