Burning Down the House, Andrew Koppelman
Burning Down the House, Andrew Koppelman
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Burning Down the House
How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed

Author: Andrew Koppelman

Narrator: Richard Ferrone

Unabridged: 11 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/04/2022


Synopsis

A lively history of American libertarianism and its decay into dangerous fantasy.In 2010 in South Fulton, Tennessee, each household paid the local fire department a yearly fee of $75.00. That year, Gene Cranick’s house accidentally caught fire. But the fire department refused to come because Cranick had forgotten to pay his yearly fee, leaving his home in ashes. Observers across the political spectrum agreed―some with horror and some with enthusiasm―that this revealed the true face of libertarianism. But libertarianism did not always require callous indifference to the misfortunes of others.Modern libertarianism began with Friedrich Hayek’s admirable corrective to the Depression-era vogue for central-economic planning. It resisted oppressive state power. It showed how capitalism could improve life for everyone. Yet today, it’s a toxic blend of anarchism, disdain for the weak, and rationalization for environmental catastrophe. Libertarians today accept new, radical arguments that crumble under scrutiny; justify dishonest business practices; and promote COVID-19 deniers, which includes many who refuse to wear masks in the name of “freedom.”Andrew Koppelman’s audiobook traces libertarianism’s evolution from Hayek’s moderate pro-market ideas to the romantic fabulism of Murray Rothbard, Robert Nozick, and Ayn Rand, as well as Charles Koch’s promotion of climate change denial. Burning Down the House is the definitive history of an ideological movement that has reshaped American politics.

About Andrew Koppelman

Andrew Koppelman is an award-winning John Paul Stevens Professor of Law at Northwestern University. He is the author of Gay Rights vs. Religious Liberty? and The Tough Luck Constitution and the Assault on Health Care Reform. His work has appeared in USA Today, CNN.com, The New Republic, Salon, The Chicago Tribune, and Vox. He is a regular contributor to Balkinization, a leading blog in constitutional law.

About Richard Ferrone

Read by Richard Ferrone, Stephen Bel Davies, Prentice Onayemi, Scott Aiello, Michael David Axtell, Jessica B. Harris, and Amanda Leigh Cobb


Reviews

Goodreads review by David

Libertarians have been working hard to take over not just the Republican Party, but the entire conversation. Thanks to huge money from the Koch Bros., this political philosophy has become mainstream in the USA, and nowhere else in the world. What it actually is and where it came from reveal a lot in......more

Goodreads review by Paul

[Imported automatically from my blog. Some formatting there may not have translated here.] Every so often, I try to read outside my ideological comfort zone. This book, by Andrew Koppelman, counts. Koppelman bills himself as a "pro-capitalist leftist". I'll put my cards on the table too: I'm a Schr......more

Goodreads review by Eric

TL;DR Burning Down the House is an erudite, well-reasoned examination by Andrew Koppelman of how modern libertarian philosophy was corrupted. Koppelman builds his argument by defining his vision of libertarianism and then critiques other, ‘corrupted’ visions of it. His analysis is astute, surpris......more

Goodreads review by Jeff

Severely Flawed Overall Reasoning Yet Good Introduction To Left Libertarianism. This is a book whose goal, as the author states near the end of Chapter 1, "is not only a critical description of libertarianism. It aims to marry what is best about libertarianism with the agenda of the left." Thus, the......more