By Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2023.
Pp. x, 416. $35 hardcover.
The Individualists is a work of academic philosophy at once remarkably ambitious and highly accessible. Seasoned academics and general audiences will find much to enjoy in this crisply written, stimulating survey of the history of libertarian thought.
Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi present their work as an “intellectual history” (p. 5). Both parts of this description are informative. Happily, The Individualists is not just another competitor in the already glutted market of political philosophy primers. Instead, it is a history, bringing to life the events and personalities behind the big ideas in just enough detail to contextualize the core themes. The result is a refreshing and vivid overview of libertarian political theory.
As good philosophers, Zwolinski and Tomasi start with definitions. In chapter 1, titled “What is Libertarianism?” Zwolinski and Tomasi attempt to characterize libertarianism. Although any attempt to define libertarianism will upset someone, the authors aim to be inclusive. They define libertarianism as a “family”
