Virginia Postrel

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Virginia I. Postrel (born 14 January 1960) is an American political and cultural writer of broadly libertarian, or classical liberal, views. She is best known for her two non-fiction books, The Future and Its Enemies and The Substance of Style. In the former she explains her philosophy, "dynamism," a forward-looking and change-seeking philosophy which generally favors unregulated organization through "spontaneous order". She contrasts it with "stasis," a philosophy favoring top-down control and regulation and a desire to maintain the present state of affairs.

Virginia Postrel was editor of Reason from July 1989 to January 2000, and remained on the masthead as editor-at-large through 2001. Prior to that, she was a reporter for Inc. and The Wall Street Journal. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). From 2000 to 2006, she wrote an economics column for The New York Times. She also appeared on the last episode of the third season of Penn and Teller's Bullshit!.

Postrel writes the monthly column Commerce & Culture for The Atlantic.

A proponent of lifting bans on payment for organ donation, Postrel recently donated a kidney to an acquaintance of hers named Sally Satel. See List of notable organ transplant donors and recipients and Econtalk podcast where Postrel discusses donation

[edit] Bibliography

The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress, Free Press, (December 1, 1998) (ISBN 0-684-86269-7)
The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness, HarperCollins, September 2003 (ISBN 0-06-018632-1)