John Blundell, R.I.P.

John Blundell, among the most important leaders and
administrators of the modern organized libertarian movement in both
his native U.K. and the United States, has died.

Blundell ran vital libertarian organizations on both sides of
the Atlantic: The Institute for Humane Studies in the U.S. from
1988-91,  and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in the
U.K. from 1993-2009. He also helmed an organization designed to for
worldwide influence, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation from
1987-91.

Blundell was also a scholar and biographer of Margaret Thatcher,
the British politician whose market bonafides were to a large
degree informed by and propped up by the work of the IEA in
promoting and spreading research and journalism of a free-market
bent in the U.K. Blundell appreciated the impact of popular culture
as well as scholarship, writing comic book bios of both
Ayn Rand and
Thatcher. His last book was a study and celebration of the role
of women in the spread of libertarian ideas,
Ladies for Liberty.

There’s an
informative and warm obituary for Blundell from the Atlas
Network, which helps seed and guide free-market think tanks and
organizations internationally, which Blundell, as stated above, ran
(under its earlier name) and stayed involved with ’til the end of
his life.

Blundell was a good friend of Reason
and the Reason Foundation and often stress the vital
influence of the work of Reason‘s Robert
Poole in spreading the ideas of the denationalization of government
property and functions in the Thatcher years.

Blundell wrote an important volume summing up his thoughts and
observations on the strategies, institutions, and leading figures
of the modern libertarian movement. He called it
Waging the War of Ideas. He always understood it was a
long war, and I hope he knew how vital his contributions were to
the considerable progress that has been made since he joined it.
Generations of libertarian-minded scholars, journalists, and
publicists certainly know it.