Freedom Auth

By William R. McKercher

In Freedom and Authority, William Russell McKercher offers a sweeping intellectual history of nineteenth-century libertarian thought through the lens of William Morris and his contemporaries. At its heart is a powerful critique of the expanding power of the state?a concern that would echo through the New Left of the twentieth century and still resonates today.

Tracing the ideas, personalities, and movements that shaped the English-speaking libertarian tradition, McKercher explores a diverse school of anti-statist thinkers who identified as anarchists, communists, socialists, and libertarians. Though varied in approach, they shared a common conviction: that state power, however benevolent it may appear, is fundamentally at odds with individual freedom and genuine democratic life.

With a notable critique of John Stuart Mill and an incisive analysis of early radical movements, Freedom and Authority illuminates the roots of modern struggles for participatory democracy, decentralization, and community control.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0921689306
• ISBN13: 9780921689300
• Release Date: October 1990
• Publisher: Black Rose Books
• Length: 300 Pages