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"They Saw It Coming: The 19th-Century Libertarian Critique of Fascism" - The Long Library, Ep.4
04/02/2025
"They Saw It Coming: The 19th-Century Libertarian Critique of Fascism" - The Long Library, Ep.4
On this episode of The Long Library, Cory Massimino interviews Roderick Long about his essay “They Saw It Coming: The 19th-Century Libertarian Critique of Fascism" (link: ). Written over ten years ago about arguments written over one hundred years ago, this essay is as timely as ever here in 2025. Roderick shows that 19th-century libertarians such as Gustave de Molinari, Frédéric Bastiat, Voltairine de Cleyre, Herbert Spencer, William Graham Sumner, and others warned against the very tendencies — “militarism, corporatism, regimentation, nationalist chauvinism, plutocracy in populist guise, the call for ‘strong leaders’ and ‘national greatness,’ the glorification of conflict over commerce and of brute force over intellect” — that would decades later culminate in fascism. At a time when many libertarians range from tepid to excited about incipient fascism, it’s important to remember that wasn’t always the case, that there was a time when libertarians consistently opposed these evils and their catastrophic combination, that there was a time when libertarians were libertarians. These 19th-century anti-fascists have much to teach us about 21st-century fascism and, as Roderick reminds us, “their fallen banner is ours to pick up.”
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