well-reasoned and very readable
The first half of this book shows that the most-used justifications of political authority -- explicit or hypothetical social contract, democracy, fairness and utility -- do not hold water. None of them succeeds in making a solid, non-circular case for the existence of a monopoly on coercion. The second half of the book considers how a society could conceivably function better without that monopoly power.
What is pretty much taken for granted without examination is private property: both ownership of produced goods, and exclusive license to non-produced things such as city lots, frequencies, mineral deposits, etc. I'd be delighted to see a new book giving an anarchist treatment of ownership relations.
This is real philosophy, and the book makes lots of clear points. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
