Freedom’s Furies: How Three American Women Transformed the Politics of Freedom with Timothy Sandefur

In 1943 — in the midst of the Great Depression and World War II — three books appeared that forever changed how Americans thought about freedom, all written by remarkable women. Together, Isabel Paterson’s “The God of the Machine,” Rose Wilder Lane’s “The Discovery of Freedom,” and Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” laid the groundwork for the modern libertarian movement.

Even more striking were the lives of these authors: Paterson, the brilliant but misanthropic journalist whose weekly column made her one of the nation’s foremost 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 dramatic 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 liberty.

Timothy Sandefur’s book “Freedom’s Furies” tells the dramatic story of the lives, ideas and influences of these fascinating women. And in this special presentation, he will examine their literary, political and cultural influences, and explore how these three writers helped that shape the destiny of freedom in America.

About the Speaker

Timothy Sandefur is Vice President for Legal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute, where he litigates to promote economic liberty, private property rights, free speech and other crucial values nationwide. He’s the author of eight books, including biographies of Frederick Douglass and scientist/philosopher Jacob Bronowski, as well as scores of scholarly articles on subjects ranging from antitrust and copyright law, to the political philosophy of Shakespeare, ancient Greek drama and Star Trek. A frequent guest on radio and television, his writings have appeared in Reason, National Review, The Wall Street Journal, and The Objective Standard, where he is a contributing editor.