Anarchy, State, and Utopia

​Anarchy, State, and Utopia
By Robert Nozick
Published in 1974
400 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 2/5


A book so bad it gave me autism.


I had to put it down after the first few chapters even though I already agree with the author.


The writing style is terrible. Its long, convoluted sentences are hard to read.


The style of argumentation appeals to the autism of the reader rather than their reason. All of the arguments rely on shaky definitions that have little bearing to the way that the words are used in daily parlance. Anarchy, State, and Utopia is devoid of empirical or historical examples, and makes numerous absurd proclamations without evidence. He assumes everyone believes in the existence of rights, and writes in a condescending tone.


If you want to read a good libertarian book, go for Hayek, either one of the Friedmans, Rothbard, Mises, Lew Rockwell, Tom Woods, but for heavens sake, skip this manifesto.


There is an audience for the book, and they look like this: