Virginia Postrel is an American political and cultural writer of broadly libertarian, or classical liberal, views. She is best known for her two nonfiction books, The Future and its Enemies and The Substance of Style. In the former she explains her philosophy, "dynamism," a forward-looking and change-seeking philosophy which generally favors unregulated organization through "spontaneous order". She contrasts it with "stasis," a philosophy favoring top-down control and regulation and a desire to maintain the present state of affairs.

Virginia Postrel was editor of Reason from July 1989 to January 2000 and editor-at-large in 2000 and 2001. Prior to that, she was a reporter for Inc. and The Wall Street Journal. She is on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. She also appeared on the last episode of the third season of Penn and Teller's Bullshit!.

Postrel writes the monthly column "Commerce & Culture" for The Atlantic.

Bibliography

• The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress, Free Press, (December 1, 1998) (ISBN 0684862697)
• The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness, HarperCollins, September 2003 (ISBN 0060186321)

External links

• Postrel's website
• Blog

Libertarians | American political writers | American bloggers | Year of birth missing | Living people