It presents an overview of the major discussions that took place in the nineteenth-century periodical Liberty. Edited by Benjamin R. Tucker from 1881 to 1908, Liberty contained contributions from a group of individualists often referred to as the Boston Anarchists. With clear summaries, quotations, and references, McElroy provides a synopsis for readers who do not have time to sift through the archives of Liberty. The book is well organized, with each chapter summarizing an area of debate: the state and politics, violence, natural rights, children’s rights, intellectual property, trial by jury, economics and money. By following these interesting debates, readers can see how libertarians refined and arrived at their positions. Particularly striking is how many ideas discussed by modern libertarians also appeared in the pages of Liberty.

Instead of taking the middle-of-the-road approach of the classical liberals, who believed the state is sometimes bad and sometimes good, the contributors to Liberty opposed the state in all its forms. The state is not a benevolent, albeit sometimes misguided institution. It is an institution of force and as such incapable of being reformed. To Tucker and his