Toward a Libertarian Society by Walter Block is the Libertarian Book Club's selection for the month of June. Below is a curated selection of our thoughts and notable quotes from the book.

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We are a monthly book club for anyone who wants to learn more about Libertarianism. We will discuss each book's chapter/section in separate posts, so everyone will be able to read along at their own pace. We typically also focus on books which are available for free so that everyone can participate.

Chapters 1 - 6

Foreign policy is a topic where libertarians and non-libertarians disagree and where libertarians sometimes disagree with other libertarians when it comes to practical application of the principle.

Block writes:

"In order for defensive violence to be justi ed, the person against whom we are acting must have at least threatened us; even more clearly, he must be in the early stages of launching an attack upon us."

I think Korea is an interesting current case (and the reason I voted for Michael Malice's book to be reviewed next in the club.)

Kim Jong-Un has certainly threatened the US many times. I think most experts would say that threat is not credible, but others might dispute that. Do his missile tests amount to "early stages of launching an attack" on us? My answer is no, but I have heard others say yes.

Also, where do allies fit in. We have a defensive treaty with South Korea ( and are still technically in a state of war with North Korea [or at least an undeclared UN police action]. If Kim Jong-un launches an attack on Seoul, are we justified in launching an attack on North Korea? I think treaty obligations should be honored, but that is also why I think our government should extricate itself from as many as possible as quickly as possible. Just because North Korea's leader does something stupid and/or evil, that does mean I have a gripe with the people who live in North Korea - they would bear the brunt of our attack and they would have done absolutely nothing to aggress against me.

Can good libertarians (and good people) disagree on these questions or is there only one right answer
The book is a compilation of previously written essays. I was surprised to see Walter Block say he never votes and I am not sure he still has that same policy he did in 2004 since he was behind Libertarians for Trump.

When he asked in chapter 6 how far secession should go, I thought of this quote by Rothbard.

Read the rest of our writeup here