Wayne Thorburn

Having been a very young member of Young Americans for Freedom during the 1964 Barry Goldwater campaign, I was excited when I saw Wayne Thorburn on C-SPAN (still available at the C-SPAN archives) talking about this book. As quickly as I could, I got a copy.

Even if the subject had not been of intense interest to me, I would have been absolutely awed by the astonishing -- almost unbelievable -- amount of research there is in this book.

Although I was one of the libertarians who left after the split in the late 1960s, I still give a lot of credit to YAF and to its component individuals who did take seriously the subject of freedom.

I think the "Trads," the traditionalists, the people more philosophically beholden to, for example, Edmund Burke and his follower Russell Kirk, made philosophical errors, and were therefore inconsistent in their support of freedom, still they, unlike the '60s agitators who got most of the "news" media coverage, did indeed seek and support freedom.

The libertarians, the "lazy fairies," as we were sometimes called (a not very good play on the words "laissez faire"), went on to start the Libertarian Party and many free-market-oriented think tanks. But many and maybe most of us were given a start by YAF. And YAF did pave the way for other conservatives and pro-free-enterprise activists who even today are being elected to office and are writing columns and books.

After refusing for years to join Facebook, I finally surrendered in the year 2011 and have been kicking myself for being so slow about it: On that social medium I have re-connected or connected to many of the pioneers who helped found Young Americans for Freedom.

They are still shining lights, beacons to all the rest of us who should care more about that most important aspect of life, individual liberty.

Although I have never met or conversed with Wayne Thorburn, I am in awe of his writing ability, of his historical research, of his astonishing scholarship.

And I am grateful to him for writing this encyclopedia of one of the most important organizations and movements in modern United States history.… (más)