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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
Very funny account of the libertarian movement in the 70s, even though Jerome Tucille is a whim-worshipping second hander. Shame.
It took me a long time to finish this book because it is pretty bad, despite being funny and illuminating about libertarianism from the inside. The first bit, about the 1960s and 1970s is better than the second part, when the author loses most of the sense of humor that kept the first part of the book readable and just genuflects to Reagan, while blaming everything that didn't work out in his admin on his advisors. His representations of the New Left and even liberalism are also laughably off-base, mostly adhering to libertarian talking points. Still, it's shorter than the terrible book by Brian Doherty, so that is a point in its favor.
Tuccille's memoir of a life as a Libertarian activist. I saw it recommended somewhere as an entertaining read even if you're not a Libertarian, and I agree that it is, with a couple of caveats.
This is the 'revised and updated' version — the original was published in 1971 — and the stuff he added to bring it up to date is the book's major problem. The early stuff, about the cult surrounding Ayn Rand, about going to Libertarian conferences and the colourful and downright peculiar characters who turned up at the them, running as the Libertarian candidate for Mayor of New York, and about the endless schisming and infighting in search of ideological purity: all that is lively, entertaining and has a sense of humour about itself.
The later bits, the chapters about the administrations of Reagan , the Bushes and Clinton, don't have nearly as much detailed colour and just lack any kind of zing. The particular libertarian angle doesn't do enough to distinguish it from any other post-mortem of recent history. And the book ends with an interview he gave to a libertarian publication which is a bit dull and just tends to repeat his earlier views.
Also a warning about the Kindle edition: they man-aged to cock up the hyphenation in con-verting it for the Kindle, so there are lots of words which have hyphens in the midd-le of them. Which is REALLY QUITE ANNOYING. Although on the upside, the Kindle edition was only £2.12, which is why I took a punt on it in the first place.
So, although I did genuinely enjoy the earlier bits, if you are going to read it I'd suggest picking up a cheap second-hand copy of the paper edition and skipping the last few chapters.
This is the 'revised and updated' version — the original was published in 1971 — and the stuff he added to bring it up to date is the book's major problem. The early stuff, about the cult surrounding Ayn Rand, about going to Libertarian conferences and the colourful and downright peculiar characters who turned up at the them, running as the Libertarian candidate for Mayor of New York, and about the endless schisming and infighting in search of ideological purity: all that is lively, entertaining and has a sense of humour about itself.
The later bits, the chapters about the administrations of Reagan , the Bushes and Clinton, don't have nearly as much detailed colour and just lack any kind of zing. The particular libertarian angle doesn't do enough to distinguish it from any other post-mortem of recent history. And the book ends with an interview he gave to a libertarian publication which is a bit dull and just tends to repeat his earlier views.
Also a warning about the Kindle edition: they man-aged to cock up the hyphenation in con-verting it for the Kindle, so there are lots of words which have hyphens in the midd-le of them. Which is REALLY QUITE ANNOYING. Although on the upside, the Kindle edition was only £2.12, which is why I took a punt on it in the first place.
So, although I did genuinely enjoy the earlier bits, if you are going to read it I'd suggest picking up a cheap second-hand copy of the paper edition and skipping the last few chapters.