The Founding Mothers of Libertarianism: Ayn Rand, Isabel Paterson and Rose Wilder Lane

In the wake of the economic crisis, the ideas of novelist and autodidact philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982) have experienced a renaissance. Her work has even been discussed on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Rand, who has become part of American popular culture, is but one of the three founding mothers of modern American libertarianism. The other two are the journalists and writers Isabel M. Paterson (1886-1961) and Rose Wilder Lane (1886-1968), daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the famed Little House books. In this talk we will explore the works and lives of these three thinkers, and discuss how they influenced each other and live on in American political culture