Liberty Maven

I’ve just finished reading a book that was much too short simply because I adored it and well… it was too short. The title should earn an award in its own right, “In Search of Jefferson’s Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace“.

The book’s author David Post weaves the history of America as seen through Thomas Jefferson’s eyes tightly around the history, growth, and governance of the Internet. And what about this moose?

As David Post explains here:

I stumbled upon the story (in Daniel Boorstin’s wonderful The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson, if I recall correctly): In 1787, Jefferson had the complete skeleton and carcass (with antlers) of an American moose, 7 feet tall at the shoulders, shipped to him in Paris (where he was serving as the American Minister to the court of Louis XVI), re-assembled, and installed in the entrance hall of his residence.

Post brings together these seemingly disparate topics and does so masterfully. Jefferson is quoted within the prose to make the story more seamless. Post uses italics to denote when it is Jefferson doing the story telling. It is quite an effective technique.

Read this book. You will learn things about both Jefferson and the Internet that you didn’t know before. Post gleefully twists you toward appreciating Jefferson’s decentralized governance philosophy and happily applying it to the Internet and World Wide Web. The idea being that the very reason the ‘Net expanded so rapidly was due to a Jeffersonian and quite libertarian approach to its rules.

Perhaps we should use the Internet’s growth (and Jefferson’s decentralized philosophy) as a blueprint for rescuing our failing economy? Haven’t the Hamiltonians had enough chances to prove that they have failed?

My favorite chapter in the book compared Hamilton’s centralized power advocacy with Jefferson’s decentralized ideas. It amounts to a Cliff’s Notes version of the polar opposite ground these two great American Founders tread upon.

“What government a nation can bear depends on the condition of the general mind; if a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.” – Thomas Jefferson

The quote above sums up the Jeffersonian ideal pertaining to freedom and seeking knowledge. What about the knowledge that is deemed intellectual property?

Post explains that Jefferson was one of the few Founders who wrote on the subject of intellectual property and it was a truly difficult issue then as it is today.

“The perfect Jeffersonian world, then, is one that has as much protection for speech as it can have, but only as much protection for intellectual property as it needs.” – David Post

I must admit that the IP chapters in the book confused me only because it was not immediately clear what side Jefferson was taking and where the author stood on the topic. The quote above clarifies both, but comes toward the end of the IP discussion.

In the end, “In Search of Jefferson’s Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace” is a thoroughly educational and enjoyable book for anyone interested in the future of the Internet and the history of America.

You can catch the author, David Post, at a CATO Sponsored Book Forum on Wednesday, February 4th at Noon (EST). It will be broadcast live online. Check it out here.

Also check out Post’s own web site about the book here at JeffersonsMoose.org.