Garet Garrett
Some of the finest writing can be found in the books and essays of the Old Right. Few people can write as good as, say, Frank Chodorov or H.L. Mencken. For that reason alone it is worth reading their material. Another example would be Garet Garrett (1878 – 1954). In my modest Liberty library, I have his book Ex America: The 50th Anniversary of the People's Pottage. It contains three monographs: "The Revolution Was," "Ex-America," and "The Rise of Empire." This book is a frightening look into the fascist New Deal and the rise of Empire.
Joseph Sobran, the great conservative anarchist, one day came across this book, and made him reexamine his ties with National Review. Bruce Ramsey, in the introduction to Ex America, writes:
Sobran discovered these Garet Garrett essays "one night, long ago, at the office of National Review, where I then worked." As the flagship of modern conservatism, National Review supported the Cold War and the hot war then raging in Vietnam.
"Two questions occurred to me," Sobran writes. "One: 'Why haven't I heard of this man before?' Two: 'If he's right, what am I doing here?'"
I should note parenthetically, that Mr. Ramsey has just completed a biography of Garrett called Unsanctioned Voice. It's probably a fascinating read. For a general overview of the Old Right, you can get The Betrayal of the American Right by Murray Rothbard and Reclaiming the American Right by Justin Raimondo.
But what I really want to bring your attention to is "The Capitalist Fiction of Garet Garrett" by Bruce Ramsey. You can read the article here. The second main article, by the same gentleman, I would like to bring your attention to is "More Ways to Burst a Bubble." Read that here. (Via CharlesGoyette.com.)
- Garrett's Available Online Literature.
- Purchase Garrett's Books.
- "Who Is Garet Garrett?" by Jeffrey A. Tucker.
- "Garet Garrett (1878-1954) On Empire" by Joseph R. Stromberg.
- "Garet Garrett: Exemplar of the Old Right" by Justin Raimondo.
- "The Great Garet Garrett" by Bill Steigerwald.
- Review of Ex America by Ryan McMaken.
- "Quotes From Garet Garrett" edited by Bruce Ramsey.
