To invert a famous quote, I come not to bury Brad Linaweaver but to praise him. Although still publishing fiction, Linaweaver's latest book is a collection of non-fiction, mostly political essays dealing with current events, especially the second half of current president George W. Bush, the Republican from Texas. With this slim volume of essays, Linaweaver joins the ranks of libertarian fiction writers who have published political essays (see for example, L. Neil Smith's Lever Action, and J. Neil Schulman's Stopping Power and Self-Control).

One of the manifold effects of 9/11 was the wedge that the subsequent American-led War on Terror had on the libertarian movement. Although trivial when compared to the loss of human life on that day and after, the rift sent libertarians into mainly two very distinct camps: pro- and anti-war. As someone who often spoke of “slipping in” libertarian ideas into his fiction, Linaweaver now has the opportunity to use both barrels. Although I was dismayed how quickly so many libertarians abandoned their principles and “went to war,” I see Linaweaver's confession of the causes for his pro-war views and how these have changed over time as hopeful signs that liberty still remains strong in the minds of libertarian intelligentsia, despite the seduction of rallying around the flag.

Post-Nationalism contains four main essays, plus a few smaller items including a letter to Playboy about Pat Buchanan, a review of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, and a revealing afterword about Linaweaver's political changes post-9/11. This afterword may be the key to understanding why Linaweaver published this book. He details how he and other fellow libertarian writers, such as J. Neil Schulman, Victor Koman, William Alan Ritch, and Kent Hastings found themselves wrapped up in the American flag following 9/11 and the initial Bush response. Much like how Pearl Harbor crushed isolationism in 1941 and swept America into war and Japanese Americans into concentration camps, 9/11 brushed aside many libertarian opponents to state aggression. The libertarians who went to war, who now called themselves realists and pro-American, set aside the idealism of libertarian ideas to join the hunt for Bin Laden. Whereas some libertarian writers, notably L. Neil Smith, opposed the war from the start, suddenly these were in the minority.

Linaweaver's condemnation of “an administration melting down” admits that he saw it on the right track at the start. He applauded GWB's words and actions in the direct aftermath of 9/11, which were expressions of machismo straight out of Hollywood. Then, some time in 2005, things changed for Linaweaver. Perhaps, as the messy war in Iraq dragged on with no end in sight, he joined the ranks of former libertarian conservatives seduced by the gung-ho attitudes of the Bush administration who now have grown disillusioned. The stories appearing ever-more frequently about illegal wire-tapping, financial snooping, traveler profiling, and massive inter-department databases covering every aspect of American life all now emerging after years of activity has alarmed the pro-freedom individuals who once bought into the homeland defense mentality. Maybe this war on terror isn't such a good thing after all?

As Linaweaver explains, what turned him away from being a card-carrying Bush supporter was his growing disillusionment with the neo-con vision that took over American foreign policy; instead of the hunt for Bin Laden, or looking for “weapons of mass destruction,” history's primary weapon of mass destruction—the state—now turned itself to “exporting democracy.” Linaweaver's broadside, then, is a passionate disavowal of the neo-con vision, as well as roadmap of his growing disillusionment with George W. Bush. Linaweaver's favorite president, Ronald W. Reagan, reveals a conservative streak amid Linaweaver's libertarianism, which probably seduced him to the dark side. Thinking that American needs a strong leader to stand against the Islamist horde, Linaweaver fell for GWB's Commander-in-Chief action figure moment. Much like Linaweaver's own despised “Reich-Wing radio” commentators hyping of Bush's military leader role, this strong-man side of the president's role in America is light-years away from a libertarian stance.

Post-Nationalism's main essays concern themselves with various aspects of American foreign and domestic policy from 2001 to 2006, such as the rise of the neo-cons, the Patriot Act, the Dubai Ports deal, the slavish role of talk radio, and more. There are no footnotes or references; this is not a scholarly work, but an emotional polemic, much in the style of the Levellers in the 17th century, or the pamphleteers just prior to the American Revolution. There are times when Linaweaver stoops to the level of those he despises, such as the witty term “Reich-Wing radio.” Through this term he falls into the same trap as rabid conservative talk show hosts, who blithely spew forth nonsensical Nazi Germany-linked neologisms as “Islamofascists,” “feminazis,” “Hitlery,” and the like.

There's no doubt that Brad Linaweaver is a skilled writer. Will he appeal to current conservative-libertarians and pry them away from their belief that it's Bush or die? Possibly not. However, I do think that in the past couple of years we have already started to see an intellectual movement away from unquestioned support of the Commander in Chief and this terribly mistaken war. As Robert Higgs detailed so many years ago in Crisis and Leviathan, every war leads to a massive expansion of the state. In the past few years we have certainly witnessed such an expansion and concurrent losses of individual liberty. Post-Nationalism may long stand as one of the earliest disavowals of the Bush era by a former supporter. More scholarly works detailing all the legal shenanigans and maneuvering of the Bush administration involved in the war, especially on the domestic front (all strangling individual freedoms, while clothed in patriotic language) may one day emerge, but few will contain the passion and anger expressed in this book.