|
|
Freedom Book of the Month for October, 1999:
A Way To Be Free
Volume I, "The Making of a Modern American Revolutionary," 660 pp.
Volume II, "The Making of a Modern American Revolution," 500 pp.
by Robert LeFevre
edited by Wendy McElroy
Pulpless.Com
"A Way To Be Free" may be the first real demonstration of how online publishing can bring large scale projects to market at an attractive price. Two volumes, totalling over 1,000 pages, comprise the autobiography and final, posthumously published vision of one of the libertarian movement's most important and intriguing figures: Robert LeFevre.
At $3.95 per volume in Adobe Acrobat or HTML format, or $37.50 and $34.50 respectively in print, these books are a bargain which belong on the shelf of anyone interested in understanding and advancing the cause of freedom.
After LeFevre's death in 1986, his widow Loy LeFevre gathered the material he had been collecting for a final book -- his magnum opus. Whipped into shape by Free-Market.Net's own Wendy McElroy, this manuscript is ample justification for the LeFevre legend (best realized by Robert Heinlein, who remade LeFevre into revolutionist Professor Bernardo de la Paz of "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress").
Volume I, "The Making of a Modern American Revolutionary," tells the story of Robert LeFevre's long, tortuous path to a philosophy of freedom; it is interspersed with chapters explaining and expounding that philosophy from its root assumptions and principles. Starting with his birth in 1911, and continuing through the Depression years, his first marriage and his attempts to break into the drama and motion picture industry, it makes for great reading both as history/autobiography and as a compendium of ideas and thoughts on human nature, the origin and meaning of property, and the rationale underlying economics, government, and other human endeavors.
Volume II, "The Making of a Modern American Revolution," continues LeFevre's life story, culminating in the movement that he did so much to build, and continues his exposition and vision of how we are to build a society of free individuals. Like the first volume, it commands attention both as story and philosophy, and offers a great deal of insight into how the movement for freedom arose from the ashes of the New Deal and World War II -- warts and all.
These books need to be read at least twice. First, devour them. I've done so, and confess that they whet the appetite for going into philosophical battle. I am now settling down for a deep second reading.
Links:
edited by Thomas L. Knapp
June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman
May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben
March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand
February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler
January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood
Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz
November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy
September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe
July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant
May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz
April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille
March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary
February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
, founded in 1995, is now a part of ISIL.
|
|