Libertarianism and the American myth of the self-made man, 'Little House on the Prairie' version

I've long believed this myth is BS, but between a just-read book and a Pocket item, I'll refute it in detail.

The book? Did you know that the "Little House on the Prairie" books have a direct connection not just to small-l but capital-L Libertarianism? You do now.

Libertarians on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books by Christine Woodside

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had heard a little bit about both the collaboration between Wilder and her daughter Rose, and about Rose's libertarianism, but had never read anything.

Very interesting.

First, Rose is regarded by the Libertarian Party as one of its "Three Founding Mothers," so there's that. Capital-L Libertarian. (Ayn Rand being one of other two.) She also had as a kind of adopted grandson the man who was the LP's 1976 presidential nominee. Rose did praise Rand, but not uncritically by any means, saying she was helping lead pseudo-intellectuals away from liberalism but "making a cult of pseudo-individualism." (Rose also got at least one economics prof blackballed during early Cold War years.)

On the personal side, she was such an anti-government wingnut that she refused to apply for a ration card during WWII. Yes, really. So, no sugar, coffee, cheese or meat, as Woodside notes.

Laura was not that. She was stoic, but wasn't interested in all of this politics.

And, the writing collaboration?

Rose had achieved a moderate degree of fame, on novelistic short stories, essays, etc., before the ida of Laura writing even popped up. That said, as Little House book fans know, as was shown by Laura's one belated book, Laura did NOT have a pie-eyed version of Libertarian rugged individualist optimism from her real life on the prairie. She had stoicism — and a certain degree of realism about what actually happened, though she appears to have pulled an occasional fudge herself.

Roger McBride, Rose's quasi-adopted "grandson," gave us the TV show. Woodside estimates the entire Little House "enterprise" may be worth as much as $100 million.

An interesting read indeed.

There are two reasons I didn't go five-star.

One is that it didn't really "grab" me. That said, as a kid, I was never a fan of the books, or the TV series.

The other is that Woodside didn't have more on the Rose-Laura dynamics than she actually did. Now, there simply may not have been more to find, but that's still something to be noted.



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Lies have been part of the self-made man myth. For example, Laura misremembered details of a gold miner evicted from the Black Hills. The reality was that Custer's expedition there promised to eventually make him good on his land. There's other instances, too.

This long read from John Swansburg at Slate, complete with some relevant family history, documents the evolution of the myth from Ben Franklin through Henry Clay and onward.