The Original Squad

Last week, Dartmouth’s Libertarian club hosted Timothy Sandafeur, Vice President for Legal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute, to talk about his newest book. Entitled Freedom’s Furies: How Isabel Patterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness, the book tells the story of how three women came to inspire the modern libertarian movement. Sandafeur’s book tells the story of the New Deal era in American history, and how increasing governmental power led to an intellectual revolution in favor of radical individualism and against enforced altruism. 

 The event, hosted in Dartmouth’s Rocky building, saw almost unanimous turnout from the Dartmouth Libertarians, resulting in a throng of several people in the audience. Undeterred, Sandafeur started several minutes late, allowing an entire couple of more attendees to join. Satisfied, he started with an overview of the three subjects of the book. Now, anyone who has ever had the displeasure of listening to enough Paul Ryan or Ted Cruz speeches will have heard of Ayn Rand. The prophet of modern-day libertarians, Rand has inspired several generations of America’s most ardent defenders of Charles Koch and the companies that upcharge children for cancer medication. Most normal people haven’t heard of the other two. 

Yet, some of our older readers may think there’s something familiar about Rose Wilder Lane. That’s because she is the daughter of the Wilder family, the focus of the Little House on the Prairie book series. That’s right, the girl from the endless reruns on cable TV grew up to become one of those people who say they’re morally opposed to feeding the poor or whatever. Largely self-taught, Lane started writing early. Initially a writer for newspapers, she left her job to begin a freelance writing career in the 1920s. She quickly became successful, and in the 1930s began to turn to politics. She published her most famous work, The Discovery of Freedom, in 1943. 

Finally, Isabel Patterson came from Canada, and was similarly self-educated. She began writing in the 1920s, with a regular column in the New York Herald Tribune. In her book God of the Machine, also published in 1943, she advocated individual rights in the face of FDR’s expansion of the powers of the state. 

Sandefuer focused his talk on the relationship between these three women, and how their correspondence shaped their ideas. Like most libertarians, the three women often disagreed and in fact rarely met in person. Patterson and Rand especially argued over religion. Rand was an atheist who believed religion and capitalism to be incompatible, and Paterson was a religious person who believed them to be intertwined. Paterson also broke with Lane after an argument, once again proving that even we libertarians don’t like other libertarians. 

Sandefeur was obviously passionate about his topic. He clearly idolized the three to some degree, which is understandable given their formative influence on his own beliefs. To his credit, he made a very good case in favor of the merit of Ayn Rand’s works of fiction, explaining how she worked people into her books as characters and incorporated themes from great works of literature. 

Sandefur’s book is heavily influenced by the conditions of the 1930s and 1940s. In his telling, most Americans today are entirely unaware of the attempted authoritarian takeover that accompanied the New Deal. He lambasted provisions like the National Economic Recovery Act, the (original) NRA, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act for precipitating economic absurdities like the mass slaughter of farm animals to keep meat prices up. He placed the three women in opposition to these state encroachments and explained how libertarianism grew out of that era. 

Personally, I learned a great deal about the history of the era. FDR is lauded as a president for his enactment of the New Deal and his leadership during the Second World War. Few know that so many at the time opposed his push for an expanded state role in the economy and that their opposition left a legacy that persists to this day. 

Sandefeur’s event was fascinating for any libertarian. He told the story of the three women who built modern libertarianism. There was far too much information to truly do justice to it in this short article, and I can only assume that the book is even more extensive. With its inclusion of the history of the 1930s and 1940s in America, Freedom’s Furies may even be interesting for normal politically inclined people, a rare thing for a book about libertarian thinkers. All in all, the talk was informative and entertaining. It is a pity that attendance was abysmal.