The Childs-Peikoff Hypothesis

In his infamous "Open Letter to Ayn Rand," Roy Childs, a prominent libertarian advocate of anarcho-capitalism, argued that limited government is inconsistent with Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. In the early 1980s, Childs changed his mind and rejected anarcho-capitalism as a rational political system. Despite abrief, unfinished, posthumous essay, some say that the real reasons for Childs' change of heart will always remain a mystery. However, specific comments by Childs in that essay point directly to the influence of a series of lectures on Objectivism presented by Leonard Peikoffin 1983.