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The Furies: How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness Paperback – November 1, 2022

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 38 ratings
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In 1943, three books appeared that changed American politics forever: Isabel Paterson's The God of the Machine, Rose Wilder Lane's The Discovery of Freedom, and Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. Together, they laid the groundwork for what became the modern libertarian movement.

Even more striking were the women behind these books: Paterson, a brilliant but misanthropic journalist whose weekly column made her one of the nation's most important literary critics; Lane, a restless writer who secretly coauthored the Little House on the Prairie novels with her mother; and Rand, a philosophically inclined Russian immigrant ferociously devoted to heroic individualism. Working against the backdrop of changes in literature and politics, they joined forces to rally the nation to the principles of freedom that had come under attack at home and abroad.

Sometimes friends, at other times bitterly estranged, they became known as “the three furies of libertarianism.” Now, for the first time, author Timothy Sandefur examines their lives, ideas, and influences in the context of their times. Not a biography, but a story about personalities and ideas―about the literary, political, and cultural influences that shaped the destiny of freedom in America―Freedom's Furies tells the dramatic story of three writers who strove to keep liberty alive in an age of darkness.

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  1. Print length
    500 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Libertarianism.org Press
  4. Publication date
    November 1, 2022
  5. Dimensions
    6.12 x 1.32 x 8.52 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1952223431
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1952223433
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

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"Sandefur tells the story of the founding generation of the freedom movement, and because he knows how to write, he tells it in a clear and compelling way.... He shows exemplary fairness toward women who were - with good reason - thorny personalities. He demonstrates how smart and compelling they were. He does something else as well: He provides a vivid picture of their immediate adversary, the conglomeration of statisms known as the New Deal."--Stephen Cox, author of The Woman and the Dynamo: Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America

"Professors looking for a book to assign classes studying American history from 1920 to 1950 should seriously consider assigning Freedom's Furies. It masterfully details the causes of the Great Depression, the federal government's overreach during the New Deal, and the wartime attacks on political, economic, and civil liberties.... An exceptional book [that]...offers hope to a new generation." - Marcus Witcher, Reason

"A painstakingly constructed historical record that at times reads like a novel, with finely hewn characters and a plot driven by a central conflict of lasting importance: liberty versus tyranny. And in showing the travails of historic freedom fighters, its value—like that of all good history—goes far beyond the story itself." -Jon Hersey, The Dispatch

"The past, they say, is another country.... Freedom's Furies: How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness offers us a valuable and engaging travelogue through one of these foreign countries, showing us the origins of the 20th-century liberty movement." - Robert Tracinski, Discourse Magazine

"A terrific read full of surprises." --Hugh Hewitt

About the Author

Timothy Sandefur is vice president for legal affairs at the Goldwater Institute. He is the author of eight books including Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man (2018), The Permission Society (2016), and The Conscience of the Constitution (2014).

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Libertarianism.org Press (November 1, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 500 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1952223431
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1952223433
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.4 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.12 x 1.32 x 8.52 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 38 ratings

About the author

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Timothy Sandefur

Timothy Sandefur

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Timothy Sandefur is Vice President for Legal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute, where he also holds the Duncan Chair for Constitutional Government. He has won important legal victories for free enterprise and property rights in Arizona, California, Kentucky, Missouri, Oregon, and other states. He is the author of several books, including Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century America (coauthored with Christina Sandefur, 2016), The Conscience of The Constitution (2014), The Permission Society (2016), The Right to Earn A Living (2010), Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man (2018), The Ascent of Jacob Bronowski (2019), and Some Notes on the Silence (2022), as well as dozens of scholarly articles on subjects ranging from eminent domain and economic liberty to copyright, evolution and creationism, slavery and the Civil War, and the political philosophy of Shakespeare, ancient Greek drama, and Star Trek. He is an Adjunct Scholar with the Cato Institute, and his articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Weekly Standard, Reason, The Objective Standard, and elsewhere. He is a frequent guest on radio and television programs, including John Stossel, Kennedy, The Armstrong and Getty Show, and CPSAN's Book TV.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
38 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kurt Keefner
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating look at the Godmothers of Freedom
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2023
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A good book shows you something you didn't know about something you only knew a little about. By this standard Timothy Sandefur's triple biography of Ayn Rand, Rose Wilder Lane, and Isabel Paterson is a very good book indeed. Everybody knows about Rand and Little House on the Prairie (which was a collaboration between Rose and her mother Laura Ingalls Wilder). Paterson is less well-known, although you could say her attempt to reduce political economy to engineering terms, The God of the Machine, is almost a cult classic in libertarian circles.

Finding out about these women was interesting in itself, but what really made the book special was finding out about their relationships. Paterson, ill-tempered but whip-smart, influenced the other two most. Lane was the most inconsistent and received Paterson's ire, while Rand was much younger than Paterson and was something of a protegee to her. They all had different ideas about liberty, which Sandefur explains in depth.

The book also delves into other figures of the time. There is a revealing discussion of Sinclair Lewis, whose views on middle-class and small-town life were part of the background for the three women. And Sandefur's treatment of Herbert Hoover and FDR is positively terrifying due to the irrationality and casual authoritarianism of the "leaders."

Obviously, this is something of a specialist read, but I think non-specialists might enjoy reading about such distinctive characters and the time in which they became most famous.
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J. Reynolds
5.0 out of 5 stars Foundational to Freedom -- and Unbelievably Prescient
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2023
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A stupendous book that I thoroughly enjoyed -- I got from Amazon a hard copy for reference, after digesting the audiobook. A couple of "spoilers," I suppose:

As the New Deal unfolded, Isabel Paterson observed (words to the effect of) the following: Anyone genuinely concerned with helping others would favor free-market capitalism, the only mechanism that propagates abundance, the only system that creates any alms to be given to the needy. Welfare proponents don't take that route because their aim is not to help the unfortunate but to expand their power and feel good about themselves. Since needy people are required for that, they seek not to cure poverty but to make it sustainable and permanent, perpetuating the dependence of the beneficiaries. Worse, their government charity infantilizes its beneficiaries, treating them as incapable of running their own lives.
How prescient!

And, mentioned in the book is writing that Rose Wilder Lane did for the Saturday Evening Post in the 1930s, particularly a piece condemning communism and supporting the primacy of the individual. We recall that in General George Patton's famous 1940s speeches to the soldiers, he spoke of an army being a "team," this "individuality stuff (being) a bunch of cr*p" -- and of "the bilious b*st*rds who wrote that stuff about individuality for the Saturday Evening Post..."
My conjecture is that Patton was referring to Lane's writing. If so, it is peculiar that Patton objected to detail in an article condemning Russian communism, even as he later -- and correctly, I think -- wanted... after the defeat of Germany... for the US armed forces to attack Russia and cripple the Soviets (who he always called "the Mongols"). I think my conclusion is correct, but it's neither here nor there.

Finally, amusing to me: Sandefur advised that the character Emma Chalmers, "Kip's Ma" in Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged," was based on Eleanor Roosevelt. Kip's Ma's loud altruism was catastrophic in the novel -- as loud and empty as Eleanor Roosevelt's altruism was.

Again, a terrific account of these three writers/thinkers, the foundational triumvirate of libertarianism.
3 people found this helpful
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Jonathan Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars Three pioneering females in libertarian thought
Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2023
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Wonderful book that does a great job of linking the important work of these three pioneers in libertarian thought. ***** is not enough for this book. The furies is really a couple of books in one. First, it sets the context for the writings of three major forces in libertarian thought. So you learn a lot about Sinclair Lewis and H.L. Mencken and FDR and a host of other major figures in the period between about the twenties and the seventies. Third, it paints an interesting picture of how these three very thoughtful but contentious thinkers got along with themselves and others (hint - none of them always played nicely with each other!).

The development of individualist thought owes a lot to all three. They each made significant contributions to this branch of philosophy through their own writings both books and columns (and in Rand's case movies). They also were masters of pithy remarks - the humanitarian with a guillotine is how one described socialism. Another described a right as a sanction for independent action; permissions can be withdrawn. Sandefur also deals with the criticisms of their work including the outrageous biography of Rose Wilder Lane's mother (co-author of the Little House series) which describes Lane in over the top language.

This is a remarkable work which anyone who is interested in the development of libertarian thought should put at the top of their list. But even if you are not inclined to that range of thinking this is a superb discussion of the intellectual forces and counter-forces of the middle part of the twentieth century.
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Andrew G.
5.0 out of 5 stars We’ll written about an overlooked trio of freedom loving American women.
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2023
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Not only does Sandefur tell of these three intellectual heroines but he effectively lays bare the myth of FDR’s failed policies following the 1929 crash. He explores in some depth how FDR’s policies transformed a depression into The Great Depression and forever and detrimentally alter the role government plays in the e Onimus and as a result our everyday lives. Very well done.
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Kevin R
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn’t put it down.
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2022
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This is one of the best books I’ve read in years. From the tail-end of the American pioneer days through the Lost Generation (or the Airplane Generation as Paterson said), the Revolt From the Village, communism, expatriates in Europe in the ‘20’s, and the maturing of their ideas in the ‘30’s as the New Deal threatened to completely destroy everything they’d come to believe in.

This book is a treasure trove of history and wisdom. A wonderful read.
9 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Manfred Schieder
5.0 out of 5 stars A most remarkable book.
Reviewed in Germany on January 23, 2024
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“Freedom’s Furies” is a magnificent book, a heart stopping-heart stimulating vivid description of a main period of American history and the arisal of three extraordinary women and all that they held and did to protect and promote what the times described wanted to destroy and, thus, seemed impossible to attain: the magnificence of the individual's liberty and dignity.

You may disagree with some of certain viewpoints held by these three amazing females, but you can’t deny their importance for mankind’s existence, as well for the time when they lived and for the present time, where the aim of Lefties of all colors (be they Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats, Greenies, Fascists, Nazis, Islamists or whatsoever on and on) is the erasing of the human species, to return the planet to what the rest of our solar system is, a mere junk of barren soil devoid of any intelligent beings.

Without diminishing in any way whatsoever the respect owned to the other two of the three Furies of Freedom, Ayn Rand is the most important of the trio, since, apart from all her other achievements, she deduced from reality the only possible rational philosophy, and did it so completely that one of her main religious adversaries (John W. Robbins) stated in his writings that it is unnecessary to name her work Objectivism, since calling in Philosophy suffices, for only philosophy can be rational; if a system of thought is not based upon and governed by “reason” it is irrational, mystical and religious. Thus, all other lack the right to be considered “philosophies,” and become only mere intentions to rationalize irrationality.

You should (though you really must) read this book, to get a clear and impassioned view of all the details it describes. Once you start it, you won’t be able to leave it aside until you’ve finished reading it. Five stars are far too few to enhance the importance of this book.
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