Jane Jacobs (1916–2006)

Jane Jacobs (1916–2006)

Author: Jeff Riggenbach April 22, 2011 Duration: 0:00
Jacobs was a libertarian whether she knew it or not. The conclusions she drew were Misesian, just in a different way. Jacobs has also been compared to Hayek. Her The Death & Life of Great American Cities told essentially the same story as Hayek's The Use of Knowledge in Society.

In The Libertarian Tradition, Jeff Riggenbach draws from his extensive background as a journalist, author, editor, broadcaster, and educator to explore the philosophical and historical roots of libertarian thought. This podcast delves into the ideas and figures, both famous and overlooked, who have shaped this enduring political tradition. Riggenbach’s approach is that of a seasoned storyteller and analyst, offering listeners a deep, narrative-driven examination of concepts like individual liberty, free markets, and limited government. Each episode is built on rigorous research and presented with a clear, engaging delivery, moving beyond abstract theory to connect principles to real-world events and intellectual history. You’ll hear detailed discussions that trace the evolution of libertarianism, analyzing its key texts and the context from which they emerged. The podcast serves as an audio library and commentary, where complex ideas are made accessible without being diluted. For anyone curious about the foundations of this ideology, The Libertarian Tradition provides a substantive, thoughtful resource. It’s a series for those who prefer their exploration of political philosophy to be thorough, well-reasoned, and free from partisan soundbites, all guided by Riggenbach’s knowledgeable perspective.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 81

The Libertarian Tradition
Podcast Episodes
John T. Flynn: Liberal [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Flynn was a liberal - a classical liberal. He held to the delusion that the state can be reformed. He gradually became more libertarian, more individualist. He was considered a member of the old right, while never being…
Anarchism and Terrorism in the '90s [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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The wave of bombings and assassinations perpetrated by anarchists during the 1890s was largely a fiction. To some extent, it was frankly invented by sensation-mongering writers who hoped to sell newspapers.
The Elitist Individualism of H.L. Mencken [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Mencken saw the implications of where his thinking was leading him and he acknowledged those implications frankly. "I am," he wrote in The Smart Set in 1922, "a libertarian of the most extreme variety."...
Rudolf Rocker (1873–1958) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Rocker was awful on economics, but his focus was not on that. He wrote about nationalism and culture, and here Rocker is fantastic. "States create no culture; indeed, they are often destroyed by higher forms of culture."
The Ignorance of the New Yorker [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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It is Republicans, not libertarians, who favor handouts to and special privileges for big corporations. And Republicans are not libertarians.
Edgar Z. Friedenberg: Deference to Authority [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Friedenberg was among those who regarded US participation in the Vietnam War as an abomination. He had begun expressing his outrage in print in the mid-'60s, though most of it was directed at American public schools rath…
Albert Jay Nock (1870–1945) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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"As long as the easy, attractive, superficial philosophy of Statism remains in control of the citizen's mind, no beneficent social change can be effected, whether by revolution or by any other means."...
The Milgram Experiment [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Milgram reflected on Etienne de La Boetie's key insight about the politics of authority, the will to bondage, and the eager embrace of voluntary servitude. He devised an ingenious test for their influence on the ordinary…
Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Fahrenheit 451 acknowledges that powerful impulses toward mindless conformity and suppression of deviation exist in the population itself — that, on a deep level, many, many people want to be "protected" by the state fro…
Roger J. Williams and the Science of Individuality [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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But the most effective mechanism ever devised for making effective pooling of our faculties as easy as it can be — the free market — is also the natural result of reducing general laws to a bare minimum and leaving peopl…