WALTER BLOCK HAS INVITED US to provide some autobiographical background on how we came to be Misesians/Rothbardians. This is my contribution to the cause.

Jerome Tuccille wrote a book thirty years ago, It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand. It was a good book, especially the sections on the Galambosian, but it was wrong. Back when he wrote it, it usually began with The Freeman.

Today, it usually begins with LewRockwell.com.

I SUPPOSE I COULD BEST BE described as an independent, middle-class, populist, radical libertarian. How I got that way is an interesting story (you hope). I was born into a political family in one of the most highly politicized counties in the United States. My father was a New York State judge from the time I was four years old. From the age of twelve (1970) through the time I left Buffalo for law school in 1980, I was a close observer of local politics. I saw it up close and personal.

WE ALL FOLLOW DIFFERENT PATHS in forming our views about political economy and the appropriate role of the state. However, my personal odyssey also is different from others Walter asked to contribute to this collection because of my economic specialty: agricultural economics.

IN FEBRUARY 2002, Linda Johnston interviewed Ron Paul for a chapter in a book she was preparing on the importance of the development of character and values and how they helped shape ones perspective on life. The interview is verbatim and can be found on LewRockwell.com.

IN MY FIRST MEETING with Murray, Michael Edelstein (pal of Walter Block) and I stopped by his office, where Michael discussed a nagging backache. Murray loudly proclaimed a wonderful exercise described by an ancient fakir. He promptly got down on all fours, and lifted his leg as a dog might. The door was ajar, and I saw several students peek in and scurry off. After our introductions, Murray signed a copy of a tract on monetary policy for me, giving a warm smile and asked about my interests.

I WAS BORN IN CHIPPEWA TOWNSHIP, outside a little Western Pennsylvania town called Beaver Falls on September 29, 1953. That’s where I grew up and lived for the first 24 years of my life, until I moved to Michigan to start teaching at Northwood University in 1977.

WALTER BLOCK HAS KINDLY INVITED ME to contribute an autobiographical essay featuring the early development of my ideas on politics and economics. What follows is an adaptation of portions of the Preface to my book, Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics, which describes the influences Professor Block has in mind.

IN HIGH SCHOOL, I TOOK MY “first steps” toward becoming a libertarian when I read books by Ayn Rand and Frédéric Bastiat, and subscribed to The Freeman magazine. I didn’t know it at the time, but those chance philosophical encounters would lead to a multifaceted career in journalism, broadcasting, audio book narration, and editing that would span more than three decades.

IN FEBRUARY 1999, for research he was doing on postwar libertarianism, Brian Doherty interviewed Lew Rockwell. The interview was published in the May 12, 1999, issue of SpintechMag.com.

Doherty: How and under what circumstances did you first become interested in political philosophy/work? Was it of an individualist/libertarian orientation from the beginning?

MY JOURNEY TO LIBERTY BEGAN at the tender age of seven, when I fell madly in love with Walt Disney’s rendition of General Francis Marion. This legendary Southern freedom fighter harassed the British during the Revolutionary War and became known as the elusive Swamp Fox. My infatuation was not simply with the hero of the TV show, played by actor Leslie Nielsen, however. Somehow the concept of freedom, poorly understood by my young mind, drew me like a magnet.