Jim Powell (historian)

Last updated

Jim Powell is an American author and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. [1] He is the author of several controversial books about American presidents, including FDR's Folly and Wilson's War. [2] His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, American Heritage, and many other national publications. [3] He is based in Connecticut. [3]

Contents

Biography

Born in Norfolk, Virginia and growing up on Long Island, Powell attended the University of Chicago where he earned a B.A. in history. As an editor of the student quarterly New Individualist Review, helping publish articles by several future Nobel Laureates. Powell also worked as a researcher for future Nobel Laureate Ronald H. Coase.

In 1976, Powell began to publish his writings, with early books primarily focused on topics about the art market, commercial real estate, and Japanese finance. By the late 1980s, he began to author books on libertarian issues.

Powell has been a part of multiple libertarian Think Tanks, including Cato Institute.[ citation needed ] He has been associated with Cato since 1988. He has also done work for the Manhattan Institute, the Institute for Humane Studies, Citizens for a Sound Economy, the National Right to Work Committee and Americans for Free Choice in Medicine.

Powell is a published author, writing several books on the unintended consequences of presidential policies, including FDR's Folly, a critical look on Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies. He has also given talks at American universities such as Harvard and Stanford, as well as internationally.

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cato Institute</span> American libertarian think tank

The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries. Cato was established to focus on public advocacy, media exposure, and societal influence.

Individualist feminism, also known as ifeminism, is a libertarian feminist movement that emphasizes individualism, personal autonomy, freedom from state-sanctioned discrimination against women, and gender equality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabel Paterson</span> Author and editor (1886–1961)

Isabel Paterson was a Canadian-American libertarian writer and literary critic. Historian Jim Powell has called Paterson one of the three founding mothers of American libertarianism, along with Rose Wilder Lane and Ayn Rand, who both acknowledged an intellectual debt to Paterson. Paterson's best-known work, The God of the Machine (1943), a treatise on political philosophy, economics, and history, reached conclusions and espoused beliefs that many libertarians credit as a foundation of their philosophy. Her biographer Stephen D. Cox (2004) believes Paterson was the "earliest progenitor of libertarianism as we know it today." In a letter of 1943, Rand wrote that "The God of the Machine is a document that could literally save the world ... The God of the Machine does for capitalism what Das Kapital does for the Reds and what the Bible did for Christianity."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey C. Ward</span> American writer and historian

Geoffrey Champion Ward is an American editor, author, historian and writer of scripts for American history documentaries for public television. He is the author or co-author of 19 books, including 10 companion books to the documentaries he has written. He is the winner of seven Emmy Awards.

Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism has been, and continues to be, a major influence on the right-libertarian movement, particularly libertarianism in the United States. Many right-libertarians justify their political views using aspects of Objectivism.

George Hamilton Smith was an American author, editor, educator, and speaker, known for his writings on atheism and libertarianism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald J. Boudreaux</span> Libertarian economist

Donald Joseph Boudreaux is a libertarian American economist, author, professor, and co-director of the Program on the American Economy and Globalization at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Walter K. Olson is an American author and blogger who writes mostly about legal subjects, including tort reform. Olson is a senior fellow of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. Formerly, Olson was associated with the Manhattan Institute in New York City. He founded several websites, including the Manhattan Institute's scholarly PointOfLaw.com, and continues to run Overlawyered.com, a more popularly oriented website focusing on tort reform and alleged overreaching by lawyers. He has published four books on the American litigation system: The Litigation Explosion, The Excuse Factory, The Rule of Lawyers, and most recently Schools for Misrule. Olson is a Republican. The Washington Post has dubbed Olson an "intellectual guru of tort reform." He has testified to Congress numerous times, and has written articles for publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Reason, Reader's Digest, and The New York Times. His work is often discussed in the press and has been cited in court opinions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libertarianism in the United States</span> Origin, history and development of libertarianism in the United States

In the United States, libertarianism is a political philosophy promoting individual liberty. According to common meanings of conservatism and liberalism in the United States, libertarianism has been described as conservative on economic issues and liberal on personal freedom, often associated with a foreign policy of non-interventionism. Broadly, there are four principal traditions within libertarianism, namely the libertarianism that developed in the mid-20th century out of the revival tradition of classical liberalism in the United States after liberalism associated with the New Deal; the libertarianism developed in the 1950s by anarcho-capitalist author Murray Rothbard, who based it on the anti-New Deal Old Right and 19th-century libertarianism and American individualist anarchists such as Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner while rejecting the labor theory of value in favor of Austrian School economics and the subjective theory of value; the libertarianism developed in the 1970s by Robert Nozick and founded in American and European classical liberal traditions; and the libertarianism associated with the Libertarian Party, which was founded in 1971, including politicians such as David Nolan and Ron Paul.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt</span> Criticism surrounding Roosevelts United States presidency

Before, during and after his presidential terms and continuing today, there has been criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945). His critics have questioned not only his policies and positions, but also accused him of trying to centralize power in his own hands by controlling both the government and the Democratic Party. Many denounced his breaking of a long-standing tradition by running for a third term in 1940.

James Powell may refer to:

This article is a list of major figures in the theory of libertarianism, a philosophy asserting that individuals have a right to be free. Originally coined by French anarchist and libertarian communist Joseph Déjacque as an alternative synonymous to anarchism, American classical liberals appropriated the term in the 1950s for their philosophy which asserts that individuals have a right to acquire, keep and exchange their holdings and that the primary purpose of government is to protect these rights. As a result of this history, libertarians on this list may be either of the American-style free-market variety or of the European-style socialist variety.

This is a bibliography of books and other works written by U.S. Congressman Ron Paul.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Gordon (philosopher)</span> American libertarian philosopher and intellectual historian

David Gordon is an American libertarian philosopher and intellectual historian influenced by Murray Rothbard's views of economics. He is a senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank, and is the editor of The Mises Review.

Ronald Hamowy was a Canadian academic, known primarily for his contributions to political and social academic fields. At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus of intellectual history at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Hamowy was closely associated with the political ideology of libertarianism and his writings and scholarship place particular emphasis on individual liberty and the limits of state action in a free society. He is associated with a number of prominent American libertarian organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Nowrasteh</span> American economist and policy analyst

Alexander Nowrasteh is an American analyst of immigration policy currently working at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank located in Washington D.C. Nowrasteh is an advocate of freer migration to the United States. He previously worked as the immigration policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, another libertarian think tank. Nowrasteh is a self-described "radical" advocate for open borders to and from the United States. He has published a number of peer-reviewed studies on immigration and co-authored with Benjamin Powell the book Wretched Refuse?: The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions.

This bibliography of Franklin D. Roosevelt is a selective list of scholarly works about Franklin D. Roosevelt, the thirty-second president of the United States (1933–1945).

This bibliography of Theodore Roosevelt is a list of published works about Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. The titles are selected from tens of thousands of publications about him.

<i>Recarving Rushmore</i> 2009 non-fiction book

Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, And Liberty is a non-fiction book authored by American socio-political commentator Ivan Eland. Published in 2009 by the Independent Institute, the book reviews the history of the United States with a particular emphasis on that of the presidents who have led the nation. Taking issue with previous accounts in which historians have ranked the officials, the author applies his libertarian approach in terms of using different criteria to judge each president.

References

  1. "Jim Powell, Senior Fellow". Cato Institute. Retrieved July 2, 2024.
  2. "Bully Boy: The Truth About Theodore Roosevelt's Legacy". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 253, no. 21. May 22, 2006. Retrieved July 2, 2024 via ProQuest.
  3. 1 2 "Historian Jim Powell". Baker & Taylor Author Biographies. January 4, 2000. Retrieved July 2, 2024 via EBSCOHost.