Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (60 page)

66
. Ayn Rand, “To Whom It May Concern,”
The Objectivist
, May 1968, 449, 457. According to Rand’s attorney and accountant, her veiled accusations of Branden’s financial misdealing and theft were baseless. Reedstrom, “Interview with Henry Mark Holzer.”

67
. Nathaniel Branden, “In Answer to Ayn Rand,” in Roy Childs Papers, Box 31, “Objectivism—Ayn Rand,” Hoover Institute Archives, Stanford University.

68
. Reedstrom, “Interview with George Walsh,” 4.

69
.
National Review
, December 17, 1968, 1257.

70
. Sandra G. Wells to AR, April 7, 1969, ARP 155–04x.

Chapter 9

1
. I use “Objectivist” to indicate persons who considered themselves significantly influenced by Rand, although not in complete agreement with her.

2
. In “No War, No Welfare, and No Damn Taxation: The Student Libertarian Movement, 1968–1972,” in
The Vietnam War on Campus: Other Voices, More Distant Drums
, ed. Mark Jason Gilbert (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001), Jonathan Schoenwald frames the libertarian movement as “a minor third wave of 1960s student activism” and “the climax of a generation’s efforts” (21, 22). Although Schoenwald is right to identify connections between the two activist movements, his analysis collapses left and right and overlooks the very different provenance, goals, and ideologies of each. He suggests that the Libertarian Party represented the “death blow” to the movement, but my own research suggests that the Libertarian Party grew out of a thriving subculture in which students and recent graduates played a key role. The Party ought to be considered the peak of that subculture rather than its end. See Jennifer Burns, “O Libertarian, Where Is Thy Sting?,”
Journal of Policy History
19, no. 4 (2007): 453–71. See also John L. Kelley,
Bringing the Market Back In: The Political Revitalization of Market Liberalism
(New York: New York University Press, 1997).

3
. Rand was still friendly with the Hessens during this time, although they had relocated to Princeton, New Jersey, and met infrequently.

4
. Nathaniel Branden,
The Psychology of Self Esteem
(Los Angeles: Nash, 1969). Branden described his later therapeutic practice as eclectic and experimental, drawing on gestalt therapy, Alexander Lowen’s bioenergetic therapy, and his own sentence-completion methodology. Other approaches of interest to Branden were those of Wilhelm Reich, Arthur Janov, Abraham Maslow, and Thomas Szasz. “Break Free! An Interview with Nathaniel Branden,”
Reason
, October 1971, 4–19. Branden’s connections to and influence upon New Age psychology, which one commentator identifies as “the quest for the higher self,” are well worth exploring. Richard Kyle,
The New Age Movement in American Culture
(Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1995), 137. Although Branden had no connection to Esalen, Jeffrey Kripal’s
Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007) suggests fruitful ways to understand the historical significance of pop psychology in the 1970s. Branden’s books have sales figures to rival Rand’s. According to his website, his twenty books have sold nearly six million copies. See
www.nathanielbranden.com
[March 5, 2009].

5
. Ayn Rand,
The Fountainhead
, 50th anniversary ed. (1943; New York: Signet, 1993), vi.

6
. Cynthia Peikoff, interview transcripts for “Sense of Life” documentary, December 2, 1994. ARP.

7
. Leonard Peikoff,
The Ominous Parallels
(New York: Stein and Day, 1982). The Objectivist oral tradition is described in Allan Gotthelf,
On Ayn Rand
(Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2000), 26. Peikoff’s
Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand
(New York: Dutton, 1991) draws on this oral tradition. Rand’s students in these last years included, among others, George Walsh, John Nelson, David Kelley, Michael Berliner, Harry Binswanger, Peter Schwartz, George Reisman, and John Ridpath. After her death Peikoff released two additional essay collections under her name,
Philosophy: Who Needs It?
(New York: Signet, 1982) and
The Voice of Reason
, ed. Leonard Peikoff (New York: New American Library, 1989).

8
. Rand’s loss of stature following the “Objecti-schism” is detailed in Sidney Greenberg,
Ayn Rand and Alienation: The Platonic Idealism of the Objective Ethics and a Rational Alternative
(San Francisco: Sidney Greenberg, 1977). Circulation figures are in
The Objectivist
, December 1969, 768. Karen Reedstrom, “Interview with Anne Wortham,”
Full Context
, March 1994, 6; Anne Wortham,
The Other Side of Racism
(Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1981). Wortham is currently a professor of sociology at Illinois State University and a Hoover Institution Fellow.

9
.
The Rational Individualist
1, no. 8 (1969): 1.

10
. Roy Childs, “Open Letter to Ayn Rand,” in
Liberty against Power: Essays by Roy A. Childs, Jr.
, ed. Joan Kennedy Taylor (San Francisco: Fox and Wilkes, 1994), 145, 155, italics in original. This letter was prefigured by another article by Childs: “The Contradiction in Objectivism,”
Rampart Journal
, spring 1968.

11
.
Western World Review Newsletter
, no. 2 (October 1969): 3, Box 18, David Walter Collection, Hoover Archives.

12
. R. W. Bradford, “In the Beginning, There Were Anarchists,”
Liberty
, June 1999, 40–42.

13
. Ibid., 146.

14
. Childs, “Open Letter to Ayn Rand”; Jerome Tuccille,
Radical Libertarianism
(New York: Bobbs Merrill, 1970), 4; Jerome Tuccille,
It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand
(New York: Stein and Day, 1971).

15
. Ayn Rand, “A Statement of Policy,”
The Objectivist
, June 1968, 472.

16
. Ayn Rand, “The Nature of Government,” in
The Virtue of Selfishness
(New York: Signet, 1964), 128–29.

17
. Gary North,
Chalcedon Report
, no. 46 (June 1, 1969), Early Libertarian Movement, Box 26, Evers Papers, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

18
. “YAF: A Philosophical and Political Profile,”
The New Guard
, January 1970, 21–22. Twelve percent of respondents identified as followers of Ludwig von Mises, a figure that likely indicates familiarity with the work of either Rand or Rothbard, the two most consistent promoters of the obscure economist. Taken together, the “poll” put Objectivist-libertarians at about 22 percent of YAF membership. “Keep a Good thing Going!,” Ron Docksai for National Board, campaign lea. et, Miscellaneous, Box 2, Dowd Papers, Hoover Institution; Don Feder to Libertarian Caucus, undated, Letters Received, 1968–69, Box 1, Dowd Papers; Hubbard to Rodger C. Bell, July 14, 1969, Correspondence: Letters Received, 69–70, Box 1, Dowd Papers.

19
. Events at the convention have been covered in multiple accounts, from which my rendition draws. I have also relied on documentary sources, as cited. See Tuccille,
Radical Libertarianism
, 96–109; Murray Rothbard,
For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto
(New York: MacMillan, 1973), 5–7; Gregory L. Schneider,
Cadres for Conservatism: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of the Contemporary Right
(New York: New York University Press, 1999), 134–37; Brian Doherty,
Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern Libertarian Movement
(New York: Public Affairs, 2007), 355–59; Don Meinshausen, “Present at the Creation,”
Liberty
18, no. 6 (June 2004), available at
www.libertyunbound.com/archive/2004_06/meinshausen-creation.html
. [February 28, 2009].

20
. Other goals included electing more libertarians to positions of power, establishing a permanent network of libertarian communications within the organization, and ensuring that all YAF members were educated about laissez-faire capitalism. “Libertarian Caucus: Credo,” undated, YAF: 1969 Convention, Box 24, Evers Papers.

21
. In 1970 the National Board passed a resolution including anarchy on a list of forbidden doctrines in YAF.

22
. Tuccille,
Radical Libertarianism
, 106. YAF later identified the draft card burner as Lee Houffman, although Don Meinhausen identifies him as David Schumacher. Minutes of the Meeting of the Nat. Board of Directors, St. Louis, MO, August 31, 1969, National Board—printed matter and reports. Box 2, Dowd Papers.

23
. Confidential Report to National YAF Leadership, January 16, 1970, 2, YAF National Convention, Box 24, Evers Papers.

24
. Don Ernsberger to Murray Rothbard, August 25, 1969, Evers Papers, Box 24. Also see criticism of Rothbard in “TANSTAAFL! Report of the Libertarian Caucus,” no. 2, YAF Convention Series, St. Louis, Mo., August 28–31, YAF: 1969 National Convention, Box 24,
Evers Papers. See, for example,
California Libertarian Report
, Post Convention Issue no. 1, YAF National Board, printed matter and reports, Box 2, Dowd Papers; Berle Hubbard to Patrick Dowd, October 31, 1969, Letters Received, 1969–1970, Box 1, Dowd Papers; Patrick Dowd to David Keene, December 6, 1969. I strongly disagree with Stephen Newman’s contention, seconded by Jonathon Schoenwald, that Rothbard “deserves to be called the founder of the modern libertarian movement.” Newman,
Liberalism at Wit’s End: The Libertarian Revolt against the Modern State
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984), 27. However much Rothbard wished to present himself as “Mr. Libertarian,” the evidence simply does not support this claim. Rothbard certainly managed to hog the spotlight and convince outsiders that he was the major theorist of libertarianism, but his appeal was far more limited than Rand’s. Furthermore Rothbard’s extremism and poor strategic thinking did much to damage the movement and the Libertarian Party. Rothbard did, however, succeed in getting a book contract to write about libertarianism in
For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto
(New York: MacMillan, 1973).

25
. See, for example,
California Libertarian Report
, Post Convention Issue no. 1, YAF National Board, printed matter and reports, Box 2, Dowd Papers; Berle Hubbard to Patrick Dowd, October 31, 1969, Letters Received, 1969–1970, Box 1, Dowd Papers.

26
. Patrick Dowd to David Keene, December 6, 1969, Dowd Papers.

27
. Society for Individual Liberty news release, November 21, 1969, SIL, Box 36, Evers Papers; “Worth Repeating,”
Rational Individualist
1, no. 13 (1969): 14, Box 15, David Walter Collection, Hoover Institution.

28
. Libertarian Caucus/Society for Individual Liberty News, November 22, 1969, SIL, Box 36, Evers Papers; “The Year One in Retrospect,” SIL News 1, no. 10 (1970): 5.

29
. “Society for Individual Liberty Directory, 1972,” SIL, Box 36, Evers Papers.

30
. A
Is A Libertarian Directory
, January 1971, 1, Box 15, Walter Papers.

31
. Ibid.

32
. Ayn Rand, “Brief Summary,”
The Objectivist
, September 1971, 1090.

33
.
Chronicle
, Monthly Newsletter of the Libertarian International, 1, no. 9 (1982), Box 15, Walter Papers.

34
. The disclaimer appeared in every issue.
New Libertarian Notes
, 1973, unlabeled folder, Box 18, Walter Papers.

35
. Gilbert Nash, “The Beat + The Buck = The Bucknick,”
Swank
, June 1967, 43–55.

36
. Tuccille,
It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand
, 105–7.

37
. Don Franzen, “Thoughts on the Post-revolutionary World,”
SIL News
1, no. 7 (1970), 1, Walter Collection, Box 3, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University. All further citations of
SIL News
are from this box and collection. Also printed in
Protos
2, no. 4 (1970), Box 25, Evers Papers.

38
. Ibid., 1. Tibor Machan defines libertarianism as a purely political ideology that “is a claim about the scope of permissible force or threat of force among human beings, including human beings who constitute the governing administration of a given human community; it is a political claim or theory and not some other, however much it may presuppose a variety of other, nonpolitical claims.” Machan, “Libertarianism and Conservatives,”
Modern Age
24 (winter 1980): 21–33.

39
. Franzen, “Forethoughts on the Post-Revolutionary World.”

40
. Bidinotto authored “Getting Away with Murder,” a 1988
Reader’s Digest
article that brought Willie Horton to the attention of presidential candidates Al Gore and George Bush.

41
. It was a libertarian truism that the Constitution was an authoritarian document, since it had been signed by only a few persons yet claimed jurisdiction over an entire nation. See
Hard Core News
, undated, postmarked November 1970, unlabeled folder, Box 24, Evers Papers; Kerry Thornley, letter to the editors,
Libertarian American
1, no. 5 (1968), 2, Box 36, Evers Papers.

42
. Ayn Rand, “Apollo 11,”
The Objectivist
, September 1969, 709.

43
. Jerome Tuccille, “Spotlighting the News,”
Rational Individualist
, October 1969, 5, Mises Institute.

44
. Ayn Rand, “The Anti-Industrial Revolution,”
The Objectivist
, January 1971, 962, 978.

45
. Ayn Rand, “The Anti-Industrial Revolution,
Part II
,”
The Objectivist
, February 1971, 980.