Radicals for Capitalism chronicles the libertarian movement in America through the lives of its most influential figures: Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and Milton Friedman. Brian Doherty, a senior editor at Reason magazine, provides a comprehensive history from the founding of the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946 through the movement's increasing influence in American politics. The book traces how a marginal group of thinkers who rejected both New Deal liberalism and traditional conservatism built institutions—think tanks, journals, academic programs—that eventually reshaped the Republican Party and American economic policy. Doherty captures the personal dynamics: the bitter feuds between Rand and Rothbard, the methodological disputes between Austrian economists and Chicago School monetarists, and the tensions between libertarians and conservatives in the fusionist alliance. He is sympathetic to his subjects while not uncritical, documenting the movement's internal contradictions and failures alongside its successes. For readers seeking to understand how libertarian ideas moved from the margins to influence deregulation, tax policy, and contemporary conservative politics, this book provides the essential historical background.