Wednesday, April 07, 2010

The myth of the golden age

One recurring topic around here is the problematic libertarian historical memory of an America in which once, before the Fall, there was Freedom-- whether the Fall was the New Deal or the 1937 switch in time or the 16th Amendment or the Federal Reserve Act or whatever. And I have a special interest in that subset of soi-disant libertarians who I term confederatistas for whom the Fall was apparently 1865. It's a topic of interest for me outside the blog, too: "Federalism and the Old and New Liberalisms" is substantially about the same thing.

Indeed, the second-most trafficked post in this blog's history was about related problems, though I won't link back to it because it names the odd law professor blogger whose wrath it incurred and who seems eager to resume internet fights whenever possible.

Anyways: I wish to recommend a new piece on the problem by David Boaz, VP of Cato: Up from slavery.