Prairie State Wire

CRC: Shoddy scholarship for shoddier motives

By Christine Ravold | Oct 28, 2018

It’s fair to say only the wonkiest of Beltway Insiders and market-oriented economists have much to say about Nancy MacLean’s ideological polemic purporting to recount the influence of James Buchanan and public choice theory, Democracy in Chains. Indeed, the Duke history professor’s critics tend to be libertarian academics and economists who wish to set the record straight on MacLean’s book, which is riddled with conjecture, conspiracy, and proof-texting dressed up as “history.”