Brian Doherty, Reason Editor and Libertarian Historian, Dies at 57

Brian Doherty, a longtime senior editor at Reason magazine and a prominent historian of the modern libertarian movement and chronicler of American counterculture, was found dead Friday morning at the age of 57.

News of his death was first reported Saturday in an obituary by Matt Welch, editor-at-large at Reason. Welch wrote that Doherty was believed to have died Thursday night after falling at Battery Yates Park along the San Francisco Bay while attending an art gathering held atop the park’s historic concrete military defense structures.

According to Reason, Doherty was born in Brooklyn and raised in Florida, where he studied journalism at the University of Florida. His early exposure to libertarian literature and campus activism helped shape his long-term interest in documenting the movement. After moving to Los Angeles in the mid-1990s, he became involved with the Cacophony Society, an experimental arts collective that further shaped his artistic and cultural interests.

He originally joined Reason in 1994 as an assistant editor and remained with the publication for more than three decades. While with the magazine, he wrote extensively on libertarian and conservative political thought, the development of libertarian institutions, and the individuals who shaped the movement.

“Brian was the historian of the libertarian movement,” David Nott, president of the Reason Foundation, said in the obituary. “He lovingly and comprehensively portrayed the colorful characters in the libertarian world.”

Doherty authored several books examining libertarian politics. Among his best-known works was his 2007 “Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement,” which traced the growth of libertarian organizations and ideas in the twentieth century. Other titles explored the constitutional debate over gun rights, the political movement born around the presidential campaigns of former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, and the history of classical liberal thought.

Doherty also wrote in depth about alternative art, music, and counterculture, including in his 2004 book “This Is Burning Man: The Rise of a New American Underground,” which examined the early history of the Burning Man arts festival. A later work of his, “Dirty Pictures: How an Underground Network of Nerds, Feminists, Misfits, Geniuses, Bikers, Potheads, Printers, Intellectuals, and Art School Rebels Revolutionized Art and Invented Comix,” similarly explored the origins of the underground comix movement.