Review: Tripping on Utopia Complicates the History of Psychedelics
Mind-altering drugs have long been seen as tools for both liberation and control.
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Review: Photographic Glimpses at 20th Century Roots Music
Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz's photos document blues, country, and Cajun music.
An Instagram Star Walks the Fine Line Between Self-Creation and Snake Oil
Social media influencer Caroline Calloway might not be a reliable narrator, but Scammer is an honest memoir nevertheless.
Is Facial Recognition a Useful Public Safety Tool or Something Sinister?
Your Face Belongs to Us documents how facial recognition might threaten our freedom.
Review: Should Humans Settle Mars? This Book Is Skeptical.
A City on Mars is a counterbalance to the growing optimism over space exploration.
Review: The Florida Novels of Charles Willeford
“Just tell the truth, and they’ll accuse you of writing black humor.”
This Year's Libertarian Gift Guide: 23 Ideas for 2023
In today's innovative economy, there's no excuse for sending a gift card. The staff at Reason is here with some inspiration.
Review: The Cross Florida Barge Canal That Never Was
Libertarians will read Ditch of Dreams as a story about bureaucracy and environmentalism run amok.
Review: Inside New York's 20th Century Psychotherapeutic Cult
The Sullivan Institute trapped members and broke up families.
Ideas Have Consequences Turns 75
Richard M. Weaver seemed to question whether liberal order was compatible with human flourishing. By the end of his life, he saw individual liberty as more than incidental to the good society.
How To Yell 'Fire' in a Crowded Theater
Aside from narrowly defined exceptions, false speech is protected by the First Amendment.
An 18-Year-Old Had Consensual Sex With a 16-Year-Old. He Went to Jail for 6 Years.
In her new book From Rage to Reason, Emily Horowitz explains what's wrong with the sex offense registry.
Review: Not Everyone Liked the New Deal
Amity Shlaes anthologizes Franklin D. Roosevelt’s critical contemporaries.
Review: The Big Break Documents Trump's Washington
Washington Post reporter Ben Terris offers a fair treatment to both conservative and liberal activists in the Trump era.
Review: Wonder Boy Chronicles the Life and Death of Former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh
A new book handles the ill-fated CEO's story with respect.
Can Traditional Legal Customs Coexist With Western-Style State Law?
Geoffrey Swenson’s book Contending Orders tackles Afghanistan and Timor-Leste.
Review: Choose Your Own Adventure in American Futures
The author, whose libertarian leanings are evident, makes readers consider the impact of the choices they make in the voting booth.
Prison Ministry Group Sues Indiana Jail for Banning Amazon Books
The lawsuit claims the ban has no "legitimate penological justification"
Thank Dutch Merchants, Not a Strong State, for Capitalism
Pioneers of Capitalism chronicles centuries of bottom-up economic evolution in the Netherlands.
How Pirates in Madagascar Spread Enlightenment Ideas
Pirate Enlightenment documents an interracial experiment in stateless self-governance.
Review: Henry George's Many Children
The 19th century reformer's influence on 20th century progressives, conservatives, and libertarians
Review: Everything I Need I Get from You Gives a Fangirl's View of the Internet
Author Kaitlyn Tiffany offers a history of fandoms.
Review: The Man Who Hacked the World Captures the Chaos of John McAfee
Author Alex Cody Foster went deep with McAfee for months in an ill-fated attempt to ghostwrite his memoir.
Review: Imperfect Victims Documents Women Who Are Prosecuted for Defending Themselves
Author Leigh Goodmark's end goals of abolishing prisons and defunding police are hard to swallow.
Graphic Novels Bear Brunt of New Library Wars Over Access to Books
One of America's richest art forms suffers for seeming realer than other literature. But the war against "graphic imagery" is really a war against certain truths.
Review: Egg Is a Theory of Everything
The book's 12 thematic chapters are dense and rich—like flan, but good.
Internet Archive Loses Lawsuit Over National Emergency Library, Will Appeal
Plus: "Sensitivity readers" rewrite Agatha Christie, a Little Free Library battle, and more...
E.E. Cummings Celebrated Libertarian Utopia
His most popular book, The Enormous Room, was recently reprinted for its 100th anniversary.
Review: You Must Remember This Grapples With the Dangers of Nostalgia
A new novel by Reason contributor Kat Rosenfield
Review: The Progressive Backlash Against Influencer Moms
Momfluenced bemoans unrealistic expectations set on American mothers but then establishes new ones.
Review: Are Memes Upending Democracy?
In Meme Wars, so-called "disinformation" experts call for the suppression of more ideas and speakers to protect democracy.
Rousseau, Malthus, and Thanos Were Wrong
The authors of Superabundance make a strong case that more people and industrialization mean a richer, more prosperous world.
The Big Myth Is Full of Recycled Anti-Capitalist Cheap Shots
A new entrant in the anti-neoliberalism genre fails to land any blows.
Review: The Army of the Potomac Trilogy Brings Together Bruce Catton's 3 Civil War Chronicles
These superb books recount events from the viewpoints of both soldier and statesman, providing a greater understanding of the why and how of the Civil War.
Review: Raising the Bar Brings the Cocktail Revolution Home
Jacob Grier and Brett Adams help aspiring home bartenders build a bar via a carefully sequenced collection of about two dozen bottles.
Review: Gangsters vs. Nazis Greenlights Meeting Speech With Violence
Praising violence as a response to speech we don't like is a hallmark not of admirable Americanism but of oppressive regimes like Hitler’s.
Review: 'How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex'
Samantha Cole's book is marred by vague animosity toward tech companies.
North Dakota Legislators Consider Bill To Ban 'Sexually Explicit' Material From Public Libraries
"If you don't like a book, don't read it. The First Amendment's guarantee of the freedom of speech and the right to access information has created a beautiful marketplace of ideas in our country," said one ACLU representative opposing the bill.
Now Anybody Can Write a Sherlock Holmes Story
Nearly a century after author Arthur Conan Doyle's death, the character is finally free.
Keri Blakinger Is a Figure Skater and a Felon
"The most valuable thing taken away while in prison is time," says the author of Corrections in Ink.
How Venture Capital Made the Future
Sebastian Mallaby's The Power Law explores how venture capital and public policy helped shape modern technology.
Psychiatrists Do Not Know What They Are Treating
The mysteries of the mind are harder to unravel than psychiatrists pretend.
Martin Morse Wooster's Front Row Seat
RIP to a prolific and colorful Reason contributor and author.
Review: Buckminster Fuller Helped Inspire Our Future
The new book Inventor of the Future prefers to show him as a credit hog.
What We Owe the Future Is Liberalism
What does "longtermism" offer those of us who favor limited government and free markets?
Review: 1947's Prelude to Space Envisioned We'd Be on Mars by Now
Reality has failed to match author Arthur C. Clarke's hopes.
The Fractal, Fractious Politics of The Expanse
Taking humanity from Earth to the stars isn't easy.