James
Bovard, a policy advisor for The Future of Freedom Foundation, is a
frequent contributor to Playboy, American Spectator, and Investor’s
Business Daily. He has also written for the Wall Street Journal, New
York Times, Reader’s Digest, New Republic, Washington Post, Washington
Times, and Newsweek.
Mr.
Bovard is the author of five books: Lost Rights: The Destruction of
American Liberty, The Fair Trade Fraud, The Farm Fiasco, Shakedown: How
the State Screws You from A to Z, Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the
State & The Demise of the Citizen, and Feeling Your Pain: The
Explosion and Abuse of Power under Clinton-Gore, most of which can be
purchased at Laissez-Faire Books and Amazon.com.
He was
the 1995 co-recipient of the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties
work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought, and the recipient
of the 1996 Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense
Fund of the National Rifle Association. His book Lost Rights received
the Mencken Award as Book of the Year from the Free Press Association.
Since the
Clinton administration took office, Mr. Bovard’s writings have been
publicly denounced by FBI Director Louis Freeh, HUD director Henry
Cisneros, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, Agriculture Secretary Dan
Glickman, the White House AIDS czar, former IRS commissioner Shirley
Peterson, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission,
Equal Opportunity Commission, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the
Federal Emergency Management Agency. The National Treasury Employees
Union and the American Postal Workers Union have also added their
condemnations.
A Wall
Street Journal review of Freedom in Chains declared: “James Bovard has
become the roving inspector general of the modern State… Never has so
much theoretical error and concrete folly been collected and juxtaposed
so well under a single cover. Mr. Bovard consistently illuminates the
connection between faulty political ideals and specific policy
disasters.” The Orlando Sentinel wrote: “James Bovard, the American
government’s most unfavorite journalist, has done all who value liberty a
great service. He has meticulously documented freedom’s demise in
America and set it all in its proper philosophical framework. National
Review declared: “Freedom in Chains… offers a principled and often
eloquent vision of the minimalist state. There is an integrity to it,
and it is always refreshing to find a man who takes his freedom
straight.” The Orange County Register labeled the book “a modern-day
libertarian classic.”
Mr.
Bovard’s 1994 book, Lost Rights, continues to stir controversy. The Wall
Street Journal said of the book: “Remarkable… astonishingly broad…
excellent… Mr. Bovard’s unrivaled research has resulted in a virtual
encyclopedia of modern government abuse.”
Mr.
Bovard has been a regular contributor to FFF’s monthly journal, Freedom
Daily, since 1996 and has delivered lectures at many FFF events.
