One of the most influential figures of the libertarian movement in the 1970s and 1980s is someone you may not have heard of: Roy A. Childs Jr., who tragically died in 1992 at the age of 43. During his short life, Childs, a brilliant autodidact, wrote and lectured extensively on individual liberty and free markets, as well as the dangers of state power and foreign intervention. He served as editor of Libertarian Review from 1977 to 1981 and was a wildly popular public speaker.
At the 1979 Libertarian Party National Convention, he delivered the keynote address to repeated standing ovations. Childs boomed, "We mean to change the course of history. . . . We will not bend before the power of the state!" Childs' warm personality and enthusiasm were infectious, and he served as a mentor to many future luminaries in the libertarian movement.
This new edition of Liberty Against Power presents some of Childs' best essays, letters, and critiques written between 1967 and 1989, as well as a lengthy interview conducted shortly before his death. In fluid prose, Childs' works explain the libertarian approach to some of the major issues in the last half of the 20th century, including Vietnam and conscription, corporate statism, objectivism, anarchism, education, property rights, civil rights, the drug war, the principle of nonaggression, price controls, protectionism, and economic nationalism. Childs' prophetic essay, "Politics: The New Authoritarians," written in 1982, uncannily explains the rise of populism and support for a powerful executive among the American right today. The closing essay is a heartfelt tribute to the Russian immigrant Ayn Rand and her incalculable influence on the libertarian movement: We must combine the best in us, wrote Childs, for "we really do have a world to win, you know."
Liberty Against Power preserves Childs' intellectual legacy and remains indispensable for students and academics learning about libertarianism and its growing appeal.