David T. Beito (born 1956) is a historian and professor of history at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publ ...

. Beito is the founder and one of the key contributors to the group

weblog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

Liberty and Power, which is located at the

History News Network History News Network (HNN) at George Washington University is a platform for historians writing about current events. History History News Network (HNN) is a non-profit corporation registered in Washington DC. HNN was founded by Richard Shenkman ...

. He manages the

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

group for classical liberal and libertarian historians, Cliolibertarian.

Biography

Beito was born in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origi ...

. He received a B.A. in history from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

in 1980 and a Ph.D in history from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

in 1986. Since 1994, he has taught at the

, where he is a professor in history. He married Linda Royster Beito on June 11, 1997 and they live in

Northport, Alabama Northport is a city in Tuscaloosa County in the west central part of the State of Alabama. Located on the Black Warrior River across from downtown Tuscaloosa, it is currently the 21st largest city in Alabama with an estimated population of 26,11 ...

. Beito's research covers a wide range of topics in American history including race, tax revolts, the private provision of

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...

, mutual aid, and the political philosophies of

Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on hoodoo. The most popular of her four n ...

Rose Wilder Lane Rose Wilder Lane (December 5, 1886 – October 30, 1968) was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, political theorist and daughter of American writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Along with two other female writers, Ayn Rand and Isabel P ...

, and

Isabel Paterson Isabel Paterson (January 22, 1886 – January 10, 1961) was a Canadian-American journalist, novelist, political philosopher, and a leading literary and cultural critic of her day. Historian Jim Powell has called Paterson one of the three f ...

. Beito has published in the '' Journal of Interdisciplinary History'', '' Journal of Policy History'', '' Journal of Southern History'', and ''

Journal of Urban History The ''Journal of Urban History'' (abbreviated ''JUH'') is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of urban studies. The current editor-in-chief is David Goldfield, who is Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History at the Univers ...

'' among other scholarly journals. He has received fellowships from the Earhart Foundation, the

John M. Olin Foundation The John M. Olin Foundation was a conservative American grant-making foundation established in 1953 by John M. Olin, president of the Olin Industries chemical and munitions manufacturing businesses. Unlike most other foundations, it was charg ...

, and the

Institute for Humane Studies The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) is a non-profit organization that promotes the teaching and research of classical liberalism in higher education in the United States. IHS offers funding opportunities, programs, and events for faculty and g ...

. He writes frequently on current controversies related to

academic freedom Academic freedom is a moral and legal concept expressing the conviction that the freedom of inquiry by faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy as well as the principles of academia, and that scholars should have freedom to teach ...

and academic standards including the speech code issue, the

Academic Bill of Rights An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

and

grade inflation Grade inflation (also known as grading leniency) is the awarding of higher grades than students deserve, which yields a higher average grade given to students. The term is also used to describe the tendency to award progressively higher academic ...

. He is a former president of the Alabama Scholars Association. In February 2007, Beito was appointed to chair the Alabama State Advisory Committee of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. In April, 2008, the Committee had an open meeting at the

16th Street Baptist Church The 16th Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. In 1963, the church was bombed by Ku Klux Klan members. The bombing killed four young girls in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. The church is stil ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

which focused on

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

as a possible civil rights issue. It followed this up with another open meeting in April 2009 in Montgomery.Beito, David (2009-05-02
Something is Rotten in Montgomery
'' LewRockwell.com'' Witnesses alleged that the city of Montgomery has arbitrarily used "eminent domain through the back door" (via selective use of nuisance and blight laws) to demolish buildings owned by minorities and the poor. These allegations generated stories by

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast '' ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include morning news-talk show '' Good Morning America'', '' ...

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is o ...

, and other outlets.

Books

* ''Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance during the Great Depression'', University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill), 1989. * ''From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services'', University of North Carolina Press (Cambridge), 1992. * ''Black Maverick: T. R. M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power'' (University of Illinois Press), 2009, ** ''T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer'' (Oakland: Independent Institute), 2018. , the second edition of ''Black Maverick'', with the same text plus foreword and afterword

Edited books

* ''The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society'', University of Michigan Press for The Independent Institute (Ann Arbor), 2002.

Selected articles and chapters in collections

''Selling Laissez-faire Anti-Racism to the Black Masses" Rose Wilder Lane and the Pittsburgh Courier.''
Independent Review 15. (Fall 2010), 279–294.
''Let Down Your Bucket Where You Are':The Afro-American Hospital and Black Health Care in Mississippi, 1924–1966,''
Social Science History 30 (Winter 2006), 551–569.
''Blacks, Gun Cultures and Gun Control: T. R. M. Howard, Armed Self Defense, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi,''
The Journal of Firearms and Public Policy (September 2005).
''Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Zora Neale Hurston on War, Race, the State, and Liberty,,''
Independent Review 12 (Spring 2008). * ''T. R. M. Howard: Pragmatism over Strict Integrationist Ideology in the Mississippi Delta, 1942–1954,'' Glenn Feldman, ed., Before Brown: Civil Rights and White Backlash in the Modern South, University of Alabama Press (Tuscaloosa), 2004. * ''T. R. M. Howard: A Mississippi Doctor in Chicago Civil Rights,'' ''

A.M.E. Church Review The ''A.M.E. Church Review'' is the journal of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Established in 1841 and revived in 1884, it is arguably the earliest published African-American journal. It publishes articles on religion, politics, history, a ...

'' (July–September 2001), 51–59.
"Rival Road Builders: Private Toll Roads in Nevada, 1852–1880,"
Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 41 (Summer 1998), 71–91.
"From Privies to Boulevards: The Private Supply of Infrastructure in the United States during the Nineteenth Century"
in Jerry Jenkins and David Sisk, eds., Development by Consent: The Voluntary Supply of Public Goods and Services, San Francisco: ICS Press, 1993, 23–48. * ''The Formation of Urban Infrastructure through Non-Governmental Planning: The Private Places of St. Louis, 1869–1920,'' Journal of Urban History 16 (May 1990), 263–301.
"Gold Democrats and the Decline of Classical Liberalism, 1896–1900,"
Independent Review 4 (Spring 2000), 555–75.

History News Network, August 21, 2006.

* ttp://hnn.us/articles/8193.html ''Why the '60 Minutes' Story on Emmett Till Was a Disappointment,'' History News Network, May 6, 2005.
''The Grim and Overlooked Anniversary of the Murder of the Rev. George W. Lee, Civil Rights Activist''
History News Network, May 6, 2005.
''The AHA's Double Standard on Academic Freedom''
(with Ralph E. Luker, and Robert K. C. Johnson) Perspectives, March 2006.

Reviews of Beito's work and interviews

Mark Bauerlin, "Demanding Rights, Courting Controversy: A Flamboyant Civil-Rights Leader – Doctor, Orator, Activist-Finally Gets His Due"
''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', August 6, 2009.
"Six Questions for David Beito, Author of Black Maverick"
by Scott Horton, ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'', June 11, 2009.

References

External links

T. R. M. Howard Webpage

Liberty and Power Group Blog
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beito, David T. Living people American bloggers American book editors American libertarians American political writers American male non-fiction writers Libertarian historians Historians of the United States Earhart Foundation Fellows University of Alabama faculty Writers from Minneapolis University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni 1956 births 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male bloggers Historians from Minnesota Historians from Alabama