Everything Voluntary Book Review

Alex Knight of Strike-The-Root.com reviews Everything Voluntary:

While there are certainly many superb libertarian/voluntaryist anthologies in publication, both past and present, most tend to be unitopical in nature. This is why Everything Voluntary: From Politics to Parenting, a 2012 offering from editor Skyler J. Collins, is not only instantly distinguishable, but perhaps of broader utilitarian value in terms of outreach.

This is not to say that the volume can’t be a refresher or horizon expander for the choir. The essays are arranged in five categories: Politics, Religion, Economy, Education, and Parenting. The initiated will find a smattering of luminary classics, such as Murray N. Rothbard’s “The Anatomy of the State,” and Leonard Read’s “I, Pencil,” but the emphasis remains on more recent outings by writers of humbler, if in many cases equal, philosophical stature within their respective bailiwicks.

With no particular prejudice towards the first two sections – I think that most of what I read there, while excellent, was simply de rigueur for myself at this point – I gravitated more towards the latter three categories in terms of paragraphs or passages that struck me as innovative, or otherwise crystallizing a concept in some way I’d been previously unfamiliar with.

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