Anarchy, State, and Utopia

"A major event in contemporary political philosophy...[Nozick] is always stimulating; an open-minded study of what he has to say could be a healthy tonic for romantic leftists."

"[Nozick's] critique of America's social welfare system...continues to define the debate between conservatives and liberals."

"[S]imply and elegantly written, with charm and wit...brilliantly reasoned and contrary."

"No contemporary philosopher possesses a more imaginative mind, broader interests, or greater dialectical abilities than Robert Nozick."

"Complex, sophisticated and ingenious."

"[Nozick's] powers of argument are profound, and his insights are at times staggering in their brilliance."

"[Nozick is] one of the 20th century's greatest political theorists."

"[A] powerful critique of the Left-liberal moral philosophy that underpinned the welfare state...a kind of libertarian manifesto."

"This book is the best piece of sustained analytical argument in political philosophy to have appeared for a very long time."

"[Nozick's] faculties of reasoning and imagination are rare; his learning is enormous and interconnected...His ability to surround a subject, to anticipate objections, to see through weakness and pretense, to extract all the implications of a contention, to ask a huge number of relevant questions about a seemingly settled matter, to enlarge into full significance what has only been sketched by others, is amazing."

"A brilliant and important book, bound to contribute notably both to theory and, in time, to the good of society."