Brad Spangler has revived a concise, and by no means “objective,” history of the libertarian movement apparently written by the late Samuel Edward Konkin III, who was there for much of what happened from the 1960s onward.

Some will quibble with details and selection of focus, not to mention how certain personages are characterized, but I think it pretty much covers all the main points of movement history, starting with Lysander Spooner’s and Benjamin Tucker’s 19th Century movements and ending in 1997. Konkin died in early 2004.

Konkin (often styled “SEK3″) was a longtime opponent of the Libertarian Party who saw it as a break with libertarian ethics as well as bad strategy. From the 1970s onward he promoted an alternative strategy he named “Agorism,” which seeks to undermine and eventually replace the state with “counter-economic” activities — anything from trading goods and services “off the books” to avoid taxes to practicing day-care without a license to smuggling and dealing banned weapons and controlled substances.

It’s very difficult to gauge the effectiveness of Agorist ideas because people engaged in these sorts of pursuits usually don’t talk to pollsters or write letters to political publications. As a strategy it has a certain attraction, except for people like me who have chosen to be “public radicals.” I have no doubt that if I dealt drugs from my home the pigs would confiscate my house within a year. So I have to keep all my receipts and file my taxes and live squeaky-clean while you, my dear readers, get to have all the fun.