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Mommy Was a Commie: My Personal Voyage from Intellectual Depravity to Libertarianism

In: Libertarian Autobiographies

Author

Listed:
  • Gene Epstein

    (The Soho Forum)

Abstract

I started out in life as a Stalinist, influenced by my mom, a card-carrying Communist—and I had a brush with supporting Fidel Castro at age 18. Of draft age during the Vietnam War, I was deeply influenced by Noam Chomsky’s dissenting views—and in a way, I still am. In my late 20s, I read my gateway drug to libertarianism: Murray Rothbard’s book, Man, Economy and State. I discovered the LaissezFaire bookshop in downtown Manhattan and gradually bought up all the Rothbard I could find, plus all the works of Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, and Israel Kirzner. By my mid-30s, my conversion to libertarianism was pretty complete. But I continued to learn from George Reisman’s magnum opus, Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics and from Walter Block’s Defending the Undefendable.

Suggested Citation

  • Gene Epstein, 2023. "Mommy Was a Commie: My Personal Voyage from Intellectual Depravity to Libertarianism," Springer Books, in: Jo Ann Cavallo & Walter E. Block (ed.), Libertarian Autobiographies, chapter 0, pages 113-119, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-29608-6_20
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-29608-6_20
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