BOAZ, David 1953-

PERSONAL: Born August 29, 1953, in Mayfield, KY; son of Seth Thomas, Jr. (a judge), and Martha (a homemaker; maiden name, Pruitt) Boaz. Education: Vanderbilt University, B.A., 1975.

ADDRESSES: Home—Washington, DC. Office—Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001.

CAREER: Cato Institute, Washington, DC, executive vice president, 1981—. Research director, Council for a Competitive Economy, 1978-80, Clark for President Committee, 1980. Member of board of directors, Center for Independent Thought, Congressional Schools of Virginia, and Women's Freedom Network.

AWARDS, HONORS: Mencken Award for best essay, 1992.

WRITINGS:

Libertarianism: A Primer, Free Press (New York, NY), 1997.

editor

(With Edward H. Crane) Beyond the Status Quo: Policy Proposals for America, Cato Institute (Washington, DC), 1985.

Left, Right, and Babyboom: America's New Politics, Cato Institute (Washington, DC), 1986.

Assessing the Reagan Years, Cato Institute (Washington, DC), 1988.

(With Edward H. Crane) An American Vision: Policies for the '90s, Cato Institute (Washington, DC), 1989.

The Crisis in Drug Prohibition, Cato Institute (Washington, DC), 1990.

Liberating Schools: Education in the Inner City, Cato Institute (Washington, DC), 1991.

(Coeditor) Market Liberalism: A Paradigm for the 21st Century, Cato Institute (Washington, DC), 1993.

The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Readings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman, Free Press (New York, NY), 1997.

Toward Liberty: The Idea That Is Changing the World, Cato Institute (Washington, DC), 2002.

Cato Handbook for Congress: Policy Recommendations for the 108th Congress, Cato Institute (Washington, DC), 2003.

Cato Handbook on Policy, Cato Institute (Washington, DC), 2005.

Editor, New Guard Magazine, 1976-78; contributing editor, Liberty. Contributor to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS: David Boaz is the editor of numerous books on politics and, in particular, on the political philosophy of Libertarianism. This ideology is the foundation of the Cato Institute, of which Boaz is an executive vice president. Libertarianism holds that governments should be severely limited, acting only to protect each individual's right to do as he wishes so long as that does not involve coercing anyone else. He brought together the works in Toward Liberty: The Idea That Is Changing the World, a collection on the modern applications of libertarian thought. The book is "comprehensive" in its scope and "impressive" overall, according to a National Review contributor. In The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Readings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman, Boaz collected writings from a variety of writers, including many who lived long before Libertarianism had been developed as an ideology, whose works support the basic tenants of his party's philosophy. Reviewing this book for National Review, Loren E. Lomasky commented that "Anthologies are a dime a dozen, but this one imaginatively brings together the old and the new, the scholarly and the colloquial, classics and curios. For anyone remotely susceptible to libertarian blandishments there must be something here to whet the appetite."

Libertarianism: A Primer, which Boaz wrote, is a "substantial" introduction to the author's political stance, according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Although Boaz is at times "too optimistic" about the ability of people to govern themselves with minimal law, nevertheless "he argues cogently against government excess." Libertarianism: A Primer was further praised by Nick Gillespie in Reason, who called it "an eminently readable, virtually encyclopedic account of libertarian thought in all its generalities and specifics" and concluded: "Boaz transforms what might have been familiar boilerplate material into a cogent, complex, and convincing narrative of the development of libertarianism in the West."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

American Prospect, November-December, 1997, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 87.

American Spectator, March, 1997, Stephen Glass, review of Libertarianism: A Primer and The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Readings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman, p. 70.

Australian Journal of Political Science, November, 1997, Andrew Norton, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 494.

Booklist, January 1, 1997, Gilbert Taylor, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 785.

Choice, May, 1997, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 1573.

Critical Review, summer, 1997, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 407.

Dissent, fall, 1997, Ellen Willis, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 111.

Human Events, February 7, 1997, review of The Libertarian Reader, p. 17.

Journal of Economic Literature, March, 1994, review of Market Liberalism: A Paradigm for the 21st Century, p. 209.

Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 1996, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 1644.

Library Journal, January, 1997, Steven Puro, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 123.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, January 19, 1997, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 6.

National Review, February 24, 1997, Loren E. Lomasky, review of The Libertarian Reader, p. 48; June 3, 2002, review of Toward Liberty: The Idea That Is Changing the World, p. 52.

New Leader, February 10, 1997, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 13.

Publishers Weekly, December 30, 1996, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 51.

Reason, March, 1997, Nick Gillespie, Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 56.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), March 9, 1997, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. 5.

Wall Street Journal, January 13, 1997, Michael Barone, review of Libertarianism: A Primer, p. A14.*