Anarchy, State, and Utopia

Winner of the 1975 National Book Award, this classic work is updated for the first time in 30 years.Anarchy, State, and Utopiais a foundational text in classical liberal thought, in which Robert Nozick created the intellectual underpinnings for what is now known as libertarianism. In his exhortation to limit the state to only the most minimal possible role, Nozick stirred tremendous controversy in an era predisposed to look to government as the solution to social injustice. When originally published in 1974,Anarchy, State, and Utopiawas dismissed by many scholars as nothing more than a paean to the bourgeois status quo. But American politics have changed dramatically since then.Anarchy, State, and Utopiahas become ever more relevant since the country has caught up with Nozick's ideas--as Clinton proclaimed, "the era of big government is over." With fierce argumentation and meticulous logic, Robert Nozick gave birth to a new way of thinking about the relationship between the citizen and the state.

Robert Nozick was the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University.