Tracing the ideas, personalities, and movements that shaped the English-speaking libertarian tradition, McKercher explores a diverse school of anti-statist thinkers who identified as anarchists, communists, socialists, and libertarians. Though varied in approach, they shared a common conviction: that state power, however benevolent it may appear, is fundamentally at odds with individual freedom and genuine democratic life.

With a notable critique of John Stuart Mill and an incisive analysis of early radical movements, Freedom and Authority illuminates the roots of modern struggles for participatory democracy, decentralization, and community control.