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Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed Hardcover – October 4, 2022

by Andrew Koppelman (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 20 ratings
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A lively history of American libertarianism and its decay into dangerous fantasy.

In 2010 in South Fulton, Tennessee, each household paid the local fire department a yearly fee of $75.00. That year, Gene Cranick's house accidentally caught fire. But the fire department refused to come because Cranick had forgotten to pay his yearly fee, leaving his home in ashes. Observers across the political spectrum agreed―some with horror and some with enthusiasm―that this revealed the true face of libertarianism. But libertarianism did not always require callous indifference to the misfortunes of others.

Modern libertarianism began with Friedrich Hayek’s admirable corrective to the Depression-era vogue for central economic planning. It resisted oppressive state power. It showed how capitalism could improve life for everyone. Yet today, it's a toxic blend of anarchism, disdain for the weak, and rationalization for environmental catastrophe. Libertarians today accept new, radical arguments―which crumble under scrutiny―that justify dishonest business practices and Covid deniers who refuse to wear masks in the name of “freedom.”

Andrew Koppelman’s book traces libertarianism's evolution from Hayek’s moderate pro-market ideas to the romantic fabulism of Murray Rothbard, Robert Nozick, and Ayn Rand, and Charles Koch’s promotion of climate change denial. Burning Down the House is the definitive history of an ideological movement that has reshaped American politics.

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  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    St. Martin's Press
  4. Publication date
    October 4, 2022
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1250280133
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1250280138
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“An absolutely indispensable guide to understanding the nature the modern Libertarian movement. Koppelman writes in the best tradition of fair-minded and deeply insightful historians, making his findings all the more unsettling. He shows how a near-Utopian vision of government-free humanity has evolved into a corrosive and ultrapowerful force in American politics today. This book is a wake-up call to anyone who cares about American democracy.”
―Christopher Leonard, author of the New York Times bestseller Kochland.


“Andrew Koppelman mounts an elegant and thorough criticism of the classical-liberalism-off-the-rails of people like Ayn Rand or Senator Rand Paul. Even we real classical liberals need to face up to his criticisms. Maybe, as he argues, the world needs more regulation and redistribution. Quantitatively speaking, I think not. But read the book, and get a lot smarter about the case pro and con.”
-Deirdre McCloskey, Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago

“It is an important contribution to philosophical debates about the nature and extent of the divide between classical liberalism and libertarianism. More important, it brings much needed clarification to public debates over the proper role of capitalism in a democratic society.”
-Samuel Freeman, Emeritus Avalon Professor in the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania

“Unlike other critics of libertarianism, Andrew Koppelman took the effort to understand it. The payoff is not just an erudite critique of certain strands of libertarianism, but an appreciation for what moderate Hayekian libertarianism has to teach both the left and the right.”
-David Bernstein, University Professor, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

“This treatise has the power to reach readers on both the right and the left.”
-Publishers Weekly

About the Author

ANDREW KOPPELMAN is an award-winning John Paul Stevens Professor of Law at Northwestern University. He is the author of Gay Rights vs. Religious Liberty? and The Tough Luck Constitution and the Assault on Health Care Reform. His work has appeared in USA Today, CNN.com, The New Republic, Salon, The Chicago Tribune, and Vox. He is a regular contributor to Balkinization, a leading blog in constitutional law.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press (October 4, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250280133
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250280138
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 20 ratings

About the author

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Andrew Koppelman

Andrew Koppelman

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Andrew Koppelman is John Paul Stevens Professor of Law, Professor (by courtesy) of Political Science, and Philosophy Department Affiliated Faculty at Northwestern University. He received the Walder Award for Research Excellence from Northwestern, the Hart-Dworkin award in legal philosophy from the Association of American Law Schools, and the Edward S. Corwin Prize from the American Political Science Association. His scholarship focuses on issues at the intersection of law and political philosophy. He has written more than 100 scholarly articles and eight books, most recently Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed (St. Martin’s Press, 2022). You can find his recent work at andrewkoppelman.com.

Customer reviews

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4 out of 5
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Top reviews from the United States

Geoffrey
5.0 out of 5 stars Nuanced analysis of ideas used like clubs against others
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2023
Verified Purchase
"No man is a villain in his own eyes." This neatly summarizes The many (overwhelmingly white , overwhelming male, disproportionately!y well off) proponents of radical libertarianism in American culture.
Koppelman does an amazing job of walking us through the complex fine points of various sophisticated (and in the case of Ayn Rand naive and superficial) Libertarian philosophers and the many vulgar and unnecessarily cruel misappropriations that their followers make of their ideas. Key elements that he illustrates that most libertarian philosophy ignores or under acknowledges includes that there is no "natural condition" of humanity, that society preexisting property; that humans are never fully autonomous, that we begin helpless, end vulnerable, and interdependence is our solution and our virtue; that there are "externals" to economics that render success or failure of an individual as much a matter of luck and circumstance as does virtue or excellence; that freedom requires opportunity as much as it requires secure property; that there are plenty of ways to mitigate against suffering in a free market world that does not truly impinge of personal freedom. Very well done.
2 people found this helpful
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anh36
5.0 out of 5 stars Practical analysis of the pros and cons of libertarianism
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2022
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This book presents an easy to read history of libertarian philosophy while discussing its various proponents, and their personal biases. The book remains practical, always grounding these discussions with real life examples such as fire departments, Obamacare, infrastructure, climate change, and COVID. There are also many examples of how libertarians could be a “third way” that incorporates both positives and negatives of the two other political parties. As a political independent, this was refreshing to read. One writer quipped “Republicans want to be your daddy and Democrats want to be your mommy but Libertarians treat you like an adult.” The limits of this ideal are examined as well.

The author blames a few individuals for the corruption of libertarian philosophy, and it is worth understanding them because modern libertarians often take positions that surpass self-parody but are not grounded in philosophically coherent ideas.

Readable and easily understood but contains a helpful summation of many policy and philosophical arguments. Highly recommended!
6 people found this helpful
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Ridgeback
1.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't deliver what the book title promised
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2022
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In addition to being a rough read because of style (little flow, much repetition, jarring ad hominem attacks (his favorite adjective is "infantile")) this book isn't what it purports to be. Yes, it sets up a premise that libertarians have abandoned Hayek for Rothbard, and he runs that thread throughout, but that's just a Trojan Horse for the book's primary message which is that libertarianism and even classical liberalism are dangerous, infantile, and wrong. In the end, the reader is left only partly with a feeling of having read an expose of how libertarian philosophy was corrupted but mostly of how a massive Big Government approach is required at the expense of personal liberty.

The book is riddled with both mistakes and bias also. The title itself is based on a fire department which required a subscription and in a case where someone didn't pay it let his house burn down. Per the author this is an indictment of libertarianism and proof that taxes are not theft. But as others such as Nick Gillepsie have pointed out, it was NOT a private fire department that did that but a government department and its government-employed fire fighters were prohibited by the government from putting out non-subscriber fires even though the homeowner begged to pay a one-time fee as they stood there and watched his house burn (a rule the government entity later changed)...whereas private fire departments will, indeed, charge a one-time fee if desired by a non-subscriber with their house on fire (yeah, it's a big fee because they want you to subscribe--but they will put out a fire at a burning house and not just stand there).

Never mind such facts, apparently, which undermine the very opening foundation--the book is an unrelenting love letter to government and the good it does. The author attempts in Orwellian fashion to make the argument that liberty requires paternalism. That if you are hungry or need medical care, you are not free. That if you have to make every decision in life for yourself (rather than, as he puts it, "hiring the government to do it for you") you are not free.

He uses familiar arguments from Rawls and the like (such as that most success comes from luck which somehow converts your earnings into not fully owned by you) to put forth a social contract justification for why property rights are not absolute and the government has a right to take your "excess" property if other people need it.

Fine. That's all mainstream Progressivism. But the author shouldn't be disingenuous about it. Let us know the book will partly try to show that a Rothbardian approach undermines libertarianism (which is worth discussing), but also let us know that mostly you want to argue against libertarianism, per se, and don't insult serious readers by attempting as Roosevelt did to make the case that liberty is about freedom from having to earn your own life and must be secured by government at the forced expense of others.
20 people found this helpful
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s e wells
5.0 out of 5 stars As a libertarian I find his analysis to be spot on.
Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2022
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I'm a libertarian who has dissented from the common libertarian credo for the last 40 years, ever since I understood Rawls' position, and I find Mr. Koppelman's analysis to be spot on.

We say it in different ways but we understand the same point. Until and unless libertarianism places equal emphasis on the value of being free from being dominated that it places on the freedom to act it cannot actually further the liberty it purports to value.
16 people found this helpful
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Terry Jennrich
4.0 out of 5 stars There are different stands of Libertarianism
Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2022
Hayek was sort of middle ground Libertarianism. Rothbard and Rand are extreme versions of Libertarianism which the author says : that in the name of liberty they want to destroy their fellow citizens' economic security and deprive them of protection from pollution, fraud, and manipulation. His book was designed to show the defective philosophy of the extreme libertarians view of liberty.
Read pages 232- 233 to see the problems with Libertarian philosophy and the pandemic.
In order to have well functioning markets and diversity of lifestyle with freedom as libertarians desire you must have a robust state to regulate and intervene to prevent fraud, pollution, disease, and moochers and looters by foreign states such as Putin's kleptocracy [ see pages 236-237.]
3 people found this helpful
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Andrew Niekrasz
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Text on Libertarianism
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2023
Though I have read a number of the books referenced by Professor Koppelman in this excellent book, I have never before read a text so well reasoned and sourced on this particular political philosophy. This text addressed those aspects of the modern Libertarian platform and philosophy with which I had been struggling for a number of years.

For readers interested in economics, politics, and philosophy, this book will not disappoint.
One person found this helpful
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