Freedom's Furies

How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness

By: Timothy Sandefur

Narrated by: Timothy Sandefur

Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

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 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 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.

©2022 Cato Institute (P)2022 Cato Institute

America changing

Country founded on freedom of people to decide their own future. Self reliance and small government
Study the founding of our country in grade school

Must read

This is a great listen! It’s great as an object lessen of history & a reminder of where we find ourselves again today.

A profound achievement

This is a fantastic book. Sandefur does a masterful job of explaining the importance of these three remarkable women: Isabel Patterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand. He takes their ideas seriously, pulls no punches but is also exceedingly fair and charitable in his accounting of their ideas, works, and personalities.

Sandefur’s book is a bit hard to categorize: it’s part biography, part literary criticism/analysis, part political history, and part intellectual history. How ever you categorize it, it’s a remarkable achievement and anyone with any interest in American history of the 20th century or the history of intellectual ideas should read this book. It should be a touchstone for any scholar thinking about the ideas of Patterson, Lane, or Rand.

Perfectly read by the author.

Sandefur is cool and detailed

Very great and detailed book on three amazing women. I now need to read a proper book on FDR's New Deal. I appreciated the extra tidbits he throws in about Jack London and Frank Lloyd Wright. This book really is a cranium crunch. If you're a libertarian you will love this book! Sandefur is a regular on the Armstrong and Getty radio show and he was promoting this book. Glad I was listening!!

Entertaining, fascinating, inspiring

As a libertarian woman who’s read 2 of these 3 women, I was endlessly fascinated by them and their relationships with one another. I am often shamed for being too disagreeable, but I will forgive myself because if I was otherwise I wouldn’t be me and I wouldn’t be like them. Though I do want to lean more to Rose’s side than Isabella’s. I do have children so someone will be obligated to give me a grave marker. I am not yet published, but give me time and I’m sure I will be. I hope no one goes poking around in my old text messages when I’m dead! But I’m glad these letters were saved so we can get all the juicy details of their drama. I read this book within 24 hours. Some nice light reading between political tomes.