Isabel Paterson

Isabel Paterson, born on January twenty-second, eighteen eighty-six, was a prominent Canadian-American journalist, philosopher, writer, and literary critic. She is celebrated as one of the foundational figures of American libertarianism, alongside notable contemporaries Rose Wilder Lane and Ayn Rand. Her intellectual contributions have been recognized by historians, with Jim Powell identifying her as one of the three founding mothers of the movement.

Paterson's most influential work, The God of the Machine, published in nineteen forty-three, serves as a significant treatise on political philosophy, economics, and history. This seminal text has been credited by many libertarians as a cornerstone of their ideological framework. Stephen D. Cox, her biographer, posits that Paterson was the earliest progenitor of libertarianism as it is understood today.

In a letter penned in nineteen forty-three, Ayn Rand expressed her admiration for Paterson's work, stating that The God of the Machine is a document that could literally save the world. Rand compared its impact on capitalism to that of Das Kapital for communism and the Bible for Christianity, highlighting the profound influence Paterson's ideas have had on the development of libertarian thought.