Liberty, Commerce, and Literature (Cato Unbound)

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Western literature doesn't really care for markets.

At least that's the conventional wisdom, and it's been that way for quite a while. Even Ayn Rand took time to satirize the anti-commercial prejudice of the literary set, bringing it up in both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Academic literary critics sometimes seem proud of the anti-commercial stance, while those who favor free markets as a matter of policy won't quite be comfortable with works such as The Merchant of Venice or Bleak House.

But is that really all there is? Of course not. This month, we're going to dig a little deeper.

Our lead essayist, Sarah Skwire, contends that academics could stand a wider reading of the canon — and that libertarians have a lot less to fear than they may have suspected. Western literature's view of commerce is complex and often highly critical, but it's also very often quite positive. In short, she invites both sides to read with new eyes.

To discuss with Dr. Skwire this month, we have invited three distinguished authors, each of whom has spent much time engaging with the big questions of liberty, commerce, and literature. William H. Patterson, Jr. is the foremost scholar of the great libertarian science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein. Amy H. Sturgis is an intellectual historian active in both libertarian activism and the fantasy/science fiction community, and Frederick Turner is an accomplished poet and literary theorist.