Judy asked Susan Wittig Albert:

Have you read Libertarians on the Prairie by Christine Woodside? I'm interested in your opinion about it, given your research into Rose and Laura.

Susan Wittig Albert I haven't read it, Judy, but I know the gist of it. I agree with Christine that there is a lot of what later became Rose's "libertarian" political view in the LH books. But during the writing of those books, that political sense wasn't fully articulated. The Wilder family held the same political views as most rural farm families of the time. They were suspicious of the federal government (especially its disastrous agricultural practices) and fiercely independent, rejecting all forms of gov't help. Rose felt it more deeply, because she knew Herbert Hoover quite well (had written a heavily fictionalized biography of him). These feelings were later crystallized as "libertarian." Woodside is on the right track, IMO.

flag