Albert Jay Nock

The Durable Mr. Albert Jay Nock

Some sound instinct kept Albert Jay Nock from ever becoming a reformer, in the usual sense. He was never a tub-thumper for some system; never an organization man. He was, to the contrary, a lifelong learner... Albert...

A Stroll With Albert Jay Nock

The trouble with our civilization, Albert Jay Nock declared, is that it makes exceedingly limited demands on the human spirit and the qualities that are distinctly and properly humane. We have been trying to live by mechanics alone, the mechanics of pedagogy, politics, industry, commerce. Instead of...

The Counsel of Despair? Albert J. Nock on Self-Government

In Zen Buddhism, the lineage of student to master is extremely important—it is the channel through which the Dharma is transmitted. There is a story of a Zen Master traveling at night over a bridge known...

On Albert Jay Nock and the Russian Roots of a Gentleman Anarchist

Episcopal priest, professional baseball player, college instructor, lecturer, and prolific writer, Albert Jay Nock (1872-1945) had a varied life and a profound effect on the nascent American conservative movement in the decades preceding World...

Your Friend, the State

Albert Jay Nock, an excellent but largely forgotten writer, once wrote a little book titled Our Enemy, the State. I still reread it when I’m groggy from absorption in the daily events of politics. It...

Albert Jay Nock: The Impossibility of a Return to the Liberal Arts?

One of the greatest intellectual pleasures of my summer has been the discovery of the writings of Albert Jay Nock. 

Well, really, the re-discovery. 

I had twice read Nock's Our Enemy, the State, but I'd never...