A long entertaining feature piece reporting from May’s 2008 Libertarian Party convention by Michael Idov in the New Republic quotes RADS:

As Brian Doherty writes in his definitive 741-page tome, Radicals for Capitalism, being a libertarian means “sailing on seas of opposition and indifference with an often bizarre and difficult bunch of shipmates.” The movement’s embrace of personal freedom is wide enough to welcome a Wall Street wing concerned mostly with deregulation; a sci-fi contingent dreaming of space colonies and immortality; a sizable anarchist (or “minarchist”) faction preaching dissolution of almost all federal agencies; and, in the last few years, a steady, surly influx of 9/11 “truthers.”

Also, a feature I wrote for Reason on libertarian science fiction hero Robert Heinlein has been nominated for a Southern California Journalism Award in “Best Entertainment News and Feature” in the magazine division. The award banquet is tonight, and I’ll be there to represent for Reason’s 16 nominations and I hope make some walks to the dais to collect.

A few boxes of it arrived from my fine publishers PublicAffairs just today. Looks elegant, and on very thin paper so that even with its heft (intellectual, of course) it’s still a highly portable and convenient object.

Buy it today!

Also, two new reviews have come to my attention, a lengthy and comprehensive (and positive) one from the IPA Review, the journal of Australia’s Institute of Public Affairs, and another from the libertarian movement’s most venerable publication, The Freeman, written by one of its most venerable and observant voices, Bettina Bien Greaves. Scroll down a bit in the link for that one; it’s the second review on the page, which contains all the book reviews from the April 2008 issue.

Two great new reviews of Rads, each with a special twist: Don Meinshausen, one of the book’s characters (send as a government spy to infiltrate SDS, fell under Karl Hess’s spell, and turned on his masters) links the libertarian story with my other book, on Burning Man, in a very interesting way.

And one of my favorite rock n’ roll writers, proud reactionary Chris Stigliano, says his piece–entertaining and enlightening–at his Black To Comm blog. He shouts out to my own rock n’ roll past, especially the Sawdust Caesars and my old Surrender zine–which he notes I failed to mention in my bio in RADS. And he’s right–I should not have failed to do so.

Two things I neglected in revamping the blogroll the other month are now there: the Politico review and the Cato Unbound spinoff essay (under the “excerpts and op-eds”) heading.

On May 26.

I proofed the new cover earlier this week, and its Amazon page is up. And yes, buying in through that link spins some pennies my way toward my book habit. Thank you all for your support.

If you are anywhere in Michigan, please think of coming to see me Wed. at 4 p.m., speaking at Hillsdale’s conference on “Free Markets and Politics Today.” See here for all the details, and here for maps and directions to campus.

In its new and interesting web journal First Principles, the Institute for Intercollegiate Studies (whose early history as the “Intercollegiate Society for Individualists” is related in Rads) has Gregory Schneider (who himself wrote a very good book about right-wingers in the ’60s, Cadres for Conservatism) review Rads, and nicely too I might add. The blurby quotes:

….massively pleasurable history, Radicals for Capitalism. Everything you ever wanted to know about libertarianism (literally)—and some things you didn’t want to know—is covered in this enthralling volume, ….. I would be remiss not to say that Doherty has done for libertarianism what George H. Nash did a long time ago for conservatism—he has provided a comprehensive narrative of the history of modern libertarianism. Like Nash’s work, Doherty’s volume is authoritative without being dull and dry.

………

……the freedom movement Doherty describes will continue to attract radicals and individualists ready to man the barricades against the power of the state. Considering the usual eccentricities of libertarians, they may even be dropping acid while doing so.

Journalist Alex Massie (who has written for The Scotsman, The Daily Telegraph, The New Republic, National Review Online, The Sunday Telegraph, Scotland on Sunday, The Sunday Business Post, among others) fingers RADS as “book of the year.”

Over at the nifty libertarian news and analysis site Last Free Voice, Alex Peak is liveblogging his reading of Rads. Check out his first entry.

Also, I’ve finally figured out how to reorganize and update the blogroll to the right properly, with loads of new permalinks to the op-eds and excerpts spun off the book (7 so far), print interviews with me about the book (6 so far), reviews (23 so far), and online clips of video interviews and speeches. Should have more of those to add, and some audio interview clips as well, but at least you now know what everything is.