James bovard biography

James Bovard (born 1956) is a bestselling libertarian author and lecturer, whose political commentary targets examples of waste, failures, corruption, cronyism and abuses of power in government.

Quotes

• Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
  • Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (1994), p. 333
  • Compare earlier version by Marvin Simkin, "Individual Rights", Los Angeles Times, 12 January 1992:[1] "Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote."
  • Compare earlier version by Charles Flatt and Sheila Allen, "'Mainstream Values' Vs. Campus Pluralism : Campus Correspondence : The Privileged Classes Must Yield in the Name of Equality", Los Angeles Times, 25 November 1990:[2] "Democracy has been described as four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Unmoderated majority rule means that the mistakes, the ignorance and
    •

    James Bovard

    American libertarian author and lecturer

    James Bovard
    Bovard speaking in Washington, D.C. in 2011
    Born	1956 (age 68–69)

    James Bovard (; born 1956) is an American libertarian author and lecturer whose political commentary targets examples of waste, failures, corruption, cronyism and abuses of power in government. He is a USA Today columnist^[1] and is a frequent contributor to The Hill. He is the author of Attention Deficit Democracy and nine other books. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New Republic, Reader's Digest, The American Conservative, and many other publications. His books have been translated into Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean.

    Early life

    He has written Wall Street Journal articles about his experiences as a shiftless highway worker ^[2] and a one-season Santa Claus.^[3] His early career was summarized in a 1988 National Journal profile headlined, "A Free-Lance Crab Apple Shaking the Federal Tree".^[4]

    •

    James Bovard is the author of Last Rights: The Death of American Liberty (2023) Public Policy Hooligan (2012), Attention Deficit Democracy (2006), and eight other books. He is a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors, a frequent contributor to the New York Post, and has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Playboy, and the Washington Post, and is a fellow with the Libertarian Institute. His books have been translated into Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard 'the roving inspector general of the modern state,' and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a 'one-man truth squad.' His 1994 book Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty received the Free Press Association's Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His book Terrorism and Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner Award for the Best Book on Liberty in 2003. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought, and the Freedom Fund Award from the National Rifle Association. His writings have been been publi