Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Congressional caucuses Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Social media Miscellaneous Other Our Enemy, the State is the best-known book by libertarian author Albert Jay Nock, serving as a fundamental influence for the modern libertarian and American conservatism movements.

Initially presented as a series of lectures at Bard College, it was published in 1935 and attempts to analyze the origins of American freedom and question the nature and legitimacy of authoritarian government.

The book has been cited as an influence by a wide range of conservative and libertarian thinkers and political figures, including Murray Rothbard, Ayn Rand,[1] Barry Goldwater, H.L.

[5] Nock argues in the book that something like the modern conservative movement should be formed of what he described as The Remnant, those remaining people who recognize The State as a destructive burden on society.

Nock argues that the Articles of Confederation that preceded the US Constitution were actually superior to it,[9] that the reasons given for its replacement were excuses by land speculators and creditors looking to enrich themselves.

People become conditioned to accept their lost freedom and social power as normal, in each subsequent generation, and so the State continues to expand, and society to shrink.