Anarchy, State, and Utopia

In this masterpiece, Robert Nozick challenges the most commonly held political and social positions of our age-liberal, socialist, and conservative. Individuals have rights, Nozick writes in his opening sentence, and there are things no person or group may do to them without violating their rights. The work that follows that sentence is a sophisticated and passionate defense of those rights. Arguing that the state is justified only when it is severely limited to the narrow function of protection against force, theft, and fraud and of the enforcement of contracts, Nozick demonstrates that any more extensive activities undertaken by the state will inevitably violate individual rights. In addition to that passionate defense, Nozick also presents a theory of distributive justice, a model of utopia, and an integration of ethics, legal philosophy, and economic theory that will be discussed for years to come.