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Chesterton
Read the subtitle to The Man Who was Thursday!
I have most enjoyed his non-fiction, his Heretics and Orthodoxy are great anti-relativist polemics.
Chesterton is a Catholic convert, so his positive doctrines can be objectionable. His political once familiar political philosophy of "distributivism" critiques capitalism as tending towards monopolization, and urges political and economic decentralization. He was a staunch opponent of socialism, but wanted the law to encourage small-business proprietorship. More recent admirers of his see his position as an overreaction to government interventions in the economy which unfairly benefitted large interests.
The true pleasure in reading Chesterton is his admirable command of the English language. He can skewer his opponent with a deadly analogy or a turn of phrase that would do Rand proud. Most of his works are out of print, but his collected works are available through Ignatius Publishers. Vols. I - V of his collected works comprise the most interesting of his works, such as What's Wrong with the World and The End of the Armistice. He was one of the earliest British voices raised against Hitler and his racist theories, as well as a lifelong critic of Prussian militarism. He foresaw the disastrous implications of the Armistice terms of WWI and the inevitability of the resumption of war before 1920.
Chesterton is no Rand, but he is one of the greatest of English essayists of all time. His current neglect is in a large part due to his being the "last Liberal in England." His belief in individual rights, free trade, limited government, objective truth and the toxicity of moral relativism have relegated him to the modern purgatory of the dead white males. He deserves release.
Ted Keer
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