Author Brian Doherty falls to his death; the libertarian is recalled as a champion of freedom

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An acclaimed author and historian of the libertarian movement fell to his death last week, his employer confirmed.The body of Brian Doherty, 57, senior editor of the libertarian magazine Reason, was found Thursday “after a fall” in the Battery Yates park portion of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the publication wrote.The National Parks Service’s law enforcement agency confirmed it responded to an incident at Battery Yates on Thursday “involving a male visitor who reportedly fell from the cliffside into the water.”“The individual was recovered and pronounced dead,” said Scott Carr, parks service spokesperson, in an email.“We do not have any further information to share at this time.”Doherty was the author of several books, with Reason saying his most notable work was the 2007 study “Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement.”“Doherty has rescued libertarianism from its own obscurity,” the Wall Street Journal wrote of the work, “eloquently capturing the appeal of the ‘pure idea.’”Libertarianism’s role in gun control and the courts was the subject of his works, and Doherty had no shortage of admirers.Loren Dean, chair of the Libertarian Party of California, said it was Doherty’s work at Reason that brought him into the liberty movement.

“Brian Doherty was the best kind of libertarian: one who holds true to the principles of liberty as they are,” Dean said in an email.“He was a tireless champion of both gun rights and police reform who wrote books on both [former U.S.

Rep.] Ron Paul and Burning Man; his work did not sit on either the ‘left’ or ‘right’ side of the authoritarian box, but delightfully outside that tired frame, where libertarian principles truly sing.”When Larry Harvey, who died Saturday at age 70, first burned a stick effigy of a man on Baker Beach in San...