Brian Doherty is a Los Angeles-based libertarian journalist and author who works a senior editor at the Reason Foundation publication Reason. His wide-ranging career in journalism has led him to cover libertarian and conservative movement history, gun policy and legal history, tech innovation, environmental and trade policy, and cutting-edge American art movements.

Doherty has published five books on a wide range of topics including a history of the American libertarian movement, a synopsis of Ron Paul’s libertarian movement, and a book about gun policy in the United States. His commentary has appeared in hundreds of publications and he has appeared on dozens of radio shows and television programs. He first joined Reason magazine in 1994. ¹

Early Career

Brian Doherty attended the University of Florida, majoring in journalism. In 1994, he joined the staff of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian public policy think tank that promotes individual liberty, free markets, and limited government and that publishes Reason magazine, a libertarian magazine and website and the ReasonTV web video series. Doherty also worked as the managing editor of Regulation magazine and was the Warren Brookes Journalism Fellow at the right-of-center Competitive Enterprise Institute from 1999-2000. ²

In 2011, Doherty was awarded the Thomas S. Szasz Award from the Center for Independent Thought, which is awarded annually to “an individual or organization judged to have contributed in an outstanding degree to the cause of civil liberties.” Doherty won the award “in the general category, for his many articles and book reviews in support of civil liberties and the work of Szasz in particular.” ^{3 4}

Writings

Brian Doherty has published articles on a variety of issues and provided commentary promoting a variety of libertarian positions and causes, often being critical of both Republican and Democratic elected officials. One example of his libertarian views is his calling the Iraq war “a crime” stating that “What the Bush administration sold as a grim but necessary surgical strike for democracy and stability in the Middle East and the world has been revealed over the past two decades as one of the most grievous errors in superpower history.” ^{5 6}

Doherty’s non-political topic interests include comics, cartooning, and the Burning Man festival. ⁷

Books

Brian Doherty’s books include This is Burning Man, which was named a Los Angeles Times bestseller; Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement; Gun Control on Trial; Ron Paul’s Revolution; and Dirty Pictures. ⁸

Doherty’s book on gun policy, Gun Control on Trial: Inside the Supreme Court Battle Over the Second Amendment, covered the U.S. Supreme Court case D.C. v. Heller, which ended the handgun ban in the District of Columbia and affirmed an individual right to bear arms. Doherty explains in the book that the case “settles the legal question of whether or not the right to possess weapons under the Second Amendment extends to personal self-defense.” ⁹

Another book called Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement explores the history of the American libertarian movement which includes interviews with over 100 sources and “traces the evolution of the movement through the unconventional life stories of its most influential leaders—Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and Milton Friedman.” ¹⁰

Doherty also wrote a book on former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) called Ron Paul’s rEVOLution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired, which explored the “meteoric rise of Paul from relative obscurity to national prominence, and examines the fanatically devoted political movement that has arisen around him.” ¹¹

1. “Brian Doherty.” Reason. Accessed September 30, 2023. https://reason.com/people/brian-doherty/
2. “Brian Doherty.” Reason. Accessed September 30, 2023. https://reason.com/people/brian-doherty/
3. “Thomas S. Szasz Award.” Center for Independent Thought. Accessed October 1, 2023.  https://www.centerforindependentthought.org/szasz
4. “Past Szasz Award Winners.” Center for Independent Thought. Accessed October 1, 2023. https://www.centerforindependentthought.org/past-szasz-award-winners
5. Doherty, Brian. “Examining America’s War in Iraq After 20 Years .” Reason, March 2023. https://reason.com/2023/02/05/examining-americas-war-in-iraq-after-20-years/
6. “Brian Doherty.” Reason. Accessed September 30, 2023. https://reason.com/people/brian-doherty/
7. “Brian Doherty.” Reason. Accessed September 30, 2023. https://reason.com/people/brian-doherty/
8. “Brian Doherty.” Reason. Accessed September 30, 2023. https://reason.com/people/brian-doherty/
9. Doherty, Brian. “Gun Control on Trial: Inside the Supreme Court Battle Over the Second Amendment.” Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Gun-Control-Trial-Supreme-Amendment/dp/1933995254/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=4Vjun&content-id=amzn1.sym.579192ca-1482-4409-abe7-9e14f17ac827&pf_rd_p=579192ca-1482-4409-abe7-9e14f17ac827&pf_rd_r=133-7430683-9450320&pd_rd_wg=gTk2b&pd_rd_r=c2643cac-8d4d-49bc-a60b-a591d6ce5b5c&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk
10. Doherty, Brian. “Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement.” Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Radicals-Capitalism-Freewheeling-American-Libertarian/dp/1586485725/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=4Vjun&content-id=amzn1.sym.579192ca-1482-4409-abe7-9e14f17ac827&pf_rd_p=579192ca-1482-4409-abe7-9e14f17ac827&pf_rd_r=133-7430683-9450320&pd_rd_wg=gTk2b&pd_rd_r=c2643cac-8d4d-49bc-a60b-a591d6ce5b5c&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk
11. Doherty, Brian. “Ron Paul’s rEVOLution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired.” Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Ron-Pauls-rEVOLution-Movement-Inspired/dp/0062114794/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=4Vjun&content-id=amzn1.sym.579192ca-1482-4409-abe7-9e14f17ac827&pf_rd_p=579192ca-1482-4409-abe7-9e14f17ac827&pf_rd_r=133-7430683-9450320&pd_rd_wg=gTk2b&pd_rd_r=c2643cac-8d4d-49bc-a60b-a591d6ce5b5c&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk