Choice: The Best of Reason [Hardcover]

Nick Gillespie (Editor), Drew Carey (Introduction), Christopher Hitchens (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2004

Known for its libertarian mix of investigative reporting, trend-setting essays, and caustic wit, Reason magazine has received kudos from both Rush Limbaugh and the president of the ACLU, Nadine Strossen. In this anthology of some of its best articles, hot-button topics such as biotechnology, the coming war on fatty foods, gay marriage, legalization of drugs, and the war on terrorism are addressed by contributors including maverick journalist Christopher Hitchens, Nobel Prize–winning economist Milton Friedman, and 20/20 coanchor John Stossel.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A political magazine of a different sort, Reason’s refusal to carry water for either Democrats or Republicans is deeply refreshing." -- Folio

"Astute and illuminating." -- Chicago Reader

"Choice offers a temperate, rant-free overview of some of our most enduring social controversies . . . [this is] a book you need." -- Kurt Loder

"Reason is sharp writing and sensible political discourse . . . for those weary of the screams from the left and the right." -- Joe Garden, The Onion

"[Ned Sublette] leaves his predecessors . . . in the dust." -- The Village Voice

About the Author

Nick Gillespie is editor in chief of Reason, a libertarian monthly magazine. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Salon.com, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He's also a frequent commentator on CNN's American Morning, C-SPAN's The Washington Journal, and NPR's All Things Considered. He lives in Oxford, Ohio.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 414 pages
• Publisher: BenBella Books; 1st Benbella Books Ed edition (August 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932100318
• ISBN-13: 978-1932100310
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,337,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nick Gillespie is editor in chief of Reason.tv and Reason.com and almost certainly the only journalist who has interviewed bat-eating rock star Ozzy Osbourne and Nobel prize-winning economists Milton Friedman and Vernon Smith.

He is a two-finalist for digital National Magazine Awards and one of the "Top 25 Journalists on The Right" according to the Daily Beast, which enthuses "the clear-headed, brainy Gillespie is among the foremost libertarians in America [who is] as often at odds with conservative mules as he is with liberals."

Gillespie served as editor in chief of Reason magazine from 2000 to 2008, creating its award-winning blog Hit & Run (praised by Playboy, the Washington Post, and the Village Voice) and making history by publishing the first mass-personalized magazine cover for 45,000 Reason subscribers in June 2004.

Prior to descending into the ring of hell known as political journalism, he was a staffer for publications such as Teen Machine, Smash Hits, and Metallix: It'll Rock You to Shreds!, and was a regular contributor to the pioneering satire site, Suck.com, where he wrote under the nom de plume Mr. Mxyzptlk.

Gillespie has a Ph.D. in American literature and edited the 2004 anthology Choice: The Best of Reason, lauded for its "kick-a**, no-holds-barred political" material (The New York Post) and "sharp writing and sensible political discourse for those weary of the screams from the left and the right" (Joe Garden, The Onion). His work appears in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, and he's a regular guest on CNN, C-SPAN, NPR, and Fox News.

Gillespie splits his time between Washington, D.C. and Oxford, Ohio and has two sons.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Giving the (Often) Voiceless a Voice!, November 7, 2004

By 

Kevin Currie-Knight "Education Grad Student" (Newark, Delaware) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Choice: The Best of Reason (Hardcover)

Being a libertarian, I am often in a position of feeling quite equally distant from both the 'right' and the 'left.' The 'right' seeems to champion free-market principles and less government, but will defend regulation at the drop of a hat when freedom produces results it feels are immoral. By comparison, the 'left' champions such freedoms as that of speech and press and the rights of criminal defendants to due process, but argues for government incursion into most every area of the free market. What is a poor libertarian (believing in all of these freedoms at once) to do?

The answer: we turn to magazines like "Reason." This book consists of a good number of articles that Reason has published in recent years in defense of all that is liberty. As with any collection of disperate articles written over a span of many years, some articles are better than others (and, yes, I skipped a few of the worse ones). All in all, though, this book deserves four stars for writing forcefully and soundly on issues that concern the libertarian position (a position sorely lacking from dialogue dominated by the orthodox "left" and "right").

The book starts off with a bang - an article called "In Praise of Vulgarity" which argues that the role of entertainers pushing the envelope has done more than anything to break the traditionalistic strangle-hold on the culture(s) of the middle east. From there, we move to articles which argue that the commercialization of culture is a good thing, that anti-immigration policies hurt all involved, that the drug war is a cure worse than the disease, etc.

Perhaps most engaging, though, were the various interviews contained in these pages. Reason has interviewed the likes of John Stossel, Christopher Hitchens, Milton Friedman, Dave Barry, and even a few key characters involved in the war on drugs who now oppose that effort. So engaging were these interviews that I began wishing either that this volume had, or a future one will, focus EXCLUSIVELY on interviews done by the magazine.

The only other observation I had was that at least to me, that the articles seemed to decline in quality the later their placement in the book. Most of my favorite articles (described tow paragraphs up) appeared within the first 150 pages. The second half of the book contains such duds as an examination of the QWERTY keyboard (and its relation to market principles), a profile of an early 19th century "exploitation" film to do with sex, and some other seemingly trivial essays. Other than that, the book is still quite solid.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Collection of Rational Articles, February 22, 2005

By 

Andrew Olmsted (Colorado Springs, CO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Choice: The Best of Reason (Paperback)

I should probably disclose at the outset that I received a copy of _Choice_ gratis, presumably because of my weblog. However, I've been a Reason subscriber for several years and I am generally favorably disposed to a magazine whose tag line is free minds and free markets.

_Choice_ collects some of the best articles from Reason from recent years and packages them with a pair of introductions from Drew Carey and Chris Hitchens. The editors did a great job of collecting articles, as this collection gathers a number of favorites I recalled from my own subscription alongside older articles I was quite pleased to have the chance to read. The philosophy of each article is generally consistent in favoring a more libertarian view of government, laying out the case in generally calm and reasoned tones that pursue argument rather than simple shouting. The various authors have their own roads to this goal, making the book a quick read even at 300+ pages.

_Choice_ is a great read regardless of political persuasion because the articles do a good job of following the facts to a conclusion rather than cherry-picking facts to support a conclusion. Liberals and conservatives will each find things to support and decry here, and they will all be challenged. _Choice_ also includes a number of interviews with luminaries like Norman Borlaug and Milton Friedman (and even Drew Carey).

If you're looking for something to support your point of view, _Choice_ may not be for you. But if you're looking for a collection of articles that will challenge you, this is the place to start.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Collection, October 1, 2010

By 

Lane Coonrod (Chicago) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Choice: The Best of Reason (Paperback)

I enjoy picking this up and reading an article or two in between things. The collection has a wide range of topics which keeps the reader interested. I recently passed it on to a family member.