David Boaz

David Douglas Boaz (Template:IPAc-en; August 29, 1953 – June 7, 2024) was a libertarian author, philosopher and editor. He was a distinguished senior fellow and the executive vice president of the Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank. Boaz was a prominent advocate for individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and non-interventionist foreign policy.

Boaz authored several works on libertarian philosophy, including Libertarianism: A Primer and The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was an early proponent of civil liberties, marriage equality, drug policy reform, and school choice, contributing to the mainstream acceptance of these issues in public discourse.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Boaz is regarded as a key figure in the development and promotion of modern libertarian thought.

Background

Boaz was born on August 29, 1953, in Mayfield, Kentucky.<ref name = Langer>Template:Cite news</ref> His father was a judge, and one of his uncles, through marriage, was Frank Stubblefield, who served as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives.<ref name = Roberts>Template:Cite news</ref> Boaz studied history at Vanderbilt University from 1971 to 1975, and as a young man was involved with the Young Americans for Freedom and the College Republicans.<ref name = Roberts/><ref name=RIP>Doherty, Brian David Boaz, RIP, Reason.com. Retrieved June 11, 2024.</ref>

Career

Boaz eventually parted with the conservative movement, and worked on Ed Clark's campaigns for governor of California in 1978 and for president in 1980.<ref name = Roberts/> Around this time, he joined the Cato Institute.<ref name = Roberts/>

He was the author of Libertarianism: A Primer, published in 1997 by the Free Press and described in the Los Angeles Times as "a well-researched manifesto of libertarian ideas."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was also the editor of The Libertarian Reader and co-editor of the Cato Handbook for Congress (2003) and the Cato Handbook on Policy (2005). He frequently discussed on national television and radio shows such topics as education choice, the growth of government, the ownership society, his support of drug legalization as a consequence of the individual right to self-determination,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite video</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a non-interventionist foreign policy,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the rise of libertarianism. Boaz said his views were informed by classical liberalism and opposed to populism.<ref name = Roberts/> He expressed skepticism of party politics and did not join the Libertarian Party.<ref name = Roberts/>

His articles were also published in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Review, and Slate.<ref name = Langer/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He appeared on ABC's Politically Incorrect, CNN's Crossfire, NPR's Talk of the Nation and All Things Considered, Fox News Channel, BBC, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A graduate of Vanderbilt University, he was once the editor of The New Guard magazine and was executive director of the Council for a Competitive Economy prior to joining Cato.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2022, he retired as executive vice president of Cato and was named a distinguished senior fellow.<ref name = Roberts/> He continued to write and appear on television until shortly before his death.<ref name = Roberts/>

Personal life and death

Boaz, who was openly gay, was with his partner, Steve Miller, for over 30 years.<ref name = Langer/> He was a teetotaler.<ref name = Roberts/>

Boaz died from esophageal cancer at his home in Arlington County, Virginia, on June 7, 2024, at the age of 70.<ref name = Langer/><ref name = Roberts/>

Books

• Market Liberalism: A Paradigm for the 21st Century, Editor with Edward H. Crane, 1993. Template:ISBN. Template:OCLC
• Libertarianism: A Primer, Free Press 1997. Template:ISBN. Template:OCLC
• The Libertarian Reader, Editor, Free Press 1997. Template:ISBN. Template:OCLC
• The Politics of Freedom: Taking on The Left, The Right and Threats to Our Liberties, 2008. Template:ISBN. Template:OCLC
• The Libertarian Vote: Swing Voters, Tea Parties, and the Fiscally Conservative, Socially Liberal Center, with David Kirby and Emily Ekins, 2012. Template:ISBN
• The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom, Simon & Schuster, 2015. Template:ISBN

External links

• Template:C-SPAN
  • Booknotes interview with Boaz on Libertarianism: A Primer, January 26, 1997.
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• Archive at The Huffington Post
• Biography of David Boaz at Cato Institute
• David Boaz discusses the ownership society with Robert Siegel on NPR's All Things Considered
• David Boaz's entry "libertarianism" at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• "Deregulating Education" by David Boaz, in The Politic