The Project Gutenberg eBook of The free man's library
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: The free man's library
a descriptive and critical bibliography
Author: Henry Hazlitt
Release date: April 17, 2026 [eBook #78474]
Language: English
Original publication: Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Co, 1956
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78474
Credits: Alan, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FREE MAN'S LIBRARY ***
THE FREE MAN’S LIBRARY
A Descriptive and Critical Bibliography
_by_
HENRY HAZLITT
[Illustration]
D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, INC.
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
TORONTO LONDON
NEW YORK
D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, INC.
120 Alexander St., Princeton, New Jersey
257 Fourth Avenue, New York 10, New York
25 Hollinger Rd., Toronto 16, Canada
Macmillan & Co., Ltd., St. Martin’s St., London, W.C. 2, England
_All correspondence should be addressed to the
principal office of the company at Princeton, N. J._
Copyright, ©, 1956 by
D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, INC.
Published simultaneously in Canada by
D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY (Canada), LTD.
_All Rights Reserved_
_This book, or any parts thereof, may not be
reproduced in any form without written permission
from the author and the publishers._
Library of Congress Catalogue Card No.: 56-9010
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
Acknowledgments 18
Arrangement and Abbreviations 19
INDIVIDUALISM IN POLITICS AND ECONOMICS 21
THE FREE MAN’S LIBRARY 33
Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live
by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative
power vested in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things,
when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant,
uncertain, unknown, arbitrary will of another man.
--JOHN LOCKE
It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.
--DAVID HUME
The common people of England ... so jealous of their liberty, but like
the common people of most other countries never rightly understanding
wherein it consists....
--ADAM SMITH
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
--EDMUND BURKE
The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals
composing it.... A State which dwarfs its men, in order that they
may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial
purposes, will find that with small men no great thing can really
be accomplished; and that the perfection of machinery to which it
has sacrificed everything will in the end avail it nothing, for want
of the vital power which, in order that the machine might work more
smoothly, it has preferred to banish.
--JOHN STUART MILL
INTRODUCTION
This book is a descriptive and critical bibliography of works on the
philosophy of individualism. I have applied the term “individualism”
in a broad sense. The bibliography includes books which explain the
processes and advantages of free trade, free enterprise and free
markets; which recognize the evils of excessive state power; and which
champion the cause of individual freedom of worship, speech and thought.
Such a compilation seemed to me to be increasingly urgent because so
few writers and speakers on public questions today reveal any idea
of the wealth, depth and breadth of the literature of freedom. What
threatens us today is not merely the outright totalitarian philosophies
of fascism and communism, but the increasing drift of thought in the
totalitarian direction. Many people today who complacently think
of themselves as “middle-of-the-roaders” have no conception of the
extent to which they have already taken over statist, socialist, and
collectivist assumptions--assumptions which, if logically followed out,
must inevitably carry us further and further down the totalitarian road.
One of the crowning ironies of the present era, in fact, is that it is
precisely, especially in America, the people who flatteringly refer to
themselves as “liberals” who have forgotten or repudiated the essence
of the true liberal tradition. The typical butts of their ridicule are
such writers as Adam Smith, Bastiat, Cobden (“the Manchester School”),
and Herbert Spencer. Whatever errors any of these writers may have
been guilty of individually, they were among the chief architects
of true liberalism. Yet our modern “progressives” now refer to this
whole philosophy contemptuously as “_laissez faire_.” They present
a grotesque caricature of it in order to refute it to their own
satisfaction, and then go on to advocate more and more governmental
power, more centralization of government in Washington, fewer and
fewer powers for the States or localities, more and more power for
the President, more and more discretionary power for an appointed
bureaucracy, and less and less power for Congress, which is usually
ridiculed by our self-styled “liberals” and given to understand that
its sole function is to “support the President”--in other words, to
act as a rubber stamp. And none of this group seem to recognize that
they differ from the totalitarians only in that the totalitarians want
_unlimited_ government power, _complete_ centralization, unlimited
power in the President or “Leader,” and no legislature at all except
as window-dressing, or as sycophants to proclaim the greatness of the
Leader.
This present-day reversal of the traditional vocabulary in itself sets
up great obstacles to the compilation of a bibliography of freedom.
But these difficulties and obstacles go much further, of course,
than those created by a reversal in the popular meaning of the word
“liberalism.” “Oh, Liberty!” Madame Roland is said to have exclaimed
as she passed a statue to that goddess on her way to the guillotine,
“what crimes are committed in thy name!” Looking at the world today,
we are tempted to stress the intellectual crimes committed in the name
of liberty as much as the moral crimes. Never were men more ardent in
defense of “liberty” than they are today; but never were there more
diverse concepts of what constitutes true liberty. Many of today’s
writers who are most eloquent in their arguments for liberty in fact
preach philosophies that would destroy it. It seems to be typical
of the books of our intelligentsia to praise one kind of liberty
incessantly while disparaging or ridiculing another kind. The liberty
that they so rightly praise is the liberty of thought and expression.
But the liberty that they so foolishly denounce is economic liberty.
They dismiss this contemptuously as “_laissez faire_”--a phrase, as
I have already pointed out, which they almost always use in a merely
invidious rather than in any seriously descriptive sense. In fact, no
literature is more soaked in semantics than that concerning freedom.
“Freedom” and “liberty” are the honorific terms for the liberties that
the particular writer is defending; “_laissez faire_” or “license” are
the disparaging terms for the liberties he is decrying.
Unfortunately the authors who have fallen into this practice include
some of the finest minds of our generation. (I think particularly of
Bertrand Russell and the late Morris Cohen.) Such writers seem to me
to be at least in part reflecting an occupational bias. Being writers
and thinkers, they are acutely aware of the importance of liberty of
writing and thinking. But they seem to attach scant value to economic
liberty because they think of it not as applying to themselves but to
businessmen. Such a judgment may be uncharitable; but it is certainly
fair to say that they misprize economic liberty because, in spite
of their brilliance in some directions, they lack the knowledge or
understanding to recognize that when economic liberties are abridged
or destroyed all other liberties are abridged or destroyed with them.
“Power over a man’s subsistence,” as Alexander Hamilton reminded us,
“is power over his will.” And if we wish a more modern authority, we
can quote no less a one than Leon Trotsky, the colleague of Lenin, who
in 1937, in a moment of candor, pointed out clearly that: “In a country
where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow
starvation: The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has
been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.”
Liberty is a whole, and to deny economic liberty is finally to destroy
all liberty. Socialism is irreconcilable with freedom. This is the
lesson that most of our modern philosophers and littérateurs have yet
to learn.
I write all this to explain why certain books which some readers might
expect to find in this compilation will not be found here. They may
say some eloquent and even true things about liberty; but their net
influence is not on the side of liberty. The test I have tried to
apply here is whether any book, regardless of the reservations I may
personally have on the position it takes on this issue or that, is
still _on net balance_ on the side of true liberty.
I have long contemplated a compilation like the present one. But I kept
postponing the task because it seemed too formidable. My hesitation was
broken at last when a friend informed me of the existence of a 95-page
pamphlet published by the Individualist Book Shop of London in 1927,
which might be the kind of bibliography I had in mind. I immediately
sent to London for this book, and quite as promptly received a copy
from Miss Marjorie Franklin, General Secretary of The Society for
Individual Freedom. Miss Franklin warned me, however, that not only had
the pamphlet been long out of print, but that I was getting a “precious
file copy.”
I read this pamphlet with satisfaction and delight. If it could not be
republished simply as it stood, it was at least the ideal nucleus to
build around. It was both scholarly and penetrating; its standards of
selection were at once discriminating and catholic; its judgments were
sound, and it was written with charm.
The pamphlet was anonymous; but I learned by inquiry that it had been
prepared by Professor W. H. Hutt, the British economist, now Dean of
the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Professor Hutt informed me in correspondence, however, that while he
was responsible for the greater part of the pamphlet he “did everything
in collaboration with” the late Francis W. Hirst, the well-known
British Liberal and former editor of _The London Economist_, “and
if there is any acknowledgment in the preface, his name should be
mentioned as well as mine.”
This compilation and discussion for the Individualist Bookshop had only
one major defect: it was more than a quarter of a century old. But this
defect, it seemed to me at first, could very easily be remedied. It
would simply be necessary to drop one or two score of its 166 entries
(because they were books now obsolete or superseded), to shorten the
comments on some of the rest, and to add a score or two of entries to
cover the important libertarian books that had been published in the
nearly thirty years since 1927.
The work of elimination proved no more difficult than I had supposed.
But the work of addition took on a far different aspect. I was
surprised to find, for example, that even some of the classics of
freedom and individualism--the relevant works, say, of Milton,
Montesquieu, Burke, de Tocqueville and Lord Acton--had been omitted.
These gaps were of course easily filled. Much more formidable was the
task of selecting from the mass of books published since 1927.
* * * * *
This raised many problems. I will expand on only one by way of
illustration. This was the problem of whether to include or exclude the
more important works that have appeared in the last quarter-century
denouncing the immorality or warning against the internal or external
perils of communism. The Hutt pamphlet had been mainly devoted to
books expounding the positive philosophy of freedom and individualism.
Yet it had freely listed the books primarily critical of socialism.
On the same principle there was every reason for including the books
critical of communism. The two terms were used by Karl Marx, in fact,
interchangeably. The Russian Communists still call their domain the
Union of Soviet _Socialist_ Republics. Communism is not merely the
logical and inevitable end-product of socialism; it is also another
name for a socialism that is really complete. We must subscribe, in
short, to the definition of Bernard Shaw that “A communist is nothing
but a socialist with the courage of his convictions.”
Yet the decision to add the leading anti-communist books not only
swelled the dimensions of this bibliography, but presented a problem
of another kind. The authors who attack socialism have generally based
their criticism on the explicit premises of a free, competitive,
private enterprise. But probably a good half of the books of the
last quarter-century which attack communism do so on the basis of
socialist assumptions. They attack Russian communism as a “betrayal”
of true socialism. (The works of Arthur Koestler are an outstanding
example.) They attack even Stalinism as a betrayal of “true Leninism.”
In fact, most of the best known anti-communist books, including some
that are admirable in other respects, attack the end-product without
seeming to realize that it is socialist ideals that inevitably create
this end-product. The authors of these books attack the despotism in
Russia, for example, without recognizing that you cannot carry out the
centralized economic planning of socialism without despotism. They
attack the communist suppression of freedom of speech and thought
without recognizing that once you give government complete power over
jobs and employment--the power to promote or demote, to hire or fire,
to say, in short, whether a man is to live or starve--you at the same
time give government complete power to control or suppress speech and
thought. They fail to recognize that in prescribing the means they are
prescribing the end. They fail to recognize that the immorality and
the intellectual and spiritual suppression that they denounce flow
inevitably out of the centralized economic planning and governmental
omnipotence that they applaud.
Yet some anti-communist books of disillusioned communists who are
still socialists or planners are among the most eloquent and powerful
denunciations that have yet been written on the end-products of
communism. I have therefore decided to include them, often accompanied
by a warning against acceptance of their premises.
This decision to include anti-communist volumes, as I have indicated,
created as many problems as it solved. It substantially increased the
length of this book. I soon found that by adding one book after another
to my list I had raised the number of entries from 166 in the original
Hutt bibliography, notwithstanding my numerous omissions from it, to a
new total of more than 550.
As a result of these inclusions other decisions were forced upon me. My
original purpose had been to offer my own judgments of all the works
included, except when I was satisfied with those given in the Hutt
pamphlet. But as my ideas expanded concerning the volumes that ought
to be included I was forced by sheer growth of number to fall back
in many cases, as the reader will see, on the judgments of others.
This decision was forced for a double reason. It was as impracticable
as it would have been supererogatory to read through from cover to
cover each of the 400 or so additional volumes listed in order to
write a half-dozen lines about it. I found, in addition, that even
where I had read a substantial part of a book, or even where I had
read it through--but years ago--my present memory did not leave me
with sufficient confidence in my own judgment of it. In these cases I
have fallen back upon critics whose judgments seem to me to deserve
confidence, or writers who have spoken with special authority or
justness on the book in question. In some cases I have also added such
judgments in the hope of reinforcing my own.
By following this eclectic procedure I have of course lost whatever
advantages might have accrued in the following compilation from a
completely uniform style and uniform standard of judgment. But such
a disadvantage, it seems to me, is more than compensated by greater
comprehensiveness than I could otherwise have achieved. And I early
decided that the application of a uniform standard was in any case next
to impossible. The reader will find in the following compilation books
of very different “weights.” He will find the works of Locke and Adam
Smith and Mill cheek by jowl with modern books just out last year. He
will find the works of the great pioneers and trail blazers next to
popularizations written mainly for beginners. I do not know how this
kind of heterogeneous mixture can be avoided if this book is to fulfill
the functions for which it is designed. For it is designed to guide the
reader not merely to the great classics on liberty and individualism,
but to introductory works.
A further word should be said here regarding the standards I have
applied in deciding whether or not a given work should be included in
this compilation. I already see myself being buttonholed occasionally
by some angry reader who asks: “Why on earth did you include
Pumpernickel’s book in your bibliography? Don’t you know that on page
155 he writes this outrageous sentence--?” And then my questioner will
probably quote or misquote some pronouncement that I do not at all feel
like defending. In an effort to answer as many as possible of such
objections in advance, I should like to say here that the inclusion
of a book in this bibliography certainly does not imply that I myself
subscribe to every doctrine or sentence in that book or that I think
every opinion it enunciates is an essential part of the libertarian
or individualist tradition. What inclusion does imply is that in my
judgment the book, to repeat what I have said earlier, makes _on net
balance_ a factual or theoretical contribution to the philosophy of
individualism, and that at least some readers may derive from it a
fuller understanding of that philosophy.
The inclusion of any book in this list, in brief, implies
recommendation. Therefore, with few exceptions, I have confined myself
to making or quoting comments which emphasize the merits of a book
rather than its defects. A primer, for example, may ably serve its
modest purpose without necessarily constituting a major contribution
to the subject with which it deals. A book may contain, in parts,
collectivist or confused thinking and still be one from which a student
of liberty could greatly profit. In my comments, therefore, I have
tried to keep reservations, misgivings and objections to a minimum.
Nor is the reader to take the amount of space devoted to the discussion
of any book as a necessary measure of my own judgment regarding its
relative merit or importance. A classic may be so well known, and
there may be so many sources from which a reader can learn about it,
that a few lines of comment may be sufficient for the purpose of this
bibliography. Another work, less meritorious and less important, may
yet rightly, for some special reason, call for longer comment. But I
cannot do better here than to quote with approval a footnote in the
Hutt bibliography on the lengthy entries under the name of Auberon
Herbert: “It may seem incongruous to give far more space to Auberon
Herbert than to Locke or Bentham. But the object of making this list
is to put information before the student, and, if important matter is
neglected or inaccessible, it needs more space than is required by
works known, by name at least, to ‘every schoolboy.’”
With some reluctance, however, I have made it a general rule to exclude
pamphlets from my list, notwithstanding the many admirable ones that
have appeared in recent years. I have done this not only because their
inclusion would have swollen this bibliography far beyond useful
dimensions, but because it is usually so difficult for readers to
obtain pamphlets, particularly after they have been allowed to fall
out of print, that their inclusion might too often merely arouse a
curiosity could not be satisfied. I must add, in fact, that in spite
of my _general_ rule against including pamphlets, I have felt simply
compelled to make a few exceptions because of their outstanding
importance.
This points to one of the insoluble problems of the bibliographer
in dealing with practically any great subject. He finds it next to
impossible to draw sharp boundaries, to be completely consistent, to
defend confidently his every inclusion or omission. If he tries to make
his list “complete,” his task becomes a labor of Sisyphus; and even if
he were to succeed, his list would be unmanageable and useless to most
readers. If he makes his bibliography “selective,” he is inevitably
accused of being arbitrary or capricious in his selections.
* * * * *
I became increasingly conscious of this dilemma as my work proceeded.
I am aware that for a great number of readers the more than 550
entries here may seem more bewildering than helpful. The device of
marking with an asterisk those books “specially recommended” would, I
fear, have created more problems than it solved. Therefore, for the
sake of those who would appreciate the guidance of a shorter list,
I have resorted to a practice that has become a traditional annual
event with many American book reviewers, and drama and motion picture
critics. I have compiled a list of “the best ten.” This, of course,
adds the limitations of an arbitrary number to the other arbitrary
factors in selection. To make my task just a little less provocative of
indignation, I have in fact compiled two lists of ten--first, the “ten
best” historic classics on liberty and individualism; and secondly, the
“ten best” contemporary works.
Here is the list of “classics” in chronological order:
JOHN MILTON, _Areopagetica_
JOHN LOCKE, _Second Treatise on Government_
DAVID HUME, _Essays Moral, Political and Literary_
ADAM SMITH, _The Wealth of Nations_
EDMUND BURKE, _Works_
FRÉDÉRIC BASTIAT, _Economic Sophisms_
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, _Democracy in America_
JOHN STUART MILL, _On Liberty_
HERBERT SPENCER, _The Man vs. the State_
LORD ACTON, _Essays on Freedom and Power_
Here are the “ten best” contemporary works, in alphabetical order:
B. M. ANDERSON, _Economics and the Public Welfare_
F. A. HAYEK, _The Road to Serfdom_
F. A. HAYEK, _Individualism and Economic Order_
F. A. HAYEK et al., _Capitalism and the Historians_
JOHN JEWKES, _Ordeal by Planning_
LUDWIG VON MISES, _Socialism: an Analysis_
LUDWIG VON MISES, _Human Action_
GEORGE ORWELL, _Nineteen Eighty-Four_
LIONEL ROBBINS, _The Great Depression_
WILHELM RÖPKE, _The Social Crisis of Our Time_
If the reader is tempted to smile at the presumption and crudity
of selecting a list of the “ten best” works in this field, either
classic or contemporary, he may at least be assured that I smile with
him. If he is unhappy about the particular selection even within the
arbitrary number of ten, I may add that I am a little unhappy about it
myself--though perhaps not for his reasons.
In restricting the list of classics to ten, I have been forced to leave
out Montesquieu’s _Spirit of the Laws_, the writings of Jefferson,
the speeches of Cobden, Calhoun’s _A Disquisition on Government_,
the writings of Jacob Burckhardt, and the essays of William Graham
Sumner--all of which would have been included had my list been slightly
larger, and one or two of which, no doubt, some readers will think
should have been included in my list of ten at the expense of one or
two already there.
I am sorry that in the case of Burke I have felt compelled to list
his collected works rather than any particular book or speech. This
is because his finest aphorisms and most luminous passages on liberty
are scattered throughout his work and have not been satisfactorily
extracted and collected, to my knowledge, in any single volume. Many
of us have been brought up to believe that, although Burke may have
begun as a liberal (as exemplified in his speech on _Conciliation with
America_), he ended as a vehement reactionary (as in his _Reflections
on the Revolution in France_). Yet any open-minded reader, even though
he is opposed to Burke’s main conclusions on the French Revolution,
as William Hazlitt so strongly was, will agree with the latter that
“in arriving at one error [Burke] discovered a hundred truths.”
Therefore, Hazlitt considered himself “a hundred times more indebted to
[Burke] than if, stumbling on that which I consider as the right side
of the question, he had committed a hundred absurdities in striving
to establish his point.” We, too, I think, must agree, as Hazlitt
did, with the judgment that in political philosophy Burke “was the
most eloquent man of his time; and his wisdom was greater than his
eloquence.”
Burke in his later years was certainly a conservative; and the
prominent inclusion of his works in a bibliography of freedom may
seem to some readers, accustomed to associate the case for freedom
with the case for “liberalism,” to call for explanation. But there
is no necessary conflict between intelligent conservatism and real
liberalism. On the contrary, at least in the peculiar climate and
conditions of the present age, they have come to mean nearly the same
thing.
Historically, the liberals fought against government tyranny; against
governmental abridgment of freedom of speech and action; against
governmental restrictions on agriculture, manufacture, and trade;
against constant detailed governmental regulation, interference and
harassment at a hundred points; against (to use the phrases of the
Declaration of Independence) “a multitude of new offices” and “swarms
of officers”; against concentration of governmental power, particularly
in the person of one man; against government by whim and favoritism.
Historic liberalism called, on the other hand, for the Rule of Law,
and for equality before the law. The older conservatives opposed many
or most of these liberal demands because they believed in existing
governmental interferences and sweeping governmental powers; or because
they wished to retain their own special privileges and prerogatives; or
simply because they were temperamentally fearful of altering the status
quo, whatever it happened to be.
Those who flatteringly call themselves “liberals” today, and to
whom confused opponents allow or even assign the name, are for
nearly everything that the old liberals opposed. Most self-styled
present-day “liberals,” particularly in America, are urging the
constant extension of government “planning.” They constantly press for
a greater concentration of governmental power, whether in the central
government at the expense of the States and localities, or in the hands
of a one-man executive at the expense of any check, limitation, or
even investigation by a legislature. And they look with favor on an
ever-growing bureaucracy, and on the spread of bureaucratic discretion
at the expense of a Rule of Law. Those who oppose this trend toward a
new despotism, on the other hand, and plead for the preservation of
the ancient freedoms of the individual, are today’s conservatives.
The intelligent conservative, in brief, is today the true defender of
liberty.
This conclusion should not seem too paradoxical. It was always possible
to reconcile intelligent conservatism with real liberalism. There is
no conflict between wishing to conserve and hold the precious gains
that have been achieved in the past, which is the aim of the true
conservative, and wishing to carry those achievements even further,
which is the aim of the true liberal. Burke not only recognized that
these two aims were compatible; he summed up that compatibility in one
of his memorable aphorisms: “A disposition to preserve and an ability
to improve, taken together, would be my standard of the statesman.”
Let us go on, after this long digression, to consider the list I have
put forward of the “ten best” contemporary books on the philosophy of
individualism.
My contemporary list is even more unsatisfactory to me than my
historic one, especially in what I am forced to exclude. My reasons
for including each of the twenty books in the two lists will be found
under the entry for that book in the bibliography that follows.
However, I should perhaps say a word in explanation of the fact that
there are three entries under the name of Professor Hayek. Hayek’s
_The Road to Serfdom_ is the most acute and impressive analysis of the
modern drift to totalitarianism that has been written in our time. It
deserves a place in any contemporary list no matter how short. His
essays collected under the title of _Individualism and Economic Order_
have been included in the list chiefly because of the leading essay,
_Individualism: True and False_, which no open-minded individualist
can read without having his ideas enlarged and clarified; for true
individualism certainly does not consist in mere eccentricity,
intransigence, or contempt for voluntary social cooperation. It is
the mistaken association of these qualities with “individualism” that
has given that philosophy a dubious reputation with many who would
otherwise be won to it. Professor Hayek is not the author of the third
volume, _Economics and the Historians_; he is simply the editor and one
of the contributors. The selection of this short book from among some
excellent economic histories is perhaps arbitrary; but it performs,
better than any other work I know of, the negative function of
informing the reader how grossly some of the most celebrated economic
historians of the last half century or more have misrepresented the
meaning of the Industrial Revolution and the growth of capitalism.
Those who think my contemporary list unbalanced can substitute for
Hayek’s _Individualism and Economic Order_, say, Max Eastman’s
_Reflections on the Failure of Socialism_, or Walter Lippmann’s _The
Good Society_ (at least the first half of that book).
To offer an abbreviated list of “best” books is one thing; to suggest a
“reading course” is quite another. It is not always advisable for the
novice to begin with the masterpieces; he must be educated to the point
where he can understand and appreciate them. But this is a subjective
problem in which no two readers are likely to be in precisely the
same position; and the ideal reading program should be individually
tailored to fit a particular reader’s requirements. A major purpose of
the present extensive bibliography, in fact, is to act as a guide to
the reader in making his own individual choices. The tyro will learn
more or faster from one set of books, the proficient from another.
Bearing in mind these reservations, however, some readers may still
find it helpful if I suggest at least one “introductory course.”
Fortunately this task is not too difficult, because the finest books
of the past and present are usually as distinguished for lucidity
as for wisdom. So even an introductory course could easily be built
exclusively from our two lists of the “ten best.” An introductory
course of five books, for example, might be this: The reader might
begin with (1) a contemporary book, F. A. Hayek’s _The Road to
Serfdom_. He might then read in this order: (2) John Stuart Mill’s
classic essay _On Liberty_; (3) Ludwig von Mises’ _Socialism_; (4)
Hayek’s essay, _Individualism: True and False_, or Max Eastman’s
_Reflections on the Failure of Socialism_; and (5) Ludwig von Mises’
_Human Action_.
The most formidable books on the foregoing list, in length and
difficulty, are the two volumes by von Mises. For readers to whom
this program may seem too arduous or ambitious, therefore, I suggest
this introductory list of only three books, each short and relatively
simple: (1) Hayek’s _The Road to Serfdom_; (2) Mill’s _Liberty_; (3)
von Mises’ short collection of essays, _Planning for Freedom_.
The reader should be able to steer his own course from there on, a
process in which I hope this bibliography will still prove helpful.
* * * * *
The main purpose of this bibliography, to repeat what has already been
said in substance, is to bring to the attention of the modern reader
the most important, useful or available books in the true liberal
tradition--the tradition of free trade, free enterprise, free markets;
of limited and decentralized government; of freedom of speech, of
religion, of the press, and of assembly; of security of person and
private property--the tradition, in brief, of the freedom and dignity
of the individual.
Now this tradition, rich and deep and noble as it is, is being treated
by most present-day intellectuals almost as if it had never existed.
When they speak of it, they usually speak merely of some grotesque
caricature in their own minds, which they contemptuously dismiss as
“_laissez faire_” or “the Manchester School.” Yet as Friedrich Hayek
has pointed out in _The Road to Serfdom_ (p. 13), what the modern trend
to socialism means “becomes clear if we consider it not merely against
the background of the nineteenth-century, but in a longer historical
perspective. We are rapidly abandoning not the views merely of Cobden
and Bright, of Adam Smith and Hume, or even of Locke and Milton, but
one of the salient characteristics of Western civilization as it has
grown from the foundations laid by Christianity and the Greeks and
Romans. Not merely nineteenth-and eighteenth-century liberalism, but
the basic individualism inherited by us from Erasmus and Montaigne,
from Cicero and Tacitus, Pericles and Thucydides, is progressively
relinquished.”
This bibliography, I hope, will help to clarify as well as to mobilize
the case for individualism and true liberalism. It is designed to
strengthen individualists in their knowledge and convictions, to place
in their hands the intellectual weapons that will help them to combat
the totalitarian trend. It is designed, also, to call attention to the
richness of the truly liberal tradition, to the excellent books and the
many noble minds that have helped to shape it.
But this compilation would fail of part of its purpose if it gave
readers the impression that the literature of freedom and individualism
is already so rich that it does not need to be supplemented and
expanded. On the contrary, there are deplorable gaps in this
literature, particularly in recent writing. It would take me too far
out of my way to try to call attention in detail to these gaps. The
task, moreover, would be odious. Frankly, I have occasionally included
a book in the following list because, in spite of serious shortcomings,
it happens to be the only book which covers some special subject
from the libertarian point of view. But it is my hope that this
bibliography will indirectly call attention to some existing gaps, and
thereby stimulate the writing of better books to fill them.
It is partly, in fact, in the hope that it may encourage translations
that I have listed a number of books in French and German that have not
yet been made available in English.
A similar hope may be expressed about pamphlets. There are many of
the first rank, some by the same author, some on different phases of
the same subject, that urgently need to be brought together and made
permanently available in book form.
* * * * *
As a final word, I must emphasize again my sad discovery that a
bibliographer’s lot is not a happy one. If he is “selective,”
his selections are likely to be called arbitrary, subjective and
capricious. If he seeks to be “comprehensive,” his troubles multiply
beyond counting. In the present case, I have been constantly troubled
by the problem of exactly where to draw my boundary lines. This is
essentially a bibliography on the philosophy of individual freedom.
A few economic classics and a few contemporary economic analyses and
textbooks are included because they either explicitly or by logical
implication support this philosophy. But other economic volumes, which
considered purely as technical economic analysis are as good as or
perhaps in some respects even better than some of those included, have
been omitted either because most of their discussion is only remotely
relevant to a libertarian philosophy or may even veer off to support a
socialist or statist philosophy. Yet between the easily classifiable
cases there are any number of borderline cases in which the decision
to include or exclude is very difficult and cannot fail to be in some
respects arbitrary.
An essential part of the philosophy of individualism, again, is the
doctrine of the Rule of Law. This calls for the inclusion of some works
on jurisprudence. But at exactly what point does one stop? And so for a
score of other fields. The philosophy of individualism can be reflected
in works on jurisprudence, on administrative law, on politics, on
ethics, on general economics, on agriculture, on labor relations,
on interest rates, on money and banking policy, and so on. How much
weight should one attach to the technical excellence or importance of
works of this type in their special fields as compared with that of an
individualistic philosophy which may merely be implied in such works?
I have found no satisfactory answer to questions of this sort, no
clear-cut pigeonholes that satisfy my bibliographic conscience. In any
case, the process of compiling a critical bibliography is at best an
art and can never be reduced to an exact science. It is at the mercy
of accident and subject to the limitations of the compiler. I shall
not be completely astonished to find, for example, after this book has
been printed and bound beyond alteration, that I have omitted an entry
or two from sheer oversight. In still other cases, when some kind lady
corners me at a social gathering and asks with a puzzled expression,
“Why did you leave Professor X’s book out of your list?”, I may have
to reply, as the great Samuel Johnson had the courage to do to a woman
who asked him to account for an error in his dictionary: “Ignorance,
madame. Pure ignorance.”
Fortunately for readers and writers alike, a book not free from
shortcomings may still perform a useful and necessary function; and
it is in the belief that this volume will prove helpful not merely to
individual readers, but to the great cause of human liberty itself,
that it is put forward.
* * * * *
A word should perhaps be added about the title of this bibliography.
In calling it _The Free Man’s Library_ I do not, of course, mean to
imply that books on the philosophy of individualism, or in defense of
personal liberty, are the only books that a “free man” should carry
on his shelves. The free man is free to take all human knowledge for
his province. His full library, let us hope, will contain the Bible
and Shakespeare, Homer and Plato, and other well-chosen selections
from the world’s treasuries of drama, fiction, poetry, history, art,
philosophy and science. By _The Free Man’s Library_ I mean to indicate
merely the books that a man may wish to know about, to read or have
in his home specifically in his role _as_ a free man--as a man who
wants to understand how he may best restore, preserve, or increase
his own freedom and the freedom of others. In the same way we should
expect a bibliography called “The Physician’s Library” to be confined
to the books that a physician should know about or read in his special
capacity _as_ a physician, and a bibliography called “The Engineer’s
Library” to be confined to the books that a man should know in his
capacity _as_ an engineer. But neither the physician nor the engineer,
let us hope, will be _solely_ a physician or an engineer, but will have
the range of intellectual interests that we associate with a liberal
education and a broad, humane culture. And the “free man,” we may hope
also, whatever his special calling, will have the same wide range of
intellectual interests, the same broad, humane culture, for these are
among the finest fruits of freedom; and it is partly because it has
these fruits that freedom is so precious.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have received so much help from writers and friends in suggesting
the consideration of this or that book for inclusion in my list that
I regret to be unable to give individual credit. I have also used
research help in verifying literally thousands of details--dates of
publication, page numbers, spelling of names, etc. I am especially in
debt to my wife for help in so many directions that it would take too
much space to list them. My most obvious indebtedness is, of course,
to the bibliography, already mentioned, compiled for the Individualist
Book Shop of London. The anonymous introduction to that list (which
I have since found was written by W. H. Hutt) is so excellent and
informative that I have inserted it in full after this introduction of
my own.
Next to the Hutt bibliography, I owe most to the back files of the
_Book Review Digest_, sometimes making use of its summary of the theme
or contents of a book, as well as of its quotations from reviews.
I should have made more use of the multigraphed list of 100 titles
compiled by F. A. Harper, of the Foundation for Economic Education,
if my own list had not been virtually completed when I saw this
compilation.
ARRANGEMENT AND ABBREVIATIONS
No effort has been made in the following list to give the price of any
book or to indicate whether or not it is still in print. Prices are
often changed; and books going out of print, or new editions of old
books, would soon make the latter information inaccurate. In nearly
all cases, however, I have given the number of pages in a book. Where
more than one edition exists, the number of pages should of course
be understood to refer merely to that of one of these editions. The
purpose of giving the number of pages is simply that the reader may
have a rough idea of the length of the book. Nothing is more unhelpful
or irritating, I have found, than a bibliography which does not enable
a reader to know whether a listed title refers to a pamphlet of a dozen
pages or a work in four volumes.
A short form of their name is used for all well-known publishers,
British as well as American. The city of publication is not given for
any American book unless the publishing house is small, or relatively
new, or not familiar to the book trade in general. The names of
foreign publishers (except prominent English publishers) are given in
full--accompanied, of course, by the city of publication.
The year of the original publication of a book is given in nearly all
cases, and sometimes the year of the latest or most accessible edition.
When a date appears immediately after the title, or _preceding_
the name of any specific publisher, it means the date of original
publication. When a date is given _after_ the name of a particular
publisher, it refers to the volume printed by that publisher. When two
editions are known to exist, both dates are usually given. Where more
than two editions exist, the word _etc._ is often inserted after the
original date in lieu of any attempt to list all editions. Wherever the
name of a publisher and a date of publication are enclosed in a common
parenthesis, it means that that particular edition is either the most
available or is recommended among numerous editions. Wherever a book
is available in both British and American editions, usually only the
American publisher is named, even if the book originally appeared in
England.
Wherever, as frequently happens, more than one title is listed by the
same author, the titles are not necessarily listed in the chronological
order of their appearance. Rather the effort has been made to list
and discuss first the work or works by that author which are most
important for the present bibliography, or which lend themselves most
conveniently to comment on the qualities and contribution of that
author. Occasional inconsistencies will be found in citing the same
author’s name. This usually happens when the author’s name is not
printed in a consistent form on the title pages of his various works.
PI at the end of a quoted descriptive comment on a book indicates
that the comment is quoted from _The Philosophy of Individualism: A
Bibliography_, the out-of-print pamphlet published in London in 1927
which is referred to earlier in this introduction. In all other cases
where comment is quoted, the name of the author, periodical, or other
source is spelled out.
All other abbreviations (such as _pp._ for _pages_) are those in common
use.
INDIVIDUALISM IN POLITICS AND ECONOMICS[1]
The term Individualism was cited by Henry Reeve (of _Edinburgh Review_
fame) in William IV’s reign as “a novel expression.” John Stuart Mill
is (wrongly) credited with having given it currency and popularity.
Although he discusses the subject at great length in his _Political
Economy_, he seldom if ever uses the exact term--his judicious
and well-balanced mind was adverse to the manufacture of labels.
He preferred to employ such expressions as “individual freedom,”
“individual property,” “those who have been called the _laissez-faire_
school,” etc. Even in _Liberty_, published much later, which is rightly
regarded as a classic of Individualism, he avoids the term, although
he uses (perhaps not more than once) the word “Individuality” in that
sense.
However, the term is an extremely convenient one to express the views
of those who would confine the functions of the State and various
public authorities to a relatively small province, i.e., maintaining
law and order, the army, the navy and other means of national defence,
the enforcement of contracts, the maintenance of public services
which cannot conveniently be entrusted to private enterprise, and
in general the provision of a fair field for the play of individual
energy. It is opposed to Collectivism, Socialism, Communism, and the
various other means of restricting liberty, whether these be adopted
by public authorities, quasi-private corporations, private firms,
hereditary autocrats, military dictators, or the like. It should be
remembered that in Mill and many writers of the older generation the
terms Socialism and Communism are used as equivalents; and it is
hardly necessary to remind any serious student that words, especially
general terms,[2] are very slippery articles, and that many discussions
are barren and lead to complete misunderstanding, because the parties
engaged in them have no clear definition of the terms in their minds,
or, at any rate, are using the terms in a sense different from that
employed by their opponents.
Modern as the term Individualism may be, the thing itself is older.
Undoubtedly traces of the theory may be found in Latin and Greek
writers; but it is needless to go back further than the seventeenth
century, for three very good reasons:
1. In the Greek world the City State was supreme--the individual
citizen lived and moved as a member of the State.[3] So Pericles is
made by Thucydides to say: “If a man prospers individually when his
country is destroyed, he is none the less joined in the general ruin,
while he comes through in complete safety if the State prospers, even
though he himself suffers calamities.” In the Roman Empire citizens had
only legal rights. The State was autocratic.
2. The medieval theory of politics and economics was feudal and
paternal. To Macaulay’s schoolboy, and even to people less well
informed, this fact is so familiar that the mere statement will
suffice. It is clear that up to 1500 A.D. there was little scope for a
theory of Individualism.
3. The Classical Revival, though it revolutionized a large part of
modern thought, at first did nothing to change the general attitude
toward the State. This was only to be expected, seeing that the State
was supreme in Classical theory.
At last, in the seventeenth century, came the rise of Individualism,
and this was due to several causes:
1. The Protestant Reformation brought private judgment into theology,
and the new habit of thought soon extended to other questions, and,
above all, to the problems of individual rights and the functions of
the State.
2. The wars of Religion which devastated Europe, made men distrust
the principle of authority, which had seemingly led to those horrors.
The wars, having been conducted by Governments, helped to undermine
confidence in official wisdom, i.e., in governments. A careful reader
of Pope’s poetry will notice that almost every line is permeated with
scorn, not only for the general human capacity but for “the great” in
particular; and nearly all the leading eighteenth century writers hold
similar opinions. Thus Gray, in contemplative mood, exclaims:
“How low, how little are the proud,
How indigent the great!”
But long before Pope, the Swedish Oxenstiern (1654) had summed up the
whole matter in his renowned saying: “Behold, my son, with how little
wisdom the world is governed.”
3. The action of despots, benevolent or otherwise, who introduced
innumerable and vexatious regulations to control the business and daily
life of their subjects, caused thoughtful men to distrust government
action. The restrictive policy carried out by Colbert, under Louis XIV,
with a multitude of protective regulations, provoked a reaction to the
_laissez faire_ school of France; and the French merchants’ cry “_let
us alone_”[4] became the motto of economic and political reformers.
But before this, in the reign of Charles II., there had come forward
the English founder of Individualism, the master builder in that
school of empiric philosophy which is one of the most characteristic
products of England. This man was John Locke.[5] His name and writings
are not today very familiar to the general reader, because nearly all
his principles were translated into practice by other men, famous in
their day and tolerably well known to posterity, while Locke is little
more than a name, venerated but nowadays seldom read. And yet he is,
directly and indirectly, perhaps the most influential writer[6] who has
appeared in the last two hundred years.
We are here only concerned with his political philosophy. Its direct
influence in England was immense. The “Glorious Revolution” of 1688
sprang naturally from his theory of government. Adam Smith’s doctrine
of Natural Liberty and Bentham’s general theory of Individualism owe
much to him. John Stuart Mill acknowledged him as one of his masters
in philosophy. But great as was his direct influence in England,
it produced even more striking effects in France and America. The
Declaration of Independence may be traced largely to the philosophy of
Locke, who (though his constitution for South Carolina was a practical
failure) may also claim to have had a share in the Constitution of
the United States. Adam Smith drew from the physiocrats who drew
from Locke. Tom Paine and the other “Friends of the People” found in
Rousseau a like intermediary.
The precursors of Revolution in eighteenth century France owed much
to Locke. Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists were all more or less
his disciples. Though Rousseau is also in one sense a founder of
Socialism, his famous and unhistorical Social Contract was taken from
Locke, who borrowed it from Hobbes, converting it from an argument for
an all powerful despot to an argument for a limited constitutional
monarchy, free and tolerant. Everyone knows the far-famed declarations
of Rousseau’s _Social Contract_ and the Constitution of the United
States--that all men are born free and have a natural right to
freedom and security.[7] But few have read them in Locke’s _Of Civil
Government_, where they appeared much earlier.
For Locke and his disciples, including Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson,
and a long line of British and American statesmen, the main object
of Representative Government is the freedom and happiness of the
individual citizens who control it by their votes and support it by
their taxes. Thus Locke’s political philosophy crossed the Channel, and
became the groundwork of Quesnay, Turgot, Bastiat, and other advocates
of _laissez faire_, which was a French synonym for Individualism.
Crossing the Atlantic it became the groundwork of American policy in
internal affairs. Locke was the first considerable publicist to lay
down the momentous doctrine that the State is secular--that it has
a well-defined province in which alone it may act, i.e., that its
business is to secure to men their civil rights, leaving all other
matters to individual volition or voluntary co-operation. Thus he says
in _A Letter Concerning Toleration_: “The commonwealth seems to me to
be a society of men constituted only for the procuring, preserving,
and advancing their own civil interests. Civil interests I call life,
liberty, health and indolency [freedom from pain] of body; and the
possession of outward things, such as money, lands, houses, furniture,
and the like. It is the duty of the civil magistrate, by the impartial
execution of equal laws, to secure unto all the people in general, and
to every one of his subjects in particular the just possession of these
things belonging to this life.”
In refusing to extend toleration to Roman Catholics, Locke followed
Milton in his _Areopagitica_. In those times it was believed that Rome,
if it regained power, would overthrow constitutional liberty. The
Inquisition was still active. No one advocated universal toleration
except members of persecuted minorities. In the reign of James II, most
English Dissenters, when offered toleration on condition that the Roman
Catholics should also be tolerated, declined the boon.
Locke, it may be said, laid down the theory so frequently set forth
by Macaulay--that the duty of Government is to preserve the lives and
property of its subjects, and that their other activities must be left
in the main to moral influences and to free competitive enterprise.
Locke did his business so thoroughly that the English theory remained
unchanged for more than a century and a half. Indeed, if tendencies
admitted of exact dates, we might say that Locke’s theory was almost
unchallenged until the publication of the Fabian Essays in 1889.
In _Civil Government_ Locke expounds the Individualistic view
of private property, and again lays down the quintessence of
Individualism: “The great and chief end, therefore, of men’s uniting
into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is
the preservation of their property.” He qualifies his theory of a
Social Contract, Compact, or Covenant, by pointing out that “men
when they enter into society give up ... liberty” of a kind; “yet
it being only with an intention in every one the better to preserve
himself, his liberty and property,” the power conferred “can never
be supposed to extend farther than the common good, but is obliged
to secure everyone’s property,” etc., etc. This artful qualification
of the _common good_, serves as a complete defence of the “Glorious
Revolution,” which gave us effective parliamentary government.
As Locke is of capital importance in our subject, those who wish to
study it thoroughly should at least read his monumental essay. Some
critics may object that we have over-valued Locke, seeing that he
was anticipated in many respects by Hobbes as well as by Milton and
other Republican writers. It is true that Hobbes, like Locke, was in
a sense Individualist. But his influence, for various reasons, was
much smaller. Besides, though Hobbes and Locke adopted many of the same
premises, they drew from them quite different conclusions. Locke argued
in favor of a free commonwealth, while Hobbes pointed to an absolute
monarchy.
Locke’s victory over all opposing schools of thought was so complete
that Emancipation and Liberty became for more than a century after
his death the keynotes of English political philosophy. Under the
early Georges individual liberty was not only the admiration of all
intelligent foreigners, but it had gone quite as far as public opinion
approved. With the American revolution democratic reformers came to the
front. But all progress was stopped by the French Revolution.
One of the few able men who wrote in nominal opposition to Locke’s
point of view was Bolingbroke, whose brilliant _Patriot King_
(published in 1749) is probably more admired today than it was at the
time of his death. But Bolingbroke, though he had a more extended
view of the functions of Government than Locke, did not write in
strong opposition to his principles. His ideal, “a patriot king at the
head of a united people,” was capable of a more or less “democratic”
interpretation.
The policy of Walpole, and indeed his successors, was _Quieta non
movere_, “Let sleeping dogs lie.” A politician might have said, “We
are all individualists now.” Tory Dr. Johnson and non-party Goldsmith
joined in composing the couplet:
“How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which kings or laws can cause or cure!”
In the same year that the _Patriot King_ was published appeared the far
more important _L’Esprit des Lois_ of Montesquieu, a revolutionary book
because it introduced the historical method. It helped to confirm the
prevalent mode of thought, because it held up the British Constitution
to the admiration of mankind.
We may then take it for granted that among thinkers and writers there
was little effective opposition to Individualism in the eighteenth
century.
In the economic sphere Hume, Tucker and Burke were all advocates of
free trade and industrial emancipation from red tape regulations. But
Adam Smith was the great architect. Individualism, already firmly
rooted in England, was made impregnable in economics for generations
by his _Wealth of Nations_, which appeared in 1776. At second hand
or otherwise this work is so well known that it would be waste of
time to dilate upon it. Until Adam Smith came into the field the
Individualistic practice in politics had not, as a rule, extended to
trade in spite of Walpole’s experiments in that direction. But within
seventy years the triumph of _laissez faire_ in economics was complete.
Pitt, the first great modern Tory statesman, absorbed Adam Smith’s
teaching and educated his party. This was a decisive factor; till
then the one check upon Individualism had been Tory hostility to the
Whigs--the political heirs of Locke. Henceforward the Tories, though
as a body inclined to Protection and State control of trade, could
be persuaded by leaders like Huskisson or Peel (however unwillingly)
to remove restrictions from commerce and industry; indeed, in late
Victorian days their leader, Lord Salisbury, and the bulk of his
Parliamentary followers remained Free Traders. Free Trade means the
absence of a Protective Tariff. Freedom of Trade means freedom not
only from tariffs but from restrictions and regulations of all kinds,
including those imposed by Trade Unions or combinations of employers,
as well as those imposed by Government. This robust growth of economic
Individualism was largely due to the seed sown by the _Wealth of
Nations_ and to the popular arguments of Cobden and the Manchester
School.
It is impossible here to do more than glance at the important
developments of _laissez faire_ in France and the United States.
In France the movement for economic emancipation was led by the
Physiocrats, who by their contemporaries were called “Economistes.”
Many of their members, as Quesnay and Turgot, were great and
beneficent figures in the history of France. The zeal they displayed
for industrial and commercial liberty was natural in reflective men
contemplating the feudal servitude of the French people, who were,
like Rousseau’s Man, everywhere in chains. They rightly attributed
the poverty and misery of France to the obsolete regulations
which everywhere sterilized effort and enterprise. Writing in the
_Encyclopédie_, Turgot condemns “le malheureux principe qui a si
longtemps infecté l’administration du commerce, je veux dire la
manie de tout régler, et de ne jamais s’en rapporter aux hommes sur
leur propre intérêt.” The Physiocrats detected the fallacies of the
Mercantile Theory and the Balance of Trade. Adam Smith owed much to
them; but his judicious mind rejected their “crank” doctrine--that land
is the sole source of wealth. Unhappily for France, Turgot fell, and
instead of his wise reforms came revolutionary violence and the wars
that made Napoleon the military despot of France. Napoleon created
a new bureaucratic state, more efficient than the old monarchy but
hardly less subversive of freedom. Nevertheless Individualism revived
in France after Waterloo and found a brilliant protagonist in Frédéric
Bastiat, whose writings are a most lively exposure of the fallacies of
Socialism, Protectionism and Militarism.
When we turn to the United States, we find there in Thomas Jefferson
the master Individualist--for ability and consistency he has few if any
rivals in the practice of that political creed. Having received the
pure doctrine of Locke, he found during his residence in France a kind
of laboratory in which he watched the French experiments in government.
In the end he was able to establish in the United States a form of
political thought which dominated it from the first decade of the
nineteenth century and still prevails.[8] This may be called a triumph
in observation and experiment, extremely rare in practical politics.
The American tariff, indeed, is contrary to Jefferson’s philosophy. But
it must be remembered that the United States constitutes the largest
and richest free trade area in the world with forty-eight states
enjoying complete liberty of exchange for all their products and a
maximum of freedom from economic restrictions.
We must now turn to England and the Industrial Revolution which will
engage our attention more closely than its twin French sister. This
vast change, which lasted roughly from 1760-1846, is now described
in all text-books. England passed from home industries to factory
industries. The Individualist régime, which then prevailed, enabled her
to effect the change with comparative ease, and a period of wonderful
expansion followed. For the second half of the nineteenth century Great
Britain led the world in manufactures, commerce and shipping. Capital
accumulated. Wages rose steadily. All classes prospered. The eighteenth
century had been the age of optimists, and Adam Smith was one of
them. He believed that Heaven would help those who helped themselves,
and his anticipation of the prosperity which would follow commercial
freedom was realized in Victorian England. One of his doctrines was
that, if the individual trader were left to himself, the study of his
own advantage would lead him to a course of action which would also be
advantageous to society. Let him pursue his own interest, and he would
be “led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his
intention.”
In the literature of Individualism after Locke, Bentham is perhaps
the leading figure; he was to the nineteenth century what Locke was
to the eighteenth, and he showed how an Individualistic conception of
society might be made the basis of wonderful improvements in public
administration. He was a strong advocate of public economy, and was
careful to insist that the functions of central and local authorities
should be limited to police, public health and other services which
do not lend themselves to voluntary effort. His small _Manual of
Political Economy_, published in 1798, puts the economic case in a
nutshell: “With the view of causing an increase to take place in the
mass of national wealth, or with a view to increase the means either
of subsistence or enjoyment, without some special reason, the general
rule is, that nothing ought to be done or attempted by government. The
motto, or watchword of government on these occasions, ought to be--_Be
quiet_;... The request which agriculture, manufacturers, and commerce
present to governments, is modest and reasonable as that which Diogenes
made to Alexander: ‘_Stand out of my sunshine._’ We have no need of
favour--we require only a secure and open path.”
That Utilitarianism, Individualism, and Political Economy enjoyed so
long a reign, and even held sway at the Universities, was largely due
to the philosophy of John Stuart Mill, a very great man, who to all
his other gifts added a candour, rare in controversy, which secures
the confidence of the reader and makes him feel that he is not reading
propaganda but accompanying the author on a journey in search of truth.
Mill’s lucidity of thought and style helped to extend his influence,
and he soon took the place of Bentham as the leading exponent of
utilitarian Individualism. His virtues and unselfish public spirit
won him the title of “the Saint of Rationalism.” Among Mill’s books
_Political Economy_, _Representative Government_, and above all, _On
Liberty_, are the most important for our subject. They influenced, and
still influence, the views of intellectuals on the critical problem
of what should be the relationship under democratic institutions
between the people and their government. Mill’s analysis of the whole
subject provides a most valuable contribution to political and economic
science. There is a fine moral elevation of tone which lifts his
arguments and conclusions far above the level of mere party controversy
or the narrow and selfish interests of classes. The argument for free
speech and complete toleration, and for individual liberty in general,
has never been developed with such persuasive force as in Mill’s brief
but masterly treatise _On Liberty_. Among Mill’s contemporaries the
most brilliant of the writers who took part in this controversy was
Macaulay. There is no more crushing exposure in our literature of the
fallacies of State Socialism and of the theory that a government ought
to be extravagant and meddlesome than Macaulay’s essay on Southey’s
_Colloquies of Society_. It is worthy to be printed alongside Bastiat’s
unmasking of the French experiments in Communism.
The most powerful political force on the side of Individualism in
the middle years of the nineteenth century was, of course, the
Manchester School under the leadership of Cobden and Bright, supported
by economists like Henry Fawcett and Thorold Rogers. It was equally
opposed to Protectionism, Militarism and Socialism. With its support
Gladstone introduced a severe economy into all departments of State and
instituted the financial control of an efficient Treasury Department on
the principles already laid down by Sir Robert Peel.
Among the apostles of Individualism after the death of Cobden and
Mill were Herbert Spencer and his disciple Auberon Herbert. Herbert
Spencer’s _The Man versus the State_ is an effective pamphlet against
the Socialistic tendencies which began to permeate both the Liberal
and Conservative Parties in the ’Eighties and the ’Nineties of last
century. Among the politicians who aided this movement the most
conspicuous was Joseph Chamberlain. His Radical Programme was issued in
1885, and when he passed over to the Conservative Party he took with
him some of its items, including free education, which was carried by
Lord Salisbury’s Government.
Meanwhile, a Socialist Party was being gradually formed under such
leaders as Hyndman, Morris and Keir Hardie. In 1889 there appeared
the _Fabian Essays_, which won many converts to a moderate and
progressive type of Socialism. Its most brilliant exponent was Mr.
Bernard Shaw; but it owed even more to the researchful industry
and incessant activity of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb. A little later
appeared Blatchford’s _Merrie England_, which caught the popular
fancy and helped to turn many working class Radicals into Socialists.
But it was not until the Great War, with all the terrible suffering
and economic loss which accompanied and followed it, that British
industry and capital were at last confronted with a strong Labour
Party and threatened by an active group of Communists who aimed at
the expropriation of property and at the Marxian ideal known as the
“Dictatorship of the Proletariat.” Since then Socialist propaganda has
been very active among the working classes, and a considerable section
of the British Press has been inclined to compromise with its proposals
rather than to meet them and counter them by the principles and
arguments of Individualism, opposing free competition and enterprise to
monopolistic combinations and bureaucratic red tape.
THE FREE MAN’S LIBRARY
ACTON, LORD. _Essays on Freedom and Power._ Beacon Press. 1948. 452 pp.
Lord Acton (1834-1902) is chiefly remembered today through a single
quotation: “All power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.” But he was one of the most deeply learned men of his time,
and recognized as few have ever done the true nature and value of
liberty. It is, he declared, “not a means to a higher political end. It
is itself the highest political end.”
His lifelong object was to write a great “History of Liberty,” but
he immersed himself so deeply in reading and research that he never
lived to complete it. Only two essays resulted from all this laborious
preparation: “The History of Freedom in Antiquity” and “The History of
Freedom in Christianity.” Both are included in this collection selected
by Gertrude Himmelfarb, who contributes an excellent introduction. In
the opinion of F. A. Hayek, the tradition of true individualism is most
perfectly represented in the nineteenth century in the work of Alexis
de Tocqueville in France and Lord Acton in England.
ACTON, LORD. _The History of Freedom and Other Essays._ Macmillan.
1907. 638 pp.
An earlier collection of Acton’s essays.
ADAMS, JOHN. _The Political Writings of John Adams._ Edited by George
A. Peek, Jr. Liberal Arts Press. 1955. 223 pp.
John Adams’ enduring title to fame was his grasp of the principles of
republican conservatism. He “vindicated with vigor and consistency such
basic ideas of the American Constitution as the balanced and limited
powers of the government, the right of the minority to protection
against the tyranny of the majority and the inseparable connection
between liberty and property.... The heart of the second President’s
political philosophy is summed up in one brief sentence in his _Defense
of the American Constitution_. ‘Power is always abused when unlimited
and unbalanced.’”--William Henry Chamberlin, in _The Freeman_.
ALLEN, C. K. _Law and Orders._ London: Stevens. 1946. 385 pp.
An inquiry into the nature and scope of delegated legislation and
executive powers in England. “In this scholarly study Dr. Allen, who
holds to the liberal view of the state, wrestles with the problem of
how a proper balance between the legislative and executive powers
in Britain’s government can be restored and maintained.”--_Foreign
Affairs._ The book is valuable for Americans because this problem of
balance has become even more serious for us than for Britain.
ALLEN, C. K. _Bureaucracy Triumphant._ Oxford University Press. 1931.
156 pp.
“This little collection of essays is highly instructive to both the
lawyer and legislator and while its references are solely to the
situation as it exists in England, its lesson is one that might well
be heard in the United States.”--S. H. Hofstadter, in _Columbia Law
Review_.
ANDERSON, BENJAMIN M. _Economics and the Public Welfare._ Van
Nostrand. 1949. 602 pp.
An economic and financial history of the United States from 1913 to a
little beyond the end of World War II. I take the liberty of quoting
from my own foreword to the book: “[Anderson’s] _The Value of Money_
[1917] is one of the classics of American economic writing.... The
present work is destined to take a similar rank among American economic
and financial histories. It is already the outstanding economic and
financial history for the period it covers.... Few economic histories
have ever interlaced theory and interpretation so completely and
successfully with the record of the facts.... Its sense of drama, its
unfailing lucidity, its emphasis on basic economic principles, its
recognition of the crucial roles played by outstanding individuals,
its realistic detailed description of the disastrous consequences
of flouting moral principles or of trying to prevent the forces of
the market from operating, combine to give this book a sustained
readability seldom found in serious economic writing.”
ANDREWS, MATTHEW PAGE. _Social Planning by Frontier Thinkers._ Richard
R. Smith. 1944. 94 pp.
A satire on social planning and planners by an historical scholar. It
consists in large part of quotations from recent writings by so-called
“advanced thinkers.”
ANGELL, NORMAN. _The Great Illusion._ Putnam. 1911.
Several years before the outbreak of World War I, Norman Angell
challenged the then almost universally accepted theory that military
and political power give a nation commercial and social advantages.
He contended that the wealth of our modern world is founded upon
credit and commercial contract which vanishes before an invading host
and leaves nothing to reward the conqueror, but involves him in its
collapse. His theme, in brief, was that nobody wins a modern war. “It
may be doubted whether, within it entire range, the peace literature
of the Anglo-Saxon world has ever produced a more fascinating or
significant study.”--A. S. Hershey, in _American Political Science
Review_, 1911.
ANGELL, SIR NORMAN. _After All: The Autobiography of Norman Angell._
Farrar, Straus and Young. 1952. 370 pp.
“Although Sir Norman is wholly unconscious of this, the picture is of
a rarely elevated and noble life. Besides the record of that life,
this book is enriched by Sir Norman’s reflections--veritable little
essays in some cases--on a wide variety of topics ... [including] The
Incredible Gullibility of Believers in Freedom under Socialism.”--Max
Eastman, in _The Freeman_.
ANGELL, NORMAN. _The Public Mind._ Dutton. 1927. 232 pp.
“A stimulating book.... Its importance to Individualists lies in the
emphasis it indirectly gives to the desirability of restricting State
action to spheres in which popular passion and prejudice, and the
ability of politicians to exploit them can have least effect.”--PI.
ANSHEN, RUTH NANDA (ed.). _Freedom: Its Meaning._ Harcourt. 1940. 686
pp.
A symposium in which forty-one contributors have expressed their views
on what freedom means to them. The volume runs to over a quarter of a
million words. The contributions reflect little consistency with each
other in viewpoint or philosophy.
ARENDT, HANNAH. _Origins of Totalitarianism._ Harcourt. 1951. 477 pp.
A search by a German-born author and scholar for the deeper roots of
anti-semitism, imperialism, and totalitarianism. Virginia Kirkus called
it “a highly serious and commanding study.” One reviewer objected to it
on the ground that “too much of her interpretation is taken from the
particular experience of Germany”; and another reviewer on the ground
that: “She attempts to give scholarly support to the increasingly
widely held dictum that Soviet Communism is nothing but Red fascism.”
ARISTOTLE. _Politics._ 330 B.C. Many editions. 337 pp.
In his introduction to the 1920 Oxford edition (translated by Benjamin
Jowett), H. W. C. Davis reminds us that this classic embodies
“theories of perennial value, and refutations of fallacies which are
always re-emerging.” There is a brilliant answer to Plato’s proposals
to abolish private property and to communize wives and children.
ASHTON, E. B. _The Fascist: His State and Mind._ Putnam. 1937. 320 pp.
“Helps one to understand the system of ideas ruling our enemies and the
differences which separate their minds from ours.”--F. A. Hayek.
ASHTON, T. S. _The Industrial Revolution._ Oxford University Press.
1948. 167 pp.
For at least a century (in part under the influence of Karl Marx) most
of the economic historians have portrayed the Industrial Revolution
as a catastrophe which caused the working class untold misery and
brought about a sort of economic and spiritual Age of Darkness. In this
remarkable little book Dr. Ashton, professor of economic history at
the University of London, with more careful scholarship presents the
Industrial Revolution as what it was--an achievement which, through the
application of science to industry and the increased use of capital,
led not only to a rapid growth of population but to a rise in the real
incomes of a considerable section of the working class. Dr. Ashton
stresses the intellectual and economic as well as the technical aspects
of the movement. (See also his contribution to _Capitalism and the
Historians_, listed under F. A. Hayek.)
AUSTIN, BERTRAM H., AND LLOYD, W. F. _The Secret of High Wages._ Dodd.
1926. 124 pp.
In 1925, at a time of great industrial depression in Britain, the
authors, two English engineers, came to the United States in an effort
to discover the secret of our unprecedented prosperity. Their inquiry
was mainly concerned with the causes of high wages in industry combined
with low cost of production. The book was originally a confidential
report, but was published following a suggestion from the City Editor
of the London _Times_.
BACKMAN, JULES. _Wages and Prices._ Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation for
Economic Education. 1947. 88 pp.
An excellent statistical reference work on the levels and relationships
of wages, prices, costs and profits in recent years. The author points
out how these facts are ignored or misread by those who are trying to
fix or change wages and prices by force. The evils of price-control,
labor monopolies and currency inflation are dealt with incidentally.
BAGEHOT, WALTER. _Physics and Politics._ 1869. Several editions.
(Knopf. 1948.) 230 pp.
An original and penetrating study of the impact of science and
invention on politics, and of political institutions on knowledge.
Bagehot shows how in the early history of mankind blind obedience to
usage and custom seemed necessary to social cohesion and survival, but
after the transition from the principle of status to that of contract
was finally achieved, it was liberty that ensured the greatest social
strength and progress. “As soon as governments by discussion have
become strong enough to secure a stable existence, and as soon as they
have broken the fixed rule of old custom, and have awakened the dormant
inventiveness of men, then, for the first time, almost every part of
human nature begins to spring forward.... And this is the true reason
of all those panegyrics on liberty which are often so measured in
expression but are in essence so true to life and nature. Liberty is
the strengthening and developing power.”
BAGEHOT, WALTER. _The English Constitution._ 1867. Oxford University
Press. 1933. 312 pp.
This classic work was the first to make clear the real nature of the
British constitution in its modern development. That constitution is
not based, as Montesquieu thought, on the “separation of powers,” but,
on the contrary, on “the close union, the nearly complete fusion,
of the executive and legislative powers.” In this respect Bagehot
contrasted the British and American constitutions to the disadvantage
of the latter. As the preservation of ordered liberty depends upon the
existence of a sound political system, Bagehot’s book deserves the
close study of Americans as well as Englishmen. He was a brilliant
stylist as well as a brilliant thinker.
BAGEHOT, WALTER. _Economic Studies._ 1880. Stanford, Calif.: Academic
Reports. 1953. 236 pp.
The essays in this book mainly elaborate classical English
_laissez-faire_ economics. They deal with Adam Smith, Malthus, Ricardo,
“the late Mr. Mill,” and such subjects as “The Postulates of English
Political Economy” and “The Growth of Capital.” “Bagehot, Editor of
_The Economist_, was one of the finest thinkers and writers of his
time. He was always an advocate of individual and commercial freedom.
His best known books are on the _English Constitution_ and _Lombard
Street_.”--PI.
BAILWARD, W. A. _The Slippery Slope and Other Papers._ London: Murray.
1920. 236 pp.
“A collection of essays and articles written over a period of twenty
years during which the author was engaged in Poor Law and charitable
administration. By ‘the slippery slope’ is meant the path of least
resistance in dealing with social problems, that is, the path of
pauperism and Socialism.”--PI.
BAILWARD, W. A., AND LOCH, C. S. _Old Age Pensions._ 1903.
“A well-argued case against old age pensions. Its interest is chiefly
historical, but it might well be read by students interested in the
history of ideas.”--PI.
BAKER, JOHN R. _Science and the Planned State._ Macmillan. 1945. 120
pp.
Dr. Baker, a lecturer in zoology at Oxford University, contends that
central planning and direction of scientific research do more to
inhibit than to promote the growth of true scientific knowledge and
discovery.
BARBER, THOMAS H. _Where We Are At._ Scribner’s. 1950. 255 pp.
The author, who has been a lawyer, city official, and cowpuncher,
describes his book as “a guide for enlightened conservatives.” He urges
removal of all price-fixing, subsidies and special group privileges and
return to a free market economy.
BASTABLE, C. F. _The Theory of International Trade._ 1897, etc.
Macmillan. 197 pp.
This short book, which first appeared in 1897, long held the field as
the standard exposition of the “classical” theory of foreign trade
and policy. It is balanced, vigorous and lucid, and uncompromisingly
defends freedom of trade. Bastable’s “principal conclusion as to
conduct” is that “Governments in their dealings with foreign trade
should be guided by the much-vilified maxim of _laissez faire_. To
avoid misinterpretation, let it be remembered that the precept rests
on no theory of abstract right, or vague sentiment of cosmopolitanism,
but on the well-founded belief that national interests are thereby
advanced, and that even if we benefit others by an enlightened policy,
we are ourselves richly rewarded.”
BASTER, A. S. J. _The Little Less._ London: Methuen. 1947. 161 pp.
A witty and well-informed little book on “the political economy of
restrictionism.” It consists mainly of a satiric history of the
“lunatic years” in Great Britain between 1919 and 1939, when various
ingenious devices were introduced by which everybody expected to get a
little more for producing a little less. The story is told under the
separate chapter headings of Producing Less, Growing Less, Working
Less, Transporting Less, and Trading Less. There are also chapters on
The Politics of Restrictionism and The Political Economy of Freedom.
BASTIAT, FRÉDÉRIC. _Economic Sophisms._ 1843-1850. Many editions. 2
vols. 548 pp. 564 pp.
“Bastiat, a friend of Cobden, was opposed to all descriptions of public
waste and government interference. Both by his writings and by his
action as a politician, he waged unceasing war against Bureaucracy,
Protection and Socialism. The book cited above gained a great
reputation; it is very witty and written in an attractive style. The
Petition of the Candlemakers against the sun, which interfered with
their industry, is well known. Each short study attacks some economic
error, or pleads for the removal of some restrictions. The truth to be
brought out is often enforced by dialogue or some other lively method.
Bastiat was an optimist. His view was that the various human impulses
and activities would, under free competition and an honest and peaceful
government, result in steady progress and increasing prosperity and
happiness. This was the theme of his _Harmonies Économiques_, of which
only the first volume appeared owing to his untimely death.
“His complete works with introductory biography were published in
France in 1855 shortly after his death. They include many brilliant
pamphlets and articles against the fallacies of State Socialism and
Communism, which were rampart in Paris in the last years of Bastiat’s
life.”--PI.
“In _Sophismes Économiques_ we have the completest and most effective,
the wisest and wittiest exposure of protectionism and its principles,
reasonings, consequences which exists in any language. Bastiat was the
opponent of socialism. In this respect also he had no equal among the
economists of France.”--_Encyclopedia Americana._
BASTIAT, FRÉDÉRIC. _The Law._ 1850. Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation for
Economic Education. 1950. 75 pp.
A separate publication of a new translation (by Dean Russell) of one of
Bastiat’s most famous pamphlets. “Law,” Bastiat maintains, “is solely
the organization of the individual right of self-defense which existed
before law was formalized. Law is justice.” But the law has been
perverted, and applied to annihilating the justice it was supposed to
maintain. Protectionism, socialism and communism are all forms of legal
plunder.
BAUDIN, LOUIS. _L’Aube d’un Nouveau Libéralisme._ Paris: Librairie de
Médicis. 1953. 220 pp.
An acute, scholarly, documented, but extremely readable account of
“the dawn of a new liberalism”--a liberalism resting economically on
faith in the free market and politically on individual freedom within
a proper framework of law and morals. On pages 144 to 150 the author
presents a useful survey of the literature of “neo-liberalism” and
mentions several French-language works not included in the present
bibliography.
BAUDIN, LOUIS. _Les Incas du Pérou._ Paris: Librairie de Médicis.
1947. 188 pp.
A shorter study of the same subject that Professor Baudin covered
so thoroughly in his _L’Empire Socialist des Incas_, in 1928. When
the Spaniards overcame the Incas of Peru they found that a socialist
society had existed there in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
more totalitarian than perhaps any other known to history. Baudin
analyzes this society and shows the consequences of that total
socialization, many of which have remained with the native Indian
population to the present day--the complete suppression of family
sentiment, the immobilization of the individual, the disappearance
of initiative and foresight, the complete petrifaction of life, the
creation of a slave mentality. The book is written with great lucidity
and vigor. Professor Baudin has a final chapter discussing the lessons
of the empire of the Incas for our own time.
BEAULIEU, P. LEROY. _Collectivism._ London: Murray. 1908. 343 pp.
“An important analysis and criticism of Collectivism. That progress has
always followed the substitution of individual ownership for collective
ownership is clearly brought out. The relatively simple example of
collective ownership in land is first dealt with and industrial
collectivism is then examined. Schäffle’s _Quintessence of Socialism_
is taken as the only available source of information on the _practical
application_ of Collectivism, and yet Leroy Beaulieu succeeds in
proving its inherent incapability of performing its duties mainly by
quotations from the book itself.”--PI.
BECK, JAMES MONTGOMERY. _Our Wonderland of Bureaucracy._ Macmillan.
1933. 290 pp.
A study, by a former Solicitor General of the United States, of the
growth of bureaucracy in the federal government, and its destructive
effect upon the Constitution.
BENDA, JULIEN. _The Treason of the Intellectuals._ Morrow. 1928. 244
pp.
This celebrated book first appeared in France under the title _La
Trahison des clercs_. “That the intellectuals of the world have sold
out to utilitarianism, leaving their proper devotion to truth and
humanity, is the theme of Julien Benda’s scorching analysis of the
current leaders of thought. By taking on political passions, the
intellectuals have played the game of the state, espoused war and
conflict and lost that universalism which is their true reason for
existence.”--_World Tomorrow._
Greatly needed today is a study with a title and theme similar to
Benda’s, which would not only cover developments in the twenty-five
years since his book appeared, and describe the intellectual and
sometimes quite literal treachery of some present-day physical
scientists, but would cover the whole drift of our litterateurs and
other intellectual leaders over the last three-quarters of a century
into a sentimental socialism--including Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and
the Webbs in England, Anatole France in France, and the corresponding
figures in Germany and America. It would be important to analyze
not merely individual figures but the mob psychology of our modern
intellectuals and the ease with which they were blown about by the
fashionable winds of doctrine.
BENHAM, FREDERIC, AND BODDY, F. M. _Principles of Economics._ Pitman.
1947.
A textbook intended for an introductory course, to provide “the simple
tools of modern economic analysis.” Considerable attention is also
given to the effects of government intervention upon a capitalistic
system.
BENN, SIR ERNEST. _Confessions of a Capitalist._ London: Hutchinson.
1925. 287 pp.
“A telling defense of individual initiative.”--_London Financial News._
“A book which is unique in economic literature. Sir Ernest’s pen is
as vivid as his mind is fearless and independent.... He tells us the
most intimate details of his business.... The whole is accompanied by
a running line of argument on the fundamental problems of economics,
which is set out so skillfully as to be as entertaining and arresting
as the autobiographical details.”--Lionel Robbins.
BENN, SIR ERNEST. _The Return to Laisser Faire._ London: Ernest Benn.
1928. 221 pp.
An argument against the extension of governmental activity and
interference in England and a plea for a return to individualism.
Public aid to housing and the growing burden of bureaucracy are special
targets. Even reviewers hostile to the author’s thesis paid tribute to
“the entertaining style, the caustic wit, the arresting illustration.”
BENN, SIR ERNEST. _The State the Enemy._ London: Ernest Benn. 1953.
175 pp.
The author reviews the British experiment in state intervention and
socialism all the way from Lloyd George, who inherited a budget of
£100 million, to Attlee, who left it at £4,000 million, and sums up
the record of failure: “Nationalization has not brought the expected
smile to the face of the worker, full employment has not encouraged
production, the management of money has not improved its quality;
in fact, all the anticipations of the original Fabian Essays, the
bases of modern Socialism, have proved disappointing, if not entirely
fallacious.” The style is lively, witty and aphoristic.
BENTHAM, JEREMY. _Works._ Edited by John Bowring. 1838-1843.
Edinburgh: Tait. 11 vols.
“A considerable amount of Bentham is still worthy of study. He may be
considered as the philosophic founder of modern British democracy.
He held that the State exists to promote the individual happiness of
the citizens who compose it and that ministers are the servants of
the electors. For our purposes, the more important works are: (1) _A
Fragment on Government_ (1776), (2) _Defense of Usury_ (1787), (3) _An
Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation_ (1789). As a
Utilitarian, an Individualist, and a reformer of laws and institutions,
he deserves more attention than he now receives. Bentham is, like
Locke, influential, but known chiefly through the work of his pupils
and disciples.”--PI.
BENTHAM, JEREMY. _Defense of Usury._ 1787. Many editions. 232 pp.
Jeremy Bentham, whose reputation has hitherto been that of a moralist,
a founder of Utilitarianism, a logician, a great political and legal
philosopher and reformer, was also, it is now being discovered, an
outstanding economist. Until very recent years, by far the greater part
of Bentham’s economic work was completely unknown--locked up in chaotic
and illegible manuscripts. The Royal Economic Society commissioned Dr.
W. Stark to make a closer scrutiny of this material, which in 1952 was
published in three volumes under the title _Jeremy Bentham’s Economic
Writings_ (London: Allen and Unwin).
The _Defense of Usury_, however, which is included in these volumes,
was published in 1787 and acquired immediate celebrity. Bentham was a
great admirer of Adam Smith, whom he called “the father of political
economy” and “a writer of consummate genius.” But he was not an
uncritical admirer, and in the _Defense of Usury_, which he published
eleven years after the appearance of _The Wealth of Nations_, he
ventured to take the master to task for his inconsistency in approving
so-called anti-usury laws while opposing government price-fixing in
practically every other field.
“The liberty of bargaining in money matters,” wrote Bentham, is “a
species of liberty which has never yet found an advocate.” Yet “fixing
the rate of interest, being a coercive measure, and an exception to the
general rule in favor of the enforcement of contracts, it lies upon the
advocates of the measure to produce reasons for it.” Examining the
reasons that had been offered, Bentham rejected them as invalid, and
proceeded to explain the positive “mischiefs” done by the anti-usury
laws. He concluded that there is “no more reason for fixing the price
of the use of money than the price of goods.”
BENTLEY, ELIZABETH. _Out of Bondage._ Devin-Adair. 1951. 311 pp.
In this autobiographical account Miss Bentley, an American college
girl, describes how she entered the Communist party, took part in its
secret underground for ten years, and later collaborated with the
Federal Bureau of Investigation after she left the party. Although
her story on its appearance was ridiculed by some reviewers as
“school-girlish” and “phoney,” many of her most startling charges have
been confirmed by later investigation.
BERGER-PERRIN, RENÉ. _Vitalité Libérale._ Paris: Éditions SÉDIF. 1953.
93 pp.
M. Berger-Perrin is Secretary General of _L’Association de l’Enterprise
à Capital Personnel_. “After a quarter of a century of the predominance
of authoritarian and collectivist ideas,” he writes, “liberal thought
today is reappearing with increased force and profundity.” To prove
this he has put together a little anthology of excerpts from more
than fifty writers--French, English, American, German, Norwegian,
Swiss, Dutch, Mexican, etc. These include not only economists, but
sociologists, historians, journalists, and businessmen.
BERLIN, ISAIAH. _Historical Inevitability._ Oxford University Press.
1954. 79 pp.
The main purpose of this lecture is to consider a tendency which has,
in the West, been growing since the eighteenth century, to regard human
history as the product of impersonal “forces” obeying “inexorable”
laws; with the implied consequence that individual human beings are
seldom responsible for bringing about situations for which they are
commonly praised or blamed, since the real culprit is “the historical
process” itself--which individuals can do little to influence. “A
magnificent assertion of the reality of human freedom, of the role of
free choice in history.”--London _Economist_.
BLUM, WALTER, AND KALVEN, HARRY, JR. _The Uneasy Case for Progressive
Taxation._ University of Chicago Press. 1953. 107 pp.
“Progressive-tax theory has been due for an overhauling, and the
authors do a highly competent job.... The work is distinguished by
penetrating analysis, comprehensive coverage of sources, and excellent
documentation.... Rates high honors in the field.”--_Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science._
BÖHM-BAWERK, EUGEN VON. _Karl Marx and the Close of His System._ 1896,
etc. London: Unwin. 221 pp.
Until the appearance of _Socialism_ by Ludwig von Mises (q.v.), this
was by far the best criticism of the economics of Karl Marx. For the
points that it covers--chiefly the fallacies of the Marxian labor
theory of value--it is still superb, unanswerable, and irreplaceable.
BÖHM-BAWERK, EUGEN VON. _The Positive Theory of Capital._ 1888.
(Macmillan. 1891.) 428 pp.
One of the most brilliant and original contributions--if not the
most brilliant and original--ever made to the theory of capital and
interest. Böhm-Bawerk, declares the _Encyclopedia of the Social
Sciences_, “was at a very early age one of the first to accept the
teaching of Karl Menger, giving all his powers to the development
and the defense of the subjective theory of value: it is to him that
both the success and the formulation of the theory are largely due.”
According to Frank W. Taussig, _The Positive Theory of Capital_ “is a
landmark in the development of thought. As an intellectual performance,
there are few books on economics in any language that can be ranked
with it. One may not agree with all that is said, but the book bears
the unmistakable impression of a great mind.”
BOWLEY, A. L. _The Division of the Product of Industry. The Change in
the Distribution of the National Income, 1880-1913._ Oxford: Clarendon
Press. 1919. 1920. 60 pp. 27 pp.
“The Socialist case obtains support primarily through the existence of
a widespread idea that wealth is so unfairly distributed that a large
and permanent improvement in the material condition of the working
classes could be obtained merely by means of a redistribution....
These two works attempt to determine, by a careful examination of all
the existing relevant data, what the true position is. The following
quotations, although not fairly indicating the nature of Professor
Bowley’s conclusions, show the immense importance of these essays to
those who believe that social amelioration is to be sought along the
lines of redistribution.
“Discussing the problem of an advance in the scale of wages, he says:
‘In the majority [of industries] no such increase as would make
possible the standards of living now urgently desired, and promised in
the election addresses of all the political parties, could have been
obtained without wrecking the industry.’
“As regards the change in distribution over the thirty-three
year period analyzed, he says: ‘The constancy of so many of the
proportions and rates of movement found in the investigation seems
to point to a fixed system of causation and has an appearance of
inevitableness.’--_The Change in the Distribution of the National
Income, 1880-1913._”--PI.
BOWLEY, A. L., AND STAMP, SIR JOSIAH. _The National Income._ Oxford:
Clarendon Press. 1924. 1927. 59 pp.
“The general conclusion of this book is that comparing the years 1911
and 1924, the real Social Income of [Britain] was very nearly the same
at the two dates, and that although real income per head had fallen
a little, distribution had altered slightly in favor of the manual
worker. After allowing for taxation, there was definitely less real
income available in the hands of the rich for saving or expenditure,
and whilst luxurious expenditure by the rich had diminished, a good
deal of income was available for cheaper amusements. The standard of
living of the employed working classes had clearly risen.”--PI.
BOWLEY, A. L. _Wages and Income in the United Kingdom Since 1860._
Macmillan. 1938. 151 pp.
“Professor Bowley is to be congratulated on publishing this short
résumé of a lifetime’s research into wages and incomes.... A
comprehensive and systematic guide.”--London _Economist_. “The best
reference on wage and employment indices is to the outstanding work of
A. L. Bowley.”--Joseph A. Schumpeter.
BRADFORD, GOV. WILLIAM. _Of Plymouth Plantation._ 1622. (Knopf. 1952.)
448 pp.
When the Pilgrim Fathers landed on the shores of Massachusetts they
established a communist system of land holding and cultivation, and
were soon brought to a state of famine. The governor of the colony, in
his contemporary account, describes how they finally decided that they
“should set corne every man for his owne perticuler ... and so assigned
to every family a parcell of land.” The result was an immediate
transformation in their habits of industry; and at the next harvest,
“instead of famine, now God gave them plentie ... so as any generall
wante or famine hath not been amongest them since to this day.”
BRANDT, KARL. _Reconstruction of World Agriculture._ Norton. 1945. 416
pp.
An exiled German scholar, now professor of agricultural economics at
the Food Research Institute of Stanford University, surveys the history
of world agriculture and food supply from the beginning of the first
European war to the present, and offers suggestions and programs for
libertarian agricultural policies in the postwar world. “This book,
by one of the world’s foremost agricultural economists, should be
required reading for all post-war planners.”--E. deS. Brunner, in the
_Political Science Quarterly_.
BRANT, IRVING. _Life of James Madison._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1941. 1950. 4
vols.
“A very comprehensive biography; thoroughly reliable as well as
readable.”--Felix Morley. “The third volume of Brant’s _Madison_ is a
magnificent study of one of our greatest statesmen at the climax of his
career ... and a startlingly original account of that much-discussed
document, the Constitution of the United States.”--Douglass Adair, in
the _New York Herald Tribune_.
BRESCIANI-TURRONI, CONSTANTINO. _The Economics of Inflation._ 1931.
London: Unwin. 1937. 464 pp.
Inflation not only wipes out the purchasing power of savings but
always constitutes a threat to economic liberty. This is the most
comprehensive and authoritative account of the great German inflation
from 1914 to 1923. As Lionel Robbins writes in his foreword: “It was
the most colossal thing of its kind in history: and, next probably
to the Great War itself, it must bear responsibility for many of the
political and economic difficulties of our generation. It destroyed
the wealth of the more solid elements in German society: and it left
behind a moral and economic disequilibrium, apt breeding ground for
the disasters which have followed. Hitler is the foster-child of the
inflation.”
BRIGHT, JOHN. _Speeches on Questions of Public Policy._ Macmillan.
1878.
“Eloquent expositions of public policy on many subjects. The principles
are Individualistic, favoring peace, free trade and public economy on
the lines of his friend Richard Cobden.”--PI.
BROMFIELD, LOUIS. _The Farm._ Harper. 1933. 346 pp.
A novel, probably in part autobiographical, dealing with the fortunes
of four generations of a family living on a farm in northern Ohio. It
begins in 1815 and ends a century later. “Surpasses many sociological
treatises in insight.”--Wilhelm Röpke.
BROMFIELD, LOUIS. _Pleasant Valley._ Harper. 1945. 302 pp.
Partly autobiographical reminiscence, and partly an exposition of the
author’s theories of farming and farm life. He relates how, after many
years spent abroad, he returned to his native Ohio and there built up a
new home and a new way of life founded on the old ways of the pioneer
American farmer. Mr. Bromfield puts great stress on the virtue of
self-reliance in a climate of economic liberty.
BROMFIELD, LOUIS. _A New Pattern for a Tired World._ Harper. 1953. 314
pp.
“Vigorously written by an obviously sincere and devoted American, who
is neither isolationist nor suspected on any other score, but who
profoundly believes that the key to our future existence and our future
happiness lies in improving our economic status and the economic status
of our neighbors by achieving the ultimate in free trade.”--C. W.
Weinberger, in _San Francisco Chronicle_.
BROOKINGS, R. S. _Industrial Ownership._ Macmillan. 1925. 107 pp.
“The Economic Emancipation of Labor” is suggested by the author as
an alternative title for this book. It deals principally with the
remarkable tendency toward diffusion in the ownership of property
taking place in the United States, a movement that Professor Carver
regarded as “an economic revolution.”
BROOKINGS INSTITUTION. _Economics and Public Policy._ Washington, D.
C. 1955. 157 pp.
These are the Brookings Lectures for 1954 as delivered by four
American economists, Arthur Smithies, Joseph J. Spengler, Frank H.
Knight and Jacob Viner, and by two British economists, John Jewkes and
Lionel Robbins. Two of the lectures bear especially on the subject
of the present bibliography. Professor Knight’s lecture on “Economic
Objectives in a Changing World” is instructive, but rather for the
questions it raises than for those it answers. Professor Robbins’
lecture on “Freedom and Order” is lucid and illuminating.
BRUTZKUS, BORIS. _Economic Planning in Soviet Russia._ London:
Routledge. 1935. 234 pp.
An acute discussion, by an exiled Russian economist, of the
difficulties and problems of central economic planning. It is
especially valuable because the author combines theoretical insight
with a wide factual knowledge of Russian conditions. He explains, for
example, why the great Dnieprostroy dam and hydroelectric plant, the
prewar pride of Soviet Russia, was not justified economically.
BRYCE, JAMES. _The American Commonwealth._ Macmillan. 1888, etc. 2
vols. 743 pp. 963 pp.
A classic work on the American political and social system, written
half a century after de Tocqueville’s _Democracy in America_ and
surpassed only by that work insofar as their fields overlap. Viscount
Bryce declared that his purpose, unlike de Tocqueville’s, was less
to discuss the merits of “democracy” than “to paint the institutions
and people of America as they are.” In this he succeeded far beyond
any native observer of the time. His interpretations are made from the
standpoint of the liberal tradition.
BRYNES, ASHER. _Government Against the People._ Dodd, Mead. 1946. 265
pp.
“A scholarly and well written study of the growth and development of
the police systems in Russia, Great Britain and the United States as
illustrative of a basic factor making for war or peace in the modern
world.”--F. R. Dulles. The author contends that where people are free,
the police force is decentralized, limited in scope, and nonpolitical.
BUBER, MARGARETE. _Under Two Dictators._ Dodd, Mead. 1951. 331 pp.
In 1925 the author and her husband, Heinz Neumann, deposed leader
of the German Communist party, went to Moscow to translate for the
Comintern. In 1937 her husband was arrested and she never saw him
again. She herself was arrested the next year. Her book is the account
of her sufferings in the Soviet slave camp of Karaganda, and in the
Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck, where she spent five years. In
1945 she was liberated by the American Army. “This book can destroy
the last outposts of the Soviet apologists in the West. It should be
read by all the fellow-travelers, the Stalinoids, the double-standard
‘liberals’ and the phoney ‘progressives’ who have acted as Stalin’s
stooges when humanity needed every decent man and woman to defend
itself against the onslaughts of those who thirst for concentrated
power.”--Peter Blake, in _The New York Times_.
BUCKLEY, WILLIAM F., JR. _God and Man at Yale._ Regnery. 1951. 240 pp.
A recent Yale graduate examines and criticizes the teaching of religion
and economics at his university. As John Chamberlain sums up in his
Introduction, Mr. Buckley concludes that the values inculcated at
Yale “are agnostic as to religion, ‘interventionist’ and Keynesian
as to economics, and collectivist as applied to the relation of the
individual to society and government.” Of the five chapters in the
book, the most important for the purposes of this bibliography is the
second, “Individualism at Yale,” in which the author takes telling
quotations from the leading textbooks used in Yale undergraduate
economics courses to prove his case that the teaching is dominantly
collectivist. What broadens the significance of this chapter is the
probability that a like case could be made out against the economics
teaching in many other leading American universities today.
BUDENZ, LOUIS F. _The Techniques of Communism._ Regnery. 1954. 342 pp.
“The present book,” declares the author in his Introduction, “is an
analytical and critical study of Communism. It deals with Communist
ideology, strategy, and ‘movement’ as presented by the Marxist-Leninist
classics themselves and by current Communist documents and
directives.... It analyzes Communist activities as the Communist is
instructed to carry them out.”
Various chapters deal with the communist philosophy and apparatus;
communist phraseology (“Aesopian language,” involved “scientific”
argumentation, double-talk, definitions turned on their heads, and
the Big Lie technique); the strategy and tactics of communism; the
training of communists; the role of the communist press; and various
other methods of affecting public opinion and infiltrating unions, the
schools, minority groups, and government agencies. There is a final
chapter on “How to Fight Communism.” The book is vigorous, clear and
carefully documented. Every Congressman, high government official, and
newspaper editor ought to master the lessons it contains.
BUDENZ, LOUIS F. _This Is My Story._ Whittlesey. 1947. 379 pp.
The former managing editor of _The Daily Worker_, the American organ of
the Communist party, describes how he joined the party in 1935, served
in various editorial capacities, became for six of his ten years with
the party a member of the Communist National Committee, broke and was
converted to Catholicism in 1945.
BUDENZ, LOUIS F. _Men Without Faces._ Harper. 1950. 305 pp.
Here the former high-ranking communist, who returned to the Roman
Catholic Church in 1945, discusses the operations of the Communist
party in the United States, describes in detail the methods it
employed, and accuses it of forming a fifth column directly under
the control of Soviet Russia. In a chapter on “The Capture of the
Innocents” he explains how “some of our best minds are moved around by
the Communists like pawns.” “The master key to the Soviet conquest of
the United States,” he concludes, “might well be our own complacency.”
BUDENZ, LOUIS F. _The Cry Is Peace._ Regnery. 1952. 242 pp.
An exposure of the Soviet “crusade for peace” and a criticism of
American “appeasement” policies. “This is by all odds one of the best
available books on the important subject of the Communist conspiracy
against the United States.”--W. H. Chamberlin.
BUER, MABEL C. _Health, Wealth and Population: 1760-1815._ London:
Routledge. 1926. 290 pp.
“A critical contribution to the study of economic history. Its
importance is wider than the ... title would suggest, and it is a book
with which all students of social history should be acquainted. Miss
Buer holds that the Industrial Revolution has become the ‘villain of
the drama of economic history’ through the habit of ‘writing history
backwards’; she shows that the positive assertion at the end of the
period by Francis Place that the habits and conditions of the working
classes showed a great improvement on their condition half a century
previously, was amply justified.... The period was one of enterprise
and experiment in social betterment in many spheres, and one in which
philanthropy and benevolence ‘were never more assiduously preached’ and
practiced. This attitude is contrasted with the extreme callousness on
the part of the governing classes in the previous century.”--PI.
BURCKHARDT, JAKOB. _Force and Freedom: Reflections on History._
Pantheon Books. 1943.
Jakob Burckhardt (1818-1897), a Swiss historian and humanist, was one
of the great individualist philosophers of the nineteenth century.
His profound and searching mind foresaw the coming of collectivism.
“People today,” he wrote in 1875, “feel lost and they shudder if they
are not together in their thousands.” He predicted the coming of the
Mussolinis, Hitlers and Stalins: “My mental picture,” he wrote in a
letter in 1889, “of those terrible _simplificateurs_ who will one day
descend upon our old Europe is not an agreeable one. In my imagination
I can visualize these ruffians in the flesh.” The present book is the
first English translation of a collection of short pieces. It contains
a valuable introduction by James Hastings Nichols. “It is a book which
ranks among the classics of historico-political writing, comparable to
Edmund Burke, de Tocqueville and Fustel de Coulanges.”--Karl Lowith, in
the _Journal of Philosophy_.
BURGESS, JOHN W. _The Reconciliation of Government with Liberty._
Scribner’s. 1915. 394 pp.
A scholarly study of modern constitutional government in Europe and
America. The author, who was dean of the faculty of political science
at Columbia University, saw in the tendency to increase the authority
and functions of those holding public office a very real menace to
liberty. “We are further away today from the solution of the great
problem of the reconciliation of government and liberty,” he wrote in
1915, “than we were twenty years ago.”
BURGESS, JOHN W. _Recent Changes in American Constitutional Theory._
Columbia University Press. 1923.
Dr. Burgess takes the position that any movement contrary to limiting
the powers of government and defining and guaranteeing individual
liberty is in the wrong direction. The book traces the development of
constitutional law between 1898 and 1918.
BURKE, EDMUND. _Works._ Oxford University Press. 6 vols.
“The man who to me seems to be one of the greatest representatives of
true individualism.”--F. A. Hayek. “To do Burke justice, it would be
necessary to quote all his works; the only specimen of Burke is, _all
that he wrote_.”--William Hazlitt. For individualists, however, the
most important and most representative of his works are: _Thoughts
on the Present Discontents_ (1770); address _To the Electors of
Bristol_ (1774); the speech on _Conciliation with America_ (1775); and
_Reflections on the French Revolution_ (1790). Even William Hazlitt,
who was vehemently opposed to Burke’s stand on the French Revolution,
said: “In arriving at one error, Burke discovered a hundred truths.”
BURNHAM, JAMES. _The Coming Defeat of Communism._ John Day. 1950. 278
pp.
The author believes that communism can and will be defeated, and
without large-scale war--if the western nations, and particularly the
United States, follow some such plan of action as he presents. Even
reviewers who refused to accept this plan acknowledged the skill and
brilliance of Burnham’s writing.
BURNHAM, JAMES. _The Web of Subversion._ John Day. 1954. 248 pp.
A study based on examination of the records of Congressional
investigations since 1948 of communist underground networks in the U.
S. Government. “It would be less than just to call Mr. Burnham’s new
book a good digest of an enormous amount of material, deftly arranged,
and neatly presented. It is indeed that, to begin with--but it is also
a penetrating analysis which reveals the pattern of the fatal web
spread for us by traitors and their associates.”--Joseph McSorley, in
the _Catholic World_.
BYE, RAYMOND T. _Principles of Economics._ Crofts. 1941. 632 pp.
A well-known college textbook that presents the free enterprise point
of view.
CAIRNES, J. E. _The Character and Logical Method of Political
Economy._ Macmillan. 1857. 229 pp.
John Elliott Cairnes (1823-1875) in his day held an authority in
economics second only to that of John Stuart Mill, and is usually
regarded as the last of the English classicists. The book here listed
represents the part of his work that is still most alive; it deserves
far more study than it gets. Another leading work was _The Slave Power_
(1862), in which Cairnes expounded the inherent disadvantages of slave
labor and helped to turn British opinion in favor of the North in the
American Civil War. He accepted _laisser faire_ in government economic
policy “not as based on a scientific doctrine ... but as the surest and
most practical rule of conduct.”
CALHOUN, JOHN C. _A Disquisition on Government._ 1851. (Included in
_Calhoun: Basic Documents_. State College, Pa.: Bald Eagle Press.
1952. 329 pp.)
Calhoun (1782-1850) openly defended slavery as a positive good, and
frankly repudiated the doctrine of human equality as expressed in the
Declaration of Independence. This fact has thrown into undeserved
neglect his brilliant defense of States’ rights and the rights of
minorities. “Calhoun was concerned with one of the permanent problems
of government; and whatever one may think of the practical results of
his logic, it should be recognized that the theoretical analysis which
he presented in his _Disquisition on Government_ was a contribution
to political theory of permanent importance. The protection of
minority rights had been one of the main objectives of the American
Constitution.... The powers of the Federal government must be limited,
and a minority section must be allowed to block action detrimental
to its interests.”--Henry Bamford Parkes, in _The United States of
America: A History_.
CANNAN, EDWIN. _Wealth._ 1914, etc. Staples Press. 292 pp.
“One of the best expositions of the elements of economics ever
published. It is much more than a textbook; it is the result of
deliberate and original thought by a master economist able to see his
subject in perspective and distinguish the most essential and relevant
considerations.... It might well be made a sort of Individualist’s
bible, more especially because it does _not_ advocate Individualism or
any other system of social organization.... It is nevertheless true
that nearly all Collectivist proposals obtain support through the
existence of misconceptions which an understanding of this book would
dispel.”--PI.
CANNAN, EDWIN. _History of the Theories of Production and
Distribution._ London: King. 1924. 422 pp.
“A critical account of the writings of the classical economists. The
study of an acute history of economic theory such as this will prove
useful to those who wish to acquire the ability to detect the many
fallacies that lurk in discussions of economic problems by politicians
and popular writers. Apart from this, the book is useful as a work of
reference and the summing up in the last chapter should be read by all.
The last sentence of the book is worth quoting as representing Prof.
Cannan’s views in 1903, when the second edition was published. ‘[The
economist] is certain to disagree frequently with both Socialist and
Individualist fanatics, who support and oppose changes, not on their
merits, but according to the opinion they have formed, often on wholly
insufficient grounds, as to their being movements towards or away from
their ideal.’”--PI.
CANNAN, EDWIN. _Money._ 1918, etc. Staples Press. 136 pp.
This little work was projected as a supplementary chapter to the same
author’s _Wealth_. It is a model of lucidity and economic reasoning,
and particularly good in explaining the connection between monetary
policy and rising and falling prices. Although I would dissent from one
or two of its conclusions, it seems to me to be still the best book on
money of its length. It has gone through more than eight editions.
CANNAN, EDWIN. _An Economist’s Protest._ London: King. 1927. 438 pp.
A collection of papers written over fourteen years. “Nothing that has
been published in recent years will do so much to clarify doctrine
and promote a grasp of essentials in Economics; while amateurs of
literature, who are commonly repelled by an economic title, will find
in the collection much that will hold its own among the classics of
controversial literature.”--London _Times Literary Supplement_.
CANNAN, EDWIN. _A Review of Economic Theory._ London: King. 1929. 448
pp.
A lively but authoritative history of economic theory. It begins with
the ideas of ancient and medieval philosophers and discusses the
doctrines of the classical economists and others up to the time of the
book’s publication.
CANNAN, EDWIN. _The Economic Outlook._ London: Unwin. 1912. 312 pp.
F. A. Hayek writes of the essays in this book, as well as those in _An
Economist’s Protest_ (1927), that they “deserve, even now, renewed
and wider attention, and translation into other languages. Their
simplicity, clarity and sound common sense make them models for the
treatment of economic problems, and even some that were written before
1914 are still astonishingly topical.” Among the pupils of Edwin Cannan
who have since exerted considerable influence are Sir Theodore Gregory,
Lionel Robbins, F. C. Benham, W. H. Hutt and F. W. Paish.
CANNAN, EDWIN. _Coal Nationalisation._ London: King. 1919. 36 pp.
“This is a précis of evidence given before the Sankey Commission.
Only parts were read aloud by the Chairman, who obviously failed to
grasp its importance and relevance. Professor Cannan concluded that
nationalization would not benefit the taxpayer, the consumers of
coal or the miners themselves. As he indicated, the Commission and
the Government had ‘apparently decided “that something must be done”
before finding out whether they knew of any remedy better than the
disease.’”--PI.
CARLSON, OLIVER. _Handbook on Propaganda._ Los Angeles: Foundation for
Social Research. 1953. 110 pp.
The purpose of this handbook is “To make available to alert citizens
in all walks of life ... some basic facts about propaganda--what it
is--how it functions--and how to combat it.” There is a discussion
of the vehicles of propaganda, and separate chapters on nationalist
and internationalist, racist, government, collectivist and communist
propaganda.
CARR-SAUNDERS, SIR ALEXANDER M. _The Population Problem._ Oxford:
Clarendon Press. 1922. 516 pp.
“This is thought by some to be the most important book dealing with
the problem of numbers of mankind that has appeared since the days of
Malthus.”--PI.
CARVER, T. N. _The Present Economic Revolution in the United States._
Little, Brown. 1926. 270 pp.
“Professor Carver foresees the beginning of a new economic revolution
in the world, which appears to be developing first in the United States
of America, as the Industrial Revolution came first in England at the
close of the eighteenth century. R. Boeckel and R. S. Brookings had
already called attention to this movement, but this is the work of the
Professor of Political Economy at Harvard.... ‘It is just as possible
[he writes] to attain equality under Capitalism as under any other
system,’ and in consequence, ‘The apostles of discontent are being
robbed of their thunder....’ This study of an Individualist society is
one of the most suggestive writings on Individualism that exists.”--PI.
CARVER, T. N. _Essays in Social Justice._ Harvard University Press.
1915. 429 pp.
----. _Principles of National Economy._ Ginn. 1921. 773 pp.
Other works which expound Professor Carver’s vigorous individualistic
free enterprise philosophy.
CASSEL, GUSTAV. _From Protectionism Through Planned Economy to
Dictatorship._ London: Cobden-Sanderson. 1934. 26 pp.
This lecture, by an eminent Swedish economist who died in 1945,
is included in this list (in violation of my general rule against
including pamphlets) because it points out, with a persuasiveness,
power and compactness surpassed by no other writer, how “planned
economy,” long enough continued, must lead to despotism. “The
leadership of the State in economic affairs which advocates of Planned
Economy want to establish is, as we have seen, necessarily connected
with a bewildering mass of governmental interferences of a steadily
cumulative nature. The arbitrariness, the mistakes and the inevitable
contradictions of such policy will, as daily experience shows, only
strengthen the demand for a more rational coordination of the different
measures and, therefore, for unified leadership. For this reason
Planned Economy will always tend to develop into Dictatorship.” Cassel
explains this process step by step. “If we allow economic freedom and
self-reliance to be destroyed,” he goes on to point out, “the powers
standing for Liberty will have lost so much in strength that they will
not be able to offer any effective resistance against a progressive
extension of such destruction to constitutional and public life
generally.”
CATLIN, GEORGE. _The Story of the Political Philosophers._ Whittlesey.
1939. 802 pp.
Reviewing this book in _The New York Times_ (Jan. 7, 1940) I wrote:
“In dealing with successive political philosophers it presents their
biographies and their theories in judicious proportions. It is written
with wit and humor and contains some arresting characterizations. It is
learned, crowded, discursive, allusive, but it is not always clear.”
Felix Morley calls it: “An encyclopedic study, gracefully written and
useful to all who are interested in political theory.”
CECIL, LORD HUGH. _Liberty and Authority._ London: Edward Arnold.
1910. 70 pp.
“A brief and thoughtful plea for ordered liberty; the ideal is a
society held together not by coercion, but ‘by the spontaneous cohesion
of virtuous wills.’”--PI.
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY. _America’s Second Crusade._ Regnery. 1950.
372 pp.
The author describes this work as an attempt “to examine without
prejudice or favor the question why the peace was lost while the war
was won.” It is a brilliant and well-documented history of the blunders
and misconceptions that were responsible for Teheran, Yalta and
Potsdam, and led to a “peace” that mainly realized the aims of Russian
communism and totalitarianism at the expense of the aims, or of what
should have been the aims, of a democratic and freedom-loving America.
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY. _Collectivism: A False Utopia._ Macmillan.
1937. 265 pp.
“Mr. Chamberlin comes vigorously to the defense of democratic
institutions, with all their faults. He regards fascism and communism
as similar examples of a collectivist state, and argues that progress
is possible in the long run only on the basis of political liberty and
wisely controlled individual enterprise.”--_Springfield Republican._
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY. _The Russian Revolution._ Macmillan. 1935.
2 vols. 511 pp. 556 pp.
“What Mr. Chamberlin, Moscow correspondent of _The Christian Science
Monitor_ from 1922 to 1934, has done with admirable clarity and
scrupulous objectivity is not so much to offer sensational new
judgments as to knit and co-ordinate a positively staggering amount of
information based on source material, much of which had not previously
been examined by scholars in this field, and to marshal the confused
events of 1917-1921 in orderly fashion, giving chapter and verse for
every important statement of fact or opinion.”--_Books._
CHAMBERS, WHITTAKER. _Witness._ Random House. 1952. 808 pp.
This is Whittaker Chambers’ own account of his life, of the
Hiss-Chambers trial, and of his connection with the Communist
party and his repudiation of it. It is powerfully and eloquently
written. Chambers joined the Communist party primarily for emotional
and quasi-religious reasons and left it because of his religious
conversion. This points to the one serious shortcoming of the book,
which is its failure to understand or to explain adequately the
_economic_ case against communism and in favor of freedom.
“The name of the author, the theme of his work, the nature of our
times all conspire to make this volume one of the most significant
autobiographies of the twentieth century.”--Sidney Hook, in _The New
York Times_.
“This is a great book; one of the greatest written by a contemporary
American.... Whittaker Chambers has composed an ‘_apologia pro vita
sua_’ ... [and] also one of the best and most readable accounts
of life both in the ‘open’ Communist Party and in its auxiliary
underground organizations.... The Communist Party, in America as in
every non-Communist country, is a criminal conspiracy, with its members
pledged to stop at nothing, espionage or sabotage, murder or treason,
which will advance the interests of the foreign power, the Soviet
Union, to which Communists everywhere are blindly subservient.”--W. H.
Chamberlin, in _Human Events_.
CHANCE, SIR WILLIAM. _The Better Administration of the Poor Law._
London: Sonnenschein. 1895. 260 pp.
“Sir William Chance has written several books on Poor Law
administration, all from an emphatically Individualist standpoint. In
the above he wrote: ‘The principles which underlie the grant of Poor
Relief which it--the Poor Law Relief Report of 1834--lays down are good
for all time. Had the Poor Law been administered since 1834 strictly on
those principles ... pauperism would probably have been reduced to a
negligible quantity.’”--PI.
CHODOROV, FRANK. _One Is a Crowd._ Devin-Adair. 1952. 176 pp.
Reflections of an individualist.
CLAPHAM, J. H. _An Economic History of Modern Britain._ Cambridge
University Press. 1926. 623 pp.
“An understanding of the _laissez-faire_ and early industrial period
is much needed. In this learned work Dr. Clapham, a leading authority,
exposes ‘the legend that everything was getting steadily worse for
the working man down to some unspecified date between the drafting of
the People’s Charter and the Great Exhibition.’ This legend seems to
have been largely responsible for a tendency to a kind of unconscious
Socialist bias in economic and social thinking, and it has, with a
few exceptions, been spread by economic history textbooks. Knowles’
_Industrial and Commercial Revolutions in the Nineteenth Century_ is
the most notable exception. Dr. Clapham’s contribution represents the
culmination of a reaction which has come in recent years as a result
of modern historical research. (See also: GEORGE. _London Life in the
18th Century._ BUER. _Health, Wealth and Population (1760-1815)._
TALBOT GRIFFITHS. _Population Problems in the Age of Malthus._ VAUGHAN
WILKINS. _Sidelights on Industrial Evolution._)”--PI.
(See also in this bibliography T. S. ASHTON, F. A. HAYEK, etc.)
CLARK, COLIN. _Welfare and Taxation._ Oxford: Catholic Social Guild.
1955. 80 pp.
Dr. Clark, the eminent Australian statistician and economist, now
Director of the Institute of Research in Agricultural Economics at
Oxford, argues in this little book that the tax rate in Britain is
reducing incentives, productivity, and national income, and points out
that even those with lower incomes are really paying for their own
“free” social services. He concludes that we should “give the State,
not the maximum, but the minimum of powers and duties.... Concentration
of political power is always dangerous.... We should realize that, if
we go on building up the power of the State ... giving it more and more
control over every detail of our lives ... we create a State which will
not merely tax us to excess but eventually enslave us completely.”
CLARK, FRED G. _Magnificent Delusion._ Whittlesey. 1940. 152 pp.
An analysis of present economic and social ills in America, based
on the thesis that we are in danger of losing our democracy through
over-insistence on humanitarianism, the idea that the government owes
all of us a living. “Mr. Clark has made an effective case.”--Nicholas
Roosevelt.
CLARK, F. G., AND RIMANOCZY, R. S. _How We Live._ Van Nostrand. 1944.
39 pp.
A short, clear, and vigorous primer on how the capitalist system works.
The authors emphasize the importance of capital accumulation--the
constant need for more and better tools to increase man’s ability to
utilize natural resources and so to increase his material welfare. The
same authors have written other primers: _Money, How to Be Popular
Though Conservative_, and _How to Think About Economics._
CLARK, JOHN BATES. _The Distribution of Wealth._ Macmillan. 1899. 445
pp.
A work of epoch-making importance: a theory of wages, interest and
profits which seeks to show that “free competition tends to give
to labor what labor creates, to capitalists what capital creates,
and to entrepreneurs what the coordinating function creates.” It is
thus indirectly an answer to the socialist contention that under
competitive capitalism labor is “exploited” and “workmen are regularly
robbed of what they produce.” “It is not too much to say,” wrote the
economist Henry R. Seager in 1900, “that the publication of Professor
Clark’s _Distribution_ marks an epoch in the history of economic
thought in the United States. Its inspiration, its illustrations,
even its independence of the opinions of others, are American; but
its originality, the brilliancy of its reasoning and its completeness
deserve and will surely obtain for it a place in world literature.”
COBDEN, RICHARD. _Speeches on Questions of Public Policy._ London:
Unwin. 1908. 2 vols.
“Cobden [1804-1865] was of all English statesmen the most powerful and
persuasive exponent of the Individualistic view of Government. See his
_Life_ by John Morley.”--PI.
COLE, FRANKLIN P. _They Preached Liberty._ Revell. 1941.
Significant excerpts from the sermons of New England ministers during
the late Colonial period.
COLLINGWOOD, R. G. _The Idea of History._ Oxford University Press.
1946. 339 pp.
“With the death of R. G. Collingwood in 1943 British philosophy lost
one of its most distinguished minds. His most original work grew
out of his reflections on the special characteristics of historical
thinking.”--_Manchester Guardian._
COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL. _Blueprint for World Conquest._ Washington:
Human Events. 1946. 263 pp.
This is designed to serve as a warning to anti-communists of the plans
and tactics that they must learn to combat. It contains the theses and
statutes of the Communist International, as adopted at the second world
congress at Moscow in 1920; the program of the Communist International
as adopted by the sixth world congress at Moscow on Sept. 1, 1928, and
the constitution and rules of the Communist International. There is an
introduction by William Henry Chamberlin.
CONSTANT, BENJAMIN. _De l’Esprit de Conquête._ 1813. Paris: Librairie
de Médicis. 1947. 68 pp.
Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) was the author of a celebrated
autobiographical novel, _Adolphe_. He was the lover of the famous
Madame de Staël and later acquired an infatuation for Madame Récamier.
The literary and amorous side of his career has unfortunately
overshadowed his prophetic contributions in support of liberalism
and freedom of the press, especially his _De l’esprit de conquête et
de l’usurpation_, directed against Napoleon. In 1829 he wrote: “For
forty years I have defended the same principle: liberty in everything,
in religion, in philosophy, in literature, in industry, in politics;
and by liberty I mean the triumph of individuality, as much over the
authority that seeks to govern by despotism as over the masses who
claim the right to enslave the minority to the majority.” An English
translation of _Conquest and Usurpation_ was published by Reynal &
Hitchcock in 1941.
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 1787.
“The American Constitution,” wrote Gladstone, “is the most wonderful
work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.”
The first ten amendments, which constitute the Bill of Rights, are a
charter of human liberties which has served as a model to mankind. (See
HAMILTON, MADISON, FARRAND, NORTON.)
COOLEY, CHARLES HORTON. _Life and the Student._ Knopf. 1927. 273 pp.
A volume of aphoristic wisdom on human nature, society, and letters
which deserves to be far more widely known than it is. It recalls the
notebooks of Emerson and Thoreau, and will stand comparison with them.
It is not a systematic defense or exposition of the philosophy of
individualism, but every page breathes the spirit of that philosophy.
Some individual paragraphs alone would justify including the book in
the present bibliography. For example: “There are three irrefutable
reasons why views that seem dangerous, unpatriotic or otherwise
abominable should be freely expressed. 1: Discussion is the only way to
modify or control them. 2: It is the only way to mobilize conservative
views in order to combat them intelligently. 3: They may be right.”
CORNUELLE, HERBERT C. _Mr. Anonymous._ Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton
Printers. 1951. 212 pp.
A biography of William Volker, who rose from a penniless German
immigrant in 1871 to a millionaire businessman in 1906. What was most
remarkable about him, however, was not his rise from “rags to riches”
but his determination to live according to the Golden Rule. “A man
with money,” he declared, “is to be pitied if he cannot give it away.”
So firm was his attitude against any sort of public recognition of
his many selfless charities that it was not until after his death
in 1947 that “Mr. Anonymous” could be identified as William Volker.
Mr. Cornuelle’s story is written with simple directness and has
the readability and charm of an Horatio Alger novel. Indeed, the
real hero of this story resembles in many respects--in diligence,
industriousness, ambition, austere living, kindness, goodness, and
belief in the American system of opportunity--one of Alger’s fictional
heroes.
CORTNEY, PHILIP. _The Economic Munich._ Philosophical Library. 1949.
262 pp.
Philip Cortney is a prominent businessman (president of Coty, Inc., and
of Coty International) who has been a life-long student of economics.
This book falls into three main parts. The first is an analysis and a
rejection of the International Trade Organization Charter (signed by
the United States at Havana) on the ground that its ratification would
restrict international trade and undermine the individual competitive
system. The second part is an illuminating analysis of the causes
of the 1929 depression. The final part is an incisive refutation of
Keynesian fallacies. The author is not only an eloquent defender of
economic liberty but reveals a rare skill in dissecting the specific
policies and ideas that constitute the greatest threat to it.
COUNTS, GEORGE S., AND LODGE, MRS. N. P. _Country of the Blind: The
Soviet System of Mind Control._ Houghton Mifflin. 1949. 378 pp.
A study of the way in which the Central Committee of the All-Union
Communist Party controls Russian cultural and intellectual life by
rigid surveillance and direction of literature, drama, music, science,
and education. Its long quotations from the actual texts of Committee
resolutions and directives make it heavy going at times, but supply the
authentic source material.
COWLING, DONALD J., AND DAVIDSON, CARTER. _Colleges for Freedom._
Harper. 1947. 180 pp.
A study of the purposes, practices and needs, and an evaluation of
the place of the private liberal-arts college in American life, and a
program for its independent survival.
COX, HAROLD. _The Capital Levy: Its Real Purpose._ Westminster:
National Unionist Association. 1923. 71 pp.
“The Capital Levy has never been definitely renounced by the Labor
Party as an item of its program. If a favorable opportunity arises
in the future it may yet again become a live political issue. Mr.
Harold Cox’s book is largely a criticism of what is perhaps the most
formidable defense of the levy, namely, that by Dr. Hugh Dalton.
There is also a very useful chapter summarizing the experiences of
six foreign countries. The author’s conclusion is that ‘All six
countries tell the same story. In each case the levy was tried as a
means of escaping from a financial debt which threatened the nation
with bankruptcy. In no case have the results achieved justified the
departure from sound methods of finance.’”--PI.
COX, HAROLD. _Economic Liberty._ Longmans, Green. 1920. 263 pp.
“A series of lucid essays by a thoroughgoing Individualist. The keynote
is found in the preface. The essays, it is claimed, are all inspired by
one purpose--the desire to defend economic liberty against the attacks
made upon it by men and women who think they can secure progress by
various schemes for curtailing freedom. ‘Liberty,’ it is admitted,
‘can be abused, but it is the business of the community to prevent
this abuse, not to destroy the liberty.’ And ‘It does not follow that
the best form of restraint is the employment of the power of the
State.’”--PI.
CREEL, GEORGE. _Russia’s Race for Asia._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1949. 264 pp.
A warning--which proved to be completely in vain--that if the United
States, by sins of omission or commission, allowed the Chinese
communists to gain a victory over the National government of Chiang
Kai-shek, it would put Russia in a position of mastery over half the
world’s population.
CROCE, BENEDETTO. _Historical Materialism and the Economics of Karl
Marx._ Macmillan. 1914. 188 pp.
A collection of essays on the philosophical aspects of Marxism. Marx
borrowed a great deal from Hegel, and yet reacted from him. The
distinguished Italian philosopher here tries to separate the true from
the false in Marx’s particular form of Hegelianism and anti-Hegelianism.
CROCE, BENEDETTO. _Politics and Morals._ Philosophical Library. 1945.
204 pp.
A collection of essays by a distinguished Italian philosopher.
Included are: _Liberalism as a Concept of Life_, _Free Enterprise and
Liberalism_, and _The Bourgeoisie: An Ill-defined Historical Concept_.
The last, a critique of a German book _The Bourgeois Mind in France_,
is particularly instructive.
CROSSMAN, RICHARD (ed.). _The God that Failed._ Harper. 1949. 273 pp.
This is a collection of essays by former communists or communist
sympathizers explaining the history of their disillusionment. The
contributors include former “initiates”--Arthur Koestler, Ignazio
Silone, Richard Wright--and former “worshippers from afar”--André Gide
(presented by E. Starkie), Louis Fischer, and Stephen Spender. Some of
the contributions are more interesting psychologically than for any
light they throw on economic or political philosophy. Several of the
disillusioned communists have remained socialists.
CROWTHER, SAMUEL. _Time to Inquire._ John Day. 1942. 353 pp.
This seeks to answer the question: “How can we restore the freedom,
opportunity, and dignity of the average man?”
CUNNINGHAM, W. _The Growth of English Industry and Commerce._ Vol.
1: _Early and Middle Ages_. Fifth edition. 1922. Vol. 2: _Modern
Times._ Sixth edition. 1922: Part 1, _Mercantile System_; Part 2,
_Laissez-faire. The Industrial Revolution._ 1922. (A reprint of
sections from the _Mercantile System and Laissez-faire_.) Cambridge
University Press. 3 vols. 1,679 pp.
“Standard works on economic history. Archdeacon Cunningham was one of
the founders of economic history as a regular branch of study in the
Universities. The most important of his other works are: _Progress
of Capitalism in England_ (second impression, 1925); and _Western
Civilization in Its Economic Aspects._ (1924. Fourth impression. 2
vols.)”--PI.
CURTISS, WILLIAM MARSHALL. _The Tariff Idea._ Irvington, N. Y.:
Foundation for Economic Education. 1953. 80 pp.
Dr. Curtiss carefully analyzes the principal arguments for protective
tariffs and disposes of them. He also points out that the protective
tariff philosophy is the source of a host of other political and
economic errors.
DALLIN, DAVID J. _The Real Soviet Russia._ Yale University Press.
1944. 1947. 325 pp.
An acknowledged authority, who was himself a member of the Moscow
soviet from 1918 to 1921, analyzes the communist tyranny. The first
edition appeared in 1944, when Russia was still America’s “ally” in
the war against Germany. Dallin tries to show the workings of the huge
apparatus of government, of the secret police, of the Army, and of
the party within the party of peasants and workers. He emphasizes the
contempt of the Russian leaders for human life and suffering.
DALLIN, DAVID J. _Soviet Espionage._ Yale University Press. 1955. 558
pp.
“Undoubtedly the major work on Soviet spy activities.”--Igor Gouzenko,
in _The New York Times_.
DALLIN, DAVID J., AND NICOLAEVSKY, BORIS I. _Forced Labor in Soviet
Russia._ Yale University Press. 1947. 331 pp.
“A conscientiously documented and appalling report on slave labor
in the corrective camps that the Soviet secret police runs for the
government.”--_New Yorker._
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON. Anonymous. With a preface by T. S. Eliot.
Scribner’s. 1947. 299 pp.
An account, written anonymously, of what Soviet Russia did to the
Polish people when, as a result of the 1939 pact with Germany, the NKVD
entered Poland, arrested thousands, and deported them to labor camps in
Siberia. “One of the most affecting and important books published in
many years.... Revelation of how the Soviet pattern of life is imposed
upon a conquered people.”--Harry Schwartz, in the _Political Science
Quarterly_.
DAVENPORT, H. J. _The Economics of Enterprise._ Macmillan. 1913. 544
pp.
“One may glean from this book only a moderate reflection of one of
the greatest classroom teachers Cornell University ever had--one of
those rare persons, able to use the Socratic method masterfully.
Before concentrating on Economics, H. J. Davenport had first become
accomplished in English, mathematics, law and logic--a rich background
from which he taught.
“A jealous guardian of economic discipline founded in logic, his work
strongly upheld the precepts of individualism. To him any such concept
as the ‘social organism’ was anathema. And from that base he went on to
develop the concept of the processes of the market at their best, in
terms of human freedom. He defined the science of economics as ‘little
more than a study of price and of its causes and its corollaries.’
Price was, to him, central to all economics. And that meant price
freedom for _individuals_. Without freedom of pricing, therefore,
economics was not operative. He therefore disclaimed all theoretical
sympathies with the Socialists, whom he considered to be, in fact, the
ultraconservatives.”--F. A. Harper.
DE JAEGHER, RAYMOND J., AND KUHN, IRENE C. _The Enemy Within._
Doubleday. 1952. 314 pp.
An eyewitness account, by a Catholic priest, of the communist conquest
of China, covering the period of their methodic climb to power in North
China in the long years of war against Japan. “It makes a grisly story
and will come as a surprise to those who have the notion that Reds of
the Chinese species are less cruel than their cousins to the west; if
anything, according to Father de Jaegher, they are worse. The book
winds up with a discussion of the ill-fated Marshall mission to China,
a chapter that is certainly as depressing as any in the book.”--_New
Yorker._
DEWAR, HUGO. _Assassins at Large._ Beacon. 1952. 203 pp.
“This book sounds, in parts, like a collection of detective and mystery
stories. Actually it is a well-documented, though far from complete,
report on political murder and kidnapping cases perpetrated by Soviet
secret agents all over the world that have become known during the last
fifteen years.”--Vladimir Petrov, in _Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science_.
DICEY, A. V. _The Law of the Constitution._ Oxford. 1885.
“A classic study of English constitutional law. The eighth (1915)
edition (Macmillan), with its comprehensive and luminous introduction,
should be utilized. The chapter on ‘Parliamentary Sovereignty and
Federalism’ is especially important for American readers.”--Felix
Morley. “We are all servants of the laws,” wrote Cicero, “in order that
we may be free.” Dicey called attention to the modern threat to freedom
in the incursions that were being made into The Rule of Law.
DICEY, A. V. _Law and Public Opinion in England._ 1914. Macmillan.
1948. 506 pp.
“A work of fundamental importance. It traces the transition from the
old Toryism or ‘legislative quiescence’ to Benthamism or Individualism,
which was characteristic of the middle of the Nineteenth Century,
and the subsequent gradual reaction to Collectivism, from about 1870
onwards.”--PI. It also discusses such questions as judicial legislation
and the right of association.
DODD, BELLA V. _School of Darkness._ P. J. Kenedy & Sons. 1955. 262 pp.
The repentant ex-communist teacher, Bella V. Dodd, calls communism a
“school of darkness.” “This volume of experiences and confession has
more value than most books written by former Communists, because it
gives the clearest picture yet of how communism was able to recruit
intelligent, educated persons during the twenties and thirties.”--Irene
Corbally Kuhn, in _The Freeman_.
DOS PASSOS, JOHN. _The Grand Design._ Houghton Mifflin. 1949. 440 pp.
The final volume of a trilogy, the first two volumes of which were
_Adventures of a Young Man_ (1939) and _Number One_ (1943). This novel
tells the story of the New Deal years in American life. Some of the
characters are evidently based on well-known figures. “_The Grand
Design_ is ... respectful of the inner core of New-Deal idealism,
contemptuous of the politics, confusion, jealousy, corruption, and
inefficiency which accompanied it.”--Orville Prescott in the _Yale
Review_.
EAST, EDWARD M. _Mankind at the Crossroads._ Scribner’s. 1923. 360 pp.
An authoritative study of the population problem.
EASTMAN, MAX. _Reflections on the Failure of Socialism._ Devin-Adair.
1955. 128 pp.
A lucid and brilliant analysis of the fallacies of Marxian and Fabian
socialism. Mr. Eastman argues that socialism has failed over the last
century in every nation and in every form in which it has been tried.
He explains why political liberty depends upon a democratic competitive
market and the price system. His arguments are all the more persuasive
because of his personal history. He began as an extreme left-wing
Socialist. As editor of the _Masses_ and later of the _Liberator_,
he “fought for the Bolsheviks on the battlefield of American opinion
with all the influence my voice and magazine possessed.” This book
explains the reasons for his gradual disillusionment. The most powerful
chapter is “The Religion of Immoralism,” a devastating exposure of the
peculiarly mystical but systematic rejection of morality which “is the
one wholly original contribution of Karl Marx to man’s heritage of
ideas.”
EASTMAN, MAX. _Marxism: Is It Science?_ Norton. 1940. 394 pp.
Mr. Eastman, once a Marxist, here argues that scientific socialism,
so-called, is not science but religion. “Max Eastman’s book is, as
readers of his earlier philosophical writings would expect, a work of
art.”--A. N. Holcombe, in _Books_.
EBON, MARTIN. _World Communism Today._ Whittlesey. 1948. 536 pp.
A useful reference work which attempts to give a survey of communism in
every country in which it has been an important political factor.
ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES COMMISSION OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
MANUFACTURERS. _The American Individual Enterprise System._
McGraw-Hill. 1946. 2 vols. 1119 pp.
These two volumes were prepared by a committee of fifteen authors,
about evenly divided between professional economists and business
executives. They were asked to submit to the National Association of
Manufacturers “a thorough analysis of the philosophy, operations and
achievements of the American economic system.” There are chapters on
the individual enterprise system, employment relations, agriculture,
savings and capital formation, money and credit, profit and loss, the
role of prices and price determination, competition and monopoly,
government regulation, public finance, business fluctuations, etc.
Among the authors were W. W. Cumberland, Willford I. King, Harley L.
Lutz, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Shields, Bradford B. Smith, Rufus S.
Tucker and Ray B. Westerfield.
EDMUNDS, STERLING. _The Struggle for Freedom._ Milwaukee: Bruce
Publishing Co. 1946. 309 pp.
The history of Anglo-American liberty from the charter of Henry I
to the present day. “The author was for many years a lecturer on
constitutional law at St. Louis University. Professor Edmunds is
convinced that the American people have been losing control over their
lives and liberties. The Federal Government, in his opinion, with its
increasing use of boards and administrative law, constitutes a threat
to freedom.... Administrative boards rather than courts of law now
direct the lives of the American people.... The background material
which he presents in the field of constitutional law is perhaps
unsurpassed by that found in any other book.”--_The Commonweal._
EINAUDI, LUIGI. _Greatness and Decline of Planned Economy in the
Hellenistic World._ Bern, Switzerland: A. Franke. 1950. 48 pp.
Luigi Einaudi, the former President of Italy, is a distinguished
liberal economist. Out of a dozen books written by him, this is the
only one, to my knowledge, that has been made available in English.
EKIRCH, ARTHUR E., JR. _The Decline of American Liberalism._ Longmans,
Green. 1955. 401 pp.
The author, Professor of History at the American University in
Washington, argues that the main trend since the American Revolution
has been to augment concentration of economic and state power and thus
whittle away individual freedom.
ELLIOTT, W. Y., AND MCDONALD, NEIL A. _The Western Political
Heritage._ Prentice-Hall. 1949. 1027 pp.
“An excellent work of reference.”--_Human Events._ “This book ought
to find its way into the library of anyone who has any curiosity
about the origins and development of the struggle between tyranny and
freedom.”--_San Francisco Chronicle._
EMERSON, RALPH WALDO. Essays on _Wealth_ and _Politics_. Many editions.
Emerson was not only a strong individualist in the broadest sense of
the word, but a strong advocate of the free enterprise system (although
it was not known under that name in his time) and a strong advocate of
limited government. These two essays are outstanding illustrations, as
the following excerpt from _Politics_ will show:
“This is the history of governments--one man does something which is to
bind another. A man who cannot be acquainted with me, taxes me; looking
from afar at me ordains that a part of my labor shall go to this or
that whimsical end--not as I, but as he happens to fancy. Behold the
consequence. Of all debts men are least willing to pay the taxes. What
a satire is this on government! Everywhere we think they get their
money’s worth, except for these. Hence the less government we have the
better--the fewer laws, and the less confided power.”
ERHARD, LUDWIG. _Germany’s Comeback in the World Market._ Macmillan.
1955. 276 pp.
An exposition by the German Economics Minister of Germany’s postwar
economic policies. Dr. Erhard describes how the stabilization of the
currency and the removal of price controls beginning in June of 1948
brought the “miracle” of German recovery. “It was the initiation of
the market economy that awakened entrepreneurial impulses. The worker
became ready to work, the trader to sell, and the economy in general
to produce. In this way alone the conditions making possible a genuine
foreign trade were provided.”
ERNST, MORRIS L., AND LOTH, D. G. _Report on the American Communist._
Holt. 1952. 240 pp.
“The stated purpose of this book is to provide a better understanding
of Communism in America and to prevent the growth of party membership.
The authors interviewed nearly three hundred former Communists, asking
why they joined and why they left the party.”--_Library Journal._
EUCKEN, RUDOLPH. _Socialism: An Analysis._ Scribner’s. 1922. 188 pp.
“A philosophical analysis of Socialism by an eminent German
philosopher. This book is in two parts. The first consists of an
extraordinarily fair statement and explanation of Socialist ideals, and
the second part of an examination and rejection of those ideals. The
whole spirit as well as the methods of Socialism are here opposed.”--PI.
EUCKEN, WALTER. _This Unsuccessful Age._ London: Hodge. 1951. 96 pp.
The author, a German thinker of stature, integrity and courage,
summarizes the experiences of the first fifty years of the age of
economic experiments. He points out the lessons that can be learned,
in particular, from the lengthy experiments in planning, government
direction, and price-fixing in Germany. He concludes that we can
now know at least how _not_ to attempt a solution of the problem of
economic power, how _not_ to try to achieve social security, and
how _not_ to “plan.” He particularly stresses that a policy of full
employment leads directly, through inflation, to a centrally planned
and therefore totalitarian society. There is an introduction by John
Jewkes of the University of Oxford.
EUCKEN, WALTER. _The Foundations of Economics._ London: Hodge. 1950.
358 pp.
The late Walter Eucken was, among German economists, the foremost
opponent of the Historical School. He contributed greatly to the
revival in Germany of interest in economic theory. The first German
edition of this book appeared in 1940; the present English translation
is based on the sixth German edition. The central theme is the dual
aspect of economic problems, which has led to a dual approach to
them--one historical, the other theoretical. The author attempts to
clarify the respective roles of these two methods. The excesses of
Nazism and of the early stringent controls in Germany after World War
II led Eucken to emphasize more and more the advantages and urgency of
a free market system.
FAIRCHILD, F. R., AND SHELLY, T. J. _Understanding Our Free Economy._
Van Nostrand. 1952. 589 pp.
Perhaps the best introduction to economics ever written for high school
students, and certainly the best in existence now. Even many adults
will find it an ideal elementary introduction to the subject. It is
outspoken and unapologetic in its defense of free markets and free
private enterprise as against government planning and socialism.
FAIRCHILD, FRED R., BUCK, W. S., AND SLESINGER, R. E. _Principles of
Economics._ Macmillan. 1954. 780 pp.
A standard introductory college textbook. The 1954 edition has been “so
thoroughly rewritten and revised that, in the opinion of the authors,
it is virtually a new book.... It seeks understanding of the working
of the modern free economy, while acquainting the student also with
other economic systems and certain recent trends toward collectivism.”
Especially noteworthy are two chapters on “Government in Industry.”
These deal with such matters as price and wage controls, the Tennessee
Valley Authority, and agricultural subsidies.
FARADAY, W. B. _Democracy and Capital._ London: Murray. 1921. 314 pp.
“A popular and exhaustive exposure of Socialism. It is argued that
Socialist movements are definitely retrogressive, as the trend of
social progress has been, in a juristic sense, away from status and
towards freedom of contract, and that ‘Our liberty has grown with the
idea of the inviolability of property and the increased individuality
of the man as opposed to the State.’”--PI.
FARRAND, MAX (ed.). _The Records of the Federal Convention._ Yale
University Press. 1937. 4 vols.
“This is the definitive record of the Constitutional Convention,
supplementing Madison’s reports and correcting them wherever later
evidence warrants; indispensable for thorough study of American
governmental origins.”--Felix Morley.
FAWCETT, HENRY. _Manual of Political Economy._ Macmillan. 1883. 631 pp.
“A textbook on the lines of Mill, but more severely
individualistic.”--PI.
FEDERALIST, THE. (See HAMILTON.)
FEDERICI, FEDERICO. _Der Deutsche Liberalismus._ Zurich:
Artemis-Verlag. 1946.
A study of German liberalism.
FERGUSON, ADAM. _An Essay on the History of Civil Society._ 1767.
“The spontaneous collaboration of free men often creates things which
are greater than their individual minds can ever fully comprehend. This
is the great theme of Josiah Tucker and Adam Smith, of Adam Ferguson
and Edmund Burke, the great discovery of classical political economy
which has become the basis of our understanding not only of economic
life but of most truly social phenomena.”--F. A. Hayek.
FERGUSON, JOHN M. _Landmarks of Economic Thought._ Longmans, Green.
1938. 295 pp.
A useful, readable and agreeable short history of economic thought,
stressing the contributions of the leading thinkers. Reviewing it in
_The New York Times_ of Oct. 30, 1938, I wrote: “Professor Ferguson
apparently intended his volume to serve both for the general reader
and as a textbook.... It has the virtues of ... straightforwardness,
balance, impartiality.”
FERRERO, GUGLIELMO. _The Principles of Power._ Putnam. 1942. 333 pp.
This is the last book of a trilogy by the eminent Italian historian of
Rome. It contrasts “illegitimate” government, or government by fear (as
represented by Bonapartism and Fascism), with “legitimate” government,
or government in good faith (as represented by democracy and hereditary
monarchy). Ferrero’s thesis is that the “illegitimate” government must
seek to keep itself in power by military adventures, neurotic activity,
and coercion. Wilhelm Röpke calls this book “a true legacy to us.”
FETTER, FRANK A. _Economics._ Vol. I: _Economic Principles_. 523 pp.
Vol. II: _Modern Economic Problems_. 498 pp. Century. 1915. Revised
ed., 1922.
Of Frank Fetter, Joseph Schumpeter writes: “Professor Frank A. Fetter
rose to a leading position in the first decade of this century. He
was primarily, though not exclusively, a theorist.... At that time
all serious theoretical endeavor had to start from the bases laid
by Jevons, Menger, and Walras ... [but] Fetter erected a building
that was his own, both as a whole and in many points of detail, such
as the theory of ‘psychic income.’ The vivifying influence upon the
American profession’s interest in theory of his critical exploits
cannot be evaluated too highly.” Vol. II makes practical application
of the theories treated in Vol. I to such matters as money, banking,
international trade, labor organizations, agricultural economics,
trusts, taxation, insurance, immigration, and similar topics.
FISHER, ALLAN G. B. _Economic Progress and Social Security._
Macmillan. 1945. 362 pp.
“Allan G. B. Fisher, well known New Zealand economist and professor
at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, has set
himself the difficult task of exploring the double impact of economic
change and of the quest for security upon economic policy, national
as well as international.... He shows that stability can be achieved
amidst change and security without loss of freedom, but the stability
as well as the security he offers are relative rather than absolute.
He discards the security of slavery as well as the stability of
immobility.”--_Weekly Book Review._ “A polished and mature effort
in the art of political economy.”--John Jewkes, in the _Manchester
Guardian_.
FISHER, ALLAN G. B. _The Clash of Progress and Security._ Macmillan.
1936. 234 pp.
“Professor Fisher’s thesis is briefly this: Material progress means
change, involving inconvenience and suffering for certain classes even
though it may benefit others. Resistance is generated among those who
suffer from change, so that the adjustments necessary, if progress is
to develop smoothly, are not made rapidly enough. In short, there is a
clash between progress and security.”--_Pacific Affairs._ “An admirable
and stimulating book, full of clear and concrete reasoning from start
to finish.”--London _Economist_.
FITE, WARNER. _Individualism._ Longmans, Green. 1924. 301 pp.
Four lectures which discuss the conception of the individual, the
individual as a conscious agent, individuality and social unity, and
individual rights and the social problem.
FLEMING, HAROLD. _Ten Thousand Commandments._ Prentice-Hall. 1951.
(Paper-covered edition: Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation for Economic
Education. 1952.) 206 pp.
The story of the antitrust laws, their history, their administration,
their complexities and contradictions, and the amazing court decisions
handed down about them. Mr. Fleming does not directly question either
past or present need for antitrust legislation, but he shows by the
record that within the framework of these laws there has operated an
administrative instrument of arbitrary power and hostility threatening
the very life of competitive enterprise in America. “The essential
purpose of all the variegated attacks has been to hamper the more
successful business for the benefit of the less successful business....
What is left is merely a rule that the bigger companies almost
invariably are wrong on some count or other and the little companies
almost invariably right. The result is that nobody knows what is legal
and what isn’t. The law is what the government lawyers say it is. And
they are essentially interested not in _what_ is done, but in _who does
it_.”
FLINT, ROBERT. _Socialism._ Lippincott. 1895. 1908. 512 pp.
Examining socialism in 1895, Professor Flint concluded that it “might
prove the reverse of a blessing to working men although those who are
pressing it on them may mean them well.” Reviewing the first edition,
the London _Athenaeum_ declared: “It is impossible for anyone to have
tried harder to be fair than Professor Flint.” F. J. C. Hearnshaw
declared it to be: “On the whole the ablest and most destructive
criticism of socialism ever written. The two editions (first, 1895;
second, 1908) differ considerably; both should be read and re-read.”
FLYNN, JOHN T. _The Road Ahead: America’s Creeping Revolution._
Devin-Adair. 1949. 160 pp.
John T. Flynn is one of America’s most powerful pamphleteers. The
central thesis of this book is that economic planning, social
insurance, deficit financing, and the nationalization of credit lead
step by step toward mass enslavement and the totalitarian state. This
tendency, he believes, has been shown empirically by the British
experience; it follows that the preservation of American freedoms and
institutions is inseparable from the preservation of a free capitalism.
The Americans for Democratic Action, he holds, are the present
equivalent of the British Fabians. They sincerely consider themselves
to be anti-communist; but their efforts to achieve the socialized
state through a process of gradualism must lead, if successful, to
dictatorship and the police state.
FLYNN, JOHN T. _As We Go Marching._ Doubleday. 1944. 272 pp.
“Mr. Flynn’s thesis is that despite the many differences in the
character, customs, laws, traditions, and resources of the people of
Italy, Germany, and the United States, this country has been drifting
on the same currents and experimenting with the same political and
economic measures which resulted in the establishment of Fascism
abroad. Two-thirds of his book is a scholarly, sober, valuable
examination of the rise of Fascism in Italy and Germany, one-third is
an attempt to support his thesis by trying to prove that it not only
can happen here but already has happened.”--_New Yorker._
FLYNN, JOHN T. _The Epic of Freedom._ Philadelphia: Fireside Press.
1947. 127 pp.
The story of the growth of freedom told simply and briefly for young
people of high-school age.
FLYNN, JOHN T. _The Decline of the American Republic._ Devin-Adair.
1955. 224 pp.
The American Republic, as the Founding Fathers conceived it, has been
declining with special rapidity, according to the author, since 1930.
A large part of this decline he attributes to the sapping of the
Constitution by a modern semantics that has distorted the plain meaning
of crucial clauses--so that the federal power to regulate commerce
between the states may be interpreted to mean the federal power to
regulate the pay and hours of an elevator operator who never leaves New
York City. “A very necessary book.”--John Chamberlain, in _The Freeman_.
FOERSTER, F. W. _Europe and the German Question._ Sheed. 1940. 474 pp.
An analysis of German history by a Prussian exiled from his native
land long before World War I because of his unorthodox views. In his
introductory chapter the author declares: “This book is above all
intended to acquaint Germans living outside the Third Reich with
Germany’s authentic tradition and with its European mission. But it
also looks forward to a not too remote day when the Germans of the
Third Reich ... may learn from it the chain of sin and doom in German
history since Bismarck.”
FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION. _Essays on Liberty._ Irvington, N.
Y. Vol. I: 1952. 307 pp. Vol. II: 1954. 442 pp.
Essays on various aspects of liberty. The subjects include government,
taxes, inflation, money, monopoly, price controls, subsidies, security,
competition, etc. Among the authors are: Maxwell Anderson, Sir Ernest
Benn, Arthur Bestor, Spruille Braden, Asa V. Call, Frank Chodorov,
Russell J. Clinchy, W. M. Curtiss, Richard L. Evans, Ben Fairless, F.
A. Harper, Henry Hazlitt, Bertrand de Jouvenel, Ed Lipscomb, Clarence
Manion, Ludwig von Mises, Ben Moreell, W. C. Mullendore, Mario Pei, Sam
Pettengill, Leonard E. Read, Dean Russell, Thomas J. Shelly, William
Graham Sumner.
FOWLER, THOMAS. _Locke._ Macmillan. 1880. 205 pp.
“A concise biographical sketch. The author calls Locke, ‘Perhaps
the greatest, but certainly the most characteristic of English
philosophers.’”--PI.
FRIEDMAN, WOLFGANG. _Law and Social Change._ London: Stevens & Sons.
1951. 322 pp.
A legal study from a libertarian point of view.
GANDIL, CHR (ed.). _Moderne Liberalisme._ Copenhagen: Rosenkilde og
Bagger. 1948. 132 pp.
In this Danish book, Mr. Gandil has attempted to reply to the question:
“What is liberalism?” (in the sense of individual liberty, as the word
is still understood on the European continent). “He himself has written
an introduction. Thereupon follows a chapter written by Dr. Thorkil
Kristensen, a former Danish Secretary of the Treasury. Then follows in
reprint form two lectures which were broadcast by Professor Wilhelm
Keilhau over the Norwegian radio immediately following the outbreak
of the war. In the final chapters a number of young Danish political
economists have taken extracts from neo-liberalist literature....
Mr. Gandil’s introduction rates as one of the best chapters of the
book.”--Trygve J. B. Hoff, in _Farmand_ (Oslo).
GARRETT, GARET. _The People’s Pottage._ Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton
Printers. 1953. 174 pp.
Garet Garrett, because of the accuracy of his knowledge, the quality
of his thinking, and the rare distinction of his style, was one of
the outstanding pamphleteers of our time. _The People’s Pottage_ is
made up of three pamphlets bearing on the same theme. _The Revolution
Was_, which appeared in 1944, propounded the thesis that under the
New Deal the social revolution, depriving the individual of essential
liberties and shifting power to the State, had already taken place. _Ex
America_, which appeared in 1951, continued this thesis, and explained
in particular how inflation is used to continue a statist regime
in power, and how it affects the attitude of the people. _Rise of
Empire_, which appeared in the following year, contends that the moral
and constitutional restraints on political power which distinguish a
republic from an empire have been all but obliterated. Despite this
pessimistic theme, the author concludes: “The people know that they can
have their Republic back if they want it enough to fight for it and to
pay the price. The only point is that no leader has yet appeared with
the courage to make them choose.”
GARRETT, GARET. _The Wild Wheel._ Pantheon Books. 1952. 220 pp.
A fascinating but episodic account of the career of Henry Ford. The
thesis of the book is that what Ford accomplished in the early decades
of the twentieth century under a regime of _laissez faire_ could not be
duplicated today because of government interventionism.
“If in this country, for both good and evil, free private enterprise
had its logical manifestations in a prodigious manner, so Henry Ford
was its extreme and last pure event.... It is easier to imagine
other Fords than it is to believe that another would be able to do
in this regulated world what Henry Ford did in his free world. He
would not be permitted to plow back his profits in that reckless
manner as capital.... You may like it better this way.... [But] if
_laissez-faire_ had not begotten the richest world that ever existed
there would have been much less for the welfare state to distribute.”
GARRETT, GARET. _The American Story._ Regnery. 1955. 401 pp.
This was Garet Garrett’s last book. It is a brilliant historical essay
on America which lays special emphasis on the country’s achievements
in invention and productivity, but views the course of the last
twenty-five years pessimistically, and despairs of the future of
personal liberty and growth in the United States if recent political
tendencies continue.
GÉBLER, ERNEST. _The Plymouth Adventure._ Doubleday. 1950. 377 pp.
A fictional account of the voyage of the Mayflower from England to
Cape Cod and of the first winter spent by the Pilgrims in New England.
The story is reconstructed from letters, journals and histories. This
account of the first Americans who risked their lives for freedom of
opinion will inspire all those who still believe in that ideal.
GEORGE, HENRY. _Protection or Free Trade._ 1886. Robert Schalkenbach
Foundation. 1946. 335 pp.
The great majority of economists today regard the central tenet of
Henry George--a single tax on land--as untenable. Yet what he _thought_
he was doing is revealed in a sentence in his preface to the fourth
edition of his famous _Progress and Poverty_ (1879). It was “to
unite the truth perceived by the school of Smith and Ricardo to the
truth perceived by the schools of Proudhon and Lasalle; to show that
_laissez-faire_ (in its full meaning) opens the way to a realization of
the noble dreams of socialism.” His book _Protection or Free Trade_,
which appeared seven years later, presents the case for free trade with
great eloquence and power: “He who follows the principle of free trade
to its logical conclusion can strike at the very root of protection;
can answer every question and meet every objection.... He will see in
free trade not a mere fiscal reform, but a movement which has for its
aim and end nothing less than the abolition of poverty, and of the vice
and crime and degradation that flow from it, by the restoration to the
disinherited of their natural rights and the establishment of society
upon the basis of justice. He will catch the inspiration of a cause
great enough to live for and to die for, and be moved by an enthusiasm
that he can evoke in others.”
It is only fair to add that the present-day followers of Henry
George, still numerous, are (apart from the implications of their
single-tax-on-land theory) among the most zealous champions of a free
capitalism.
GIDE, CHARLES, AND RIST, CHARLES. _A History of Economic Doctrines
from the Time of the Physiocrats to the Present Day._ Heath. 1948. 800
pp.
A standard history by two French economists which first appeared
in English in 1915 and has been brought down to date by successive
editions and enlargements. Written with great lucidity in the original
French, it has also been fortunate in its English translators. A full
and very valuable history. Its excellent critical comments on various
theories are written from a liberal point of view.
GIFFEN, SIR ROBERT. _Economic Inquiries and Studies._ London: George
Bell. 1904. 461 pp.
“A large number of economic essays by a well-known authority. Some of
them, such as _Protection for Manufacturers in New Countries_ and _The
Dream of a British Zollverein_, bear closely upon our subject. His
point of view is strongly Individualistic.”--PI.
GITLOW, BENJAMIN. _I Confess._ Dutton. 1940. 611 pp.
A disillusioned ex-leader of the Communist party in the United
States gives a detailed account of its works, its personalities and
its relations with Moscow. There is an introduction by Max Eastman.
“A personal and political history of the utmost relevance for an
understanding of the American Communist party.... A fascinating story
for any one, and should be a positive boon for the annual crop of
innocents who are drawn into Communist peripheral organizations under
false pretenses.”--Sidney Hook.
GITLOW, BENJAMIN. _The Whole of Their Lives._ Scribner’s. 1948. 387 pp.
“A former prominent Communist (head of the American Communist Party in
1929), the author describes world Communism with especial emphasis on
American Communism. Showing how it first started in this country among
various rival factions, he then demonstrates its penetration of earlier
liberal and Socialist groups and its emergence as a well-disciplined
party. With considerable attention to personalities, he describes the
American Communists, reveals their connection with Moscow, and flatly
states that American Communism is directly controlled by Russia.
Furthermore, he contends that it respects no American principles or
traditions in its zeal to make our country a Soviet vassal.”--_Library
Journal._
GLIKSMAN, JERZY. _Tell the West._ Gresham Press. 1948. 358 pp.
“Another eyewitness report on slave labor in the Soviet Union, this
time by a Polish lawyer and Socialist who was arrested, for reasons
he never fully understood, by the N.K.V.D. shortly after the invasion
of Poland and shipped off to a concentration camp to be ‘remolded’
into a useful citizen by ‘productive work and suitable educational
approach.’ The remolding, Mr. Gliksman says, consisted of nothing more
than systematic starvation, ill treatment, and a losing battle to fill
hopelessly high daily work quotas; it killed many of his fellows and
would have killed him if amnesty had not been granted Poles willing to
fight the Germans.”--_New Yorker._
GODWIN, WILLIAM. _An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice._ 1793.
Numerous editions. (Knopf. 1926.) 2 vols. 554 pp.
“Godwin’s book, coming at a time of revolution, created much
revolutionary fervor. It was considered so dangerous that the
authorities thought of prosecuting the author, but Pitt pointed out
that ‘a three-guinea book could never do much harm among those who had
not three shillings to spare.’ Godwin says: ‘Since government even
in its best state is an evil, the object principally to be aimed at
is that we should have as little of it as the general peace of human
society will permit.’ Like many ‘anarchists,’ he believes in human
perfectibility; the disappearance of government would be no evil, he
thought, because the natural goodness of man, enhanced by progress,
would serve to keep him in the right way. This theory of human
perfectibility led him to demand the abolition of private property
and the dissolution of all governments. To us, Godwin is now chiefly
interesting for having inspired Shelley with his poetic dreams of
innocent man, who has never been perverted and made miserable by the
falsehood and tyranny of priests and kings, and who, if given freedom,
will be once more happy and innocent.”--PI.
GONZALEZ, VALENTIN R. _El Campesino._ Putnam. 218 pp.
“‘El Campesino’ was a famous Communist Spanish general in Spain’s
Civil war. After the war he fled to Russia where he was at first
lauded as a hero, later fell into disfavor with the authorities, and
spent more than ten years in labor camps in Siberia before he made
his escape.”--_Book Review Digest._ “Campesino symbolized the highest
reach of communism’s romantic appeal. He suffered the worst horrors of
its awful reality. The contrasts make his book an ugly and convincing
testament.”--Michael Straight, in the _New Republic_.
GORDON, MANYA. _Workers Before and After Lenin._ Dutton. 1941. 524 pp.
A detailed study of conditions among the laboring classes in Russia
from the 1890’s to the present, with statistics wherever they can be
obtained. The author, born in Russia and educated in the United States,
points out the fact that many Russian statistics are unreliable, and
cites discrepancies. Among the subjects covered are insurance, wages,
housing, dress, factory conditions, social security, education and
the condition of the peasants. “Manya Gordon has performed a genuine
service to the cause of historical truth by puncturing almost beyond
the possibility of revival the legend that, whatever may be its
defects, the Soviet regime represents a vast forward step, especially
for the masses.”--W. H. Chamberlin, in _The New York Times_.
GOUGH, G. W. _The Economic Consequences of Socialism._ London: Allan.
1926. 178 pp.
“A keen criticism of current Socialist proposals and particularly of
the writings of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb and Mr. Tawney. Mr. Gough
merits the compliment of being compared with Mr. Hartley Withers in the
power of dealing with economic complexities in a light and readable
style. It is one of the best criticisms of Socialist theories that has
appeared in recent years.”--PI.
GOUZENKO, IGOR. _The Iron Curtain._ Dutton. 1948. 279 pp.
Autobiography of the young Russian code clerk, attached to the Canadian
Soviet Embassy, who revealed to Canadian authorities the existence of
a plot to turn over atomic bomb secrets to Russian spies. “The entire
narrative is notable for its simplicity, humility, and candor. ‘We
have been impressed,’ said the Royal Commission appointed in Canada to
investigate this matter, ‘with the sincerity of the man, and with the
manner in which he gave his evidence.’”--Asher Brynes, in _The Saturday
Review of Literature_.
GRAHAM, F. D. _Social Goals and Economic Institutions._ Princeton
University Press. 1942. 273 pp.
An attempt to describe the ethical, political, and economic policies
and institutions that would best embody liberal values.
GRAY, ALEXANDER. _The Socialist Tradition: Moses to Lenin._ Longmans,
Green. 1946. 523 pp.
A scholarly, witty and unsympathetic survey, by the professor of
political economy at the University of Edinburgh, of socialist
thinking. “Professor Gray has made a unique contribution, even to the
already voluminous literature about socialism and socialists. The book
does not, as the author himself hastens to make clear in the prologue,
‘aim at being a history of socialist thought.’ Still less is it a
history of the socialist movement. Rather, it is a series of studies
of the ideas of certain individuals who stand high in the socialist
tradition.... Students of socialist thought will be interested by the
fresh viewpoint and the unquestionable depth of scholarship which
Professor Gray brings to his consideration of even the familiar
landmarks. His erudition is almost incredible, and he writes with grace
and charm enlivened by frequent splashes of wit.”--Hilden Gibson, in
the _American Political Science Review_.
GRIFFIN, CLARE E. _Enterprise in a Free Society._ Chicago: Richard D.
Irwin. 1949. 573 pp.
“This book is a timely and useful addition to the literature of
American capitalism. Within its 573 closely printed pages of text,
containing more than 250,000 words, Professor Griffin has given
a systematic and scholarly treatment of enterprise in American
society--its functions, motivations, consequences and the environmental
conditions that facilitate it.”--N. H. Jacoby, in the _American
Economic Review_.
GROS, J. M. _Le Mouvement Littéraire Socialiste._ Paris. 1904.
“This well-written book, almost exclusively confining itself to
France, deals with the aid which poets and other authors have given to
Socialism since 1830.”--PI.
GURIAN, WALDEMAR. _Bolshevism._ University of Notre Dame Press. 1952.
189 pp.
An introduction to Soviet communism. “Some excellent source
material--verified citations from the writings of Lenin and
Stalin--supplements and completes this highly valuable and instructive
work, which is at once scholarly and unpretentious.”--W. H. Chamberlin.
GUYOT, YVES. _Economic Prejudices._ London: Sonnenschein. 1910. 166 pp.
“To a superficial reader this book might leave an impression of
M. Yves Guyot as a rather extreme doctrinaire free trader, but on
its appearance it received a great deal of praise from the British
Conservative Press.... The most valuable part of the book is its
analysis of current Socialist and Labor fallacies. It is written in the
form of a dialogue.”--PI.
GUYOT, YVES. _La Démocratie Individualiste._ Paris: Giard & Brière.
1907.
“As a champion of liberty M. Yves Guyot is a worthy disciple and
successor of Bastiat, although he is a little less optimistic than his
master. _La Démocratie Individualiste_ contains an excellent short
account of the evolution of Individualism, and a brief statement and
explanation of the doctrine.”--PI.
GUYOT, YVES. _Principles of Social Economy._ Scribner’s. 1892. 305 pp.
“A live and original introduction to the study of the subject. It
is particularly valuable for its chapters on ‘State Intervention in
Economics’ and ‘The Province of the State.’”--PI.
HABERLER, GOTTFRIED VON. _The Theory of International Trade._ London:
Hodge. 1936. 408 pp.
“This is a systematic treatise written primarily for the specialist....
The author makes the most devastating attack on the whole
paraphernalia of tariffs, quotas, and exchange restrictions that has
come from the pen of any living writer.”--_Manchester Guardian._ “The
most important and comprehensive study of the subject since Taussig’s
_International Trade_.”--_New Statesman and Nation._
HACKER, LOUIS M. _The Triumph of American Capitalism._ Simon &
Schuster. 1940. (Columbia University Press. 1947.) 460 pp.
A study of the development of forces in American history to the end of
the nineteenth century. “Mr. Hacker has written a remarkable book. It
is not a systematic history of the economic development of the American
people ... [but] an interpretive study, much of it brilliant and all
of it suggestive.... At various points ... the author is tempted
into generalizations which will make all but the hardened economic
determinist blench ... but these passages ... do not greatly impair the
essential merit of his volume.”--Allan Nevins.
HAHN, L. ALBERT. _The Economics of Illusion._ New York: Squier
Publishing Co. 1949. 273 pp.
In my introduction to this book I wrote: “Dr. Hahn enjoys an enormous
advantage as an analyst of Keynesian fallacies. As he has reminded
us himself: ‘All that is wrong and exaggerated in Keynes I said much
earlier and more clearly.’... There is no more important task for the
economic theorist today than to disentangle the network of confusion
and error that now goes under the name of the Keynesian Revolution.
Until this work has been thoroughly done, clarity and real progress
in economics will not be possible. There is no more sophisticated,
penetrating and thorough guide in this task than Albert Hahn.”
HAHN, L. ALBERT. _Wirtschaftswissenschaft des gesunden
Menschenverstandes._ Frankfurt-am-Main: Verlag Fritz Knapp. 1954. 280
pp.
The author describes a “model” of the economic process based on
neo-classical as opposed to Keynesian thinking. It is written as an
introduction to economics for students as well as a “minimum economics”
for educated businessmen. A French translation has appeared under the
title _Notions Pratiques d’Économie Politique_. (Paris: Librairie de
Médicis. 1954.) An American edition is in preparation.
HALÉVY, ÉLIE. _L’Ère des Tyrannies._ Paris: Gallimard. 1938. 249 pp.
A discussion of “the era of despotisms.” English versions of two of
the most important essays in this volume will be found in _Economica_,
February, 1941, and in _International Affairs_, 1934.
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER; MADISON, JAMES; AND JAY, JOHN. _The Federalist._
1787. Many editions. (Random House. 1941.) 618 pp.
A collection of eighty-five articles in defense of the American
Constitution. All but eight appeared originally in the New York press,
between October 1787 and May 1788.
“It remains a classic commentary, not merely on American constitutional
law, but on the principles of government generally. Guizot said of
it that ‘in its application of elementary principles of government
to practical administration’ it was the greatest work he knew, and
Chancellor Kent declared it--quite justly--to be ‘equally admirable
in the depth of its wisdom, the comprehensiveness of its views,
the sagacity of its reflections, and the fearlessness, patriotism,
candor, simplicity and elegance with which its truths are uttered and
recommended,’”--_Encyclopaedia Britannica._
More than half of the articles were written by Hamilton. Madison’s
contributions “advocated a system of government in which democracy
should be reconciled with the security of private rights. He saw that
the central problem of democracy is not the maintenance of equality but
the preservation of liberty.”--William Carpenter in the _Encyclopaedia
of the Social Sciences_.
HANEY, LEWIS H. _History of Economic Thought._ Macmillan. 1911, etc.
1949. 957 pp.
A critical account of the origin and development of the economic
theories of leading thinkers in the leading nations. “Professor Haney,
in addressing himself to the truly colossal task of writing of the
totality of economic thought, has provided for the student by far the
most comprehensive text for the study of this subject now available in
the English language. By and large, the subject matter is well chosen
and well arranged.”--J. M. Ferguson, on third edition, in _American
Economic Review_, 1936.
HANEY, LEWIS H. _How You Really Earn Your Living._ Prentice-Hall.
1952. 282 pp.
This is intended to be “Every Man’s Guide to American Economics.” It
is an admirable introductory volume written with great clearness and
simplicity. In addition to chapters on such central problems as market
value, money, production and distribution, there is a chapter on public
vs. private enterprise, and two chapters on “Seven Ways to Lose Freedom
or Save It.”
HANEY, LEWIS H. _Economics in a Nutshell._ Macmillan. 1933. 213 pp.
Most of these short discussions appeared originally in the author’s
column in the _New York Evening Journal_. They contain a condensed
statement of the principles of economics as taught to Professor Haney’s
classes in New York University.
HARPER, F. A. _Crisis of the Free Market._ New York: National
Industrial Conference Board. 1945. 83 pp.
This study, while aimed particularly at the policy of control during
reconversion from a war to a peace basis, provides a simple exposition
of some of the fundamental facts and principles that form the framework
of a voluntary society and a free economy.
HARPER, F. A. _Liberty: A Path to Its Recovery._ Irvington, N. Y.:
Foundation for Economic Education. 1949. 159 pp.
An analysis of the nature of individual liberty, a measurement of how
much remains, and a program to regain what has been lost. The author
explains how liberty in every other area rests on its preservation in
the economic sphere.
HARRIS, S. HUTCHINSON. _Auberon Herbert: Crusader for Liberty._
London: Williams & Norgate. 1943. 382 pp.
The biography of an individualist whose works are discussed in the
present bibliography.
HASKELL, HENRY J. _The New Deal in Old Rome._ Knopf. 1939. 269 pp.
In his preface the author, editor of the _Kansas City Star_, says:
“To prevent any misconception let me say that this book is neither a
criticism nor a defense of the New Deal. It is an attempt to provide an
objective survey of instances of government intervention in the ancient
world. Many of these were so like experiments tried in the United
States in recent years that they may fairly be classed as New Deal
measures. I have tried to show what these experiments were, why they
were tried, and how they worked. Making allowance for the differences
between ancient and modern society, I have ventured to call attention
to certain warning signals from the past.”
HAYEK, FRIEDRICH A. _The Road to Serfdom._ University of Chicago
Press. 1944. 250 pp.
Reviewing this book in _The New York Times_ of Sept. 23, 1944, I
wrote: “In _The Road to Serfdom_ Friedrich A. Hayek has written one of
the most important books of our generation. It restates for our time
the issue between liberty and authority with the power and rigor of
reasoning that John Stuart Mill stated the issue for his own generation
in his great essay, ‘On Liberty.’ It throws a brilliant light along the
direction in which the world has been heading, first slowly, but now
at an accelerative rate, for the last half-century. It is an arresting
call to all well-intentioned planners and socialists, to all those who
are sincere democrats and liberals at heart, to stop, look, and listen.”
“Although,” Hayek writes, “we had been warned by some of the greatest
political thinkers of the nineteenth century, by de Tocqueville and
Lord Acton, that socialism means slavery, we have steadily moved
in the direction of socialism.... We are rapidly abandoning not
the views merely of Cobden and Bright, of Adam Smith and Hume, or
even of Locke and Milton, but one of the salient characteristics of
Western civilization as it has grown from the foundations laid by
Christianity and the Greeks and Romans. Not merely nineteenth- and
eighteenth-century liberalism, but the basic individualism inherited by
us from Erasmus and Montaigne, from Cicero and Tacitus, Pericles and
Thucydides, is progressively relinquished.”
HAYEK, FRIEDRICH A. _Individualism and Economic Order._ University of
Chicago Press. 1948. 271 pp.
A collection of a dozen essays, some on various aspects of the
philosophy of individualism, and others on technical economic subjects.
For the purposes of this bibliography by far the most important
essay is the first: “Individualism: True and False,” which every
individualist who desires to avoid or combat confusion should study.
Other excellent essays deal with The Use of Knowledge in Society,
The Meaning of Competition, “Free” Enterprise and Competitive Order,
and Socialist Calculation. All of these essays bring great learning
and intelligence to bear upon economic and social issues of central
importance to our era. Every open-minded reader of this book will
find his own understanding of these questions enriched, clarified and
deepened.
HAYEK, FRIEDRICH A. _The Counter-Revolution of Science._ Glencoe,
Ill.: Free Press. 1952. 255 pp.
This book is divided into two parts. The first is an acute and abstract
study of the essential differences in method required in the study of
the physical sciences on the one hand and the social sciences on the
other. An uncritical and slavish imitation in the social studies of the
methods, concepts and language of physics or engineering is condemned
by Professor Hayek as “scientism.” He goes on to show how “scientism”
produces as its logical corollaries collectivism, Marxism and other
forms of economic planning through centralized coercion.
The second part of the book is historical. It gives an amusing as well
as enlightening account of the common origin of “scientism,” positivism
and socialism in the environment of the great engineering school of
Paris, the _École polytechnique_. It traces the intellectual histories
of Henri de Saint-Simon, Auguste Comte, and others, and shows how
their ideas gave birth to “the religion of the engineers,” merged
with German Hegelianism, led to Karl Marx (who borrowed heavily from
the Saint-Simonians as well as from Hegel), and is still seen in the
engine-room outlook and pseudo-science which today threaten to reverse
the historical trend toward greater freedom.
HAYEK, F. A. _John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor._ University of
Chicago Press. 1951. 320 pp.
In his _Autobiography_, John Stuart Mill gave a highly extravagant
account of the moral and intellectual qualities of Mrs. Harriet Taylor,
who finally became his wife, and of her influence on his writings.
Until quite recently, little has been known of the facts behind
this tribute. But much of the correspondence between Mill and Mrs.
Taylor came into the hands of various libraries in 1922 and 1927, and
Professor Hayek (in 1951) gathered and published this material in the
present book. It indicates that Mrs. Taylor did exercise considerable
influence over the less technical aspects of Mill’s thought. Whether
this influence was on net balance for good or ill, the individual
reader can decide for himself. But the evidence is clear that it was
Harriet Taylor who was largely responsible for Mill’s retraction of
most of his opposition to socialism as expressed in the first edition
of his _Political Economy_, and for his far more sympathetic attitude
in the third edition. It was Michael St. John Packe’s ability to draw
heavily on the material in the present book that enabled him to add so
much to our knowledge of Mill in his admirable _Life of John Stuart
Mill_ (q.v.) published in 1954.
HAYEK, F. A. _The Political Ideal of the Rule of Law._ Cairo: National
Bank of Egypt. 1955. 79 pp.
Professor Hayek, although internationally best known as an economist,
was by original training a lawyer. This book reprints lectures he
delivered at the invitation of the National Bank of Egypt. They begin
with an historical survey of the evolution of freedom and the Rule
of Law in Britain, France, Germany, and America. They emphasize such
safeguards of individual liberty as the generality, equality, and
certainty of the law. The final lecture discusses the decline of the
Rule of Law, particularly in England and the United States.
HAYEK, F. A. (ed.). _Capitalism and the Historians._ University of
Chicago Press. 1954. 194 pp.
A provocative set of essays, several of which are brilliant, which
argue that capitalism, even in the days of the Manchester slums and
the child worker, was an immediate positive social good. The authors
hold--from actual case studies of the English worker, his work, and
his times--that the prevalent belief in the immediate evil of the
Industrial Revolution is a myth, perpetuated by a few historians and
intellectuals. The contributors are F. A. Hayek, T. S. Ashton, Louis
Hacker, W. H. Hutt, and Bertrand de Jouvenel.
HAYEK, FRIEDRICH A. (ed.). _Collectivist Economic Planning._ London:
Routledge. 1935. 293 pp.
This is a collection of critical studies on the possibilities of
socialism by N. G. Pierson, Ludwig von Mises, George Halm, and Enrico
Barone. A central subject is the possibility of economic calculation
under socialism. Professor Hayek contributes an admirable introduction
on the “Nature and History of the Problem” and a final chapter on the
“Present State of the Debate.”
HAZLITT, HENRY. _Economics in One Lesson._ Harper. 1946. (Paperbound
1952.) edition: Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation for Economic Education.
222 pp.
“Mr. Hazlitt writes strictly in terms of economics, urging upon his
readers to look not merely at the immediate but also at the larger
effects of an act or a policy.... [He] resents the travesty that many
of his fellow economists have made of their profession. And so he has
gone back patiently to first principles, proving once more that public
works must be paid for by taxes, that taxes discourage production,
that the invention of labor-saving machinery releases men to do other
productive things, that soldiers and bureaucrats live off the rest
of us, that tariffs make us collectively poorer, that exports must
be paid for by imports, that ‘parity’ prices in agriculture do not
solve the ‘farm problem,’ that you cannot produce for use except by
producing for the profit that will enable you to buy other things for
use, that government price-fixing increases the scarcity it is supposed
to alleviate, that inflation is a form of taxation that exempts no
one, that a still poverty-stricken world needs more ‘saving’ and not
more ‘spending,’ that unions defeat themselves when they press for an
uneconomic wage, and that the way to be sane is to look for the hidden
long-term effects of a proposition on the whole social fabric as well
as its effect here and now on Joe Doakes.”--John Chamberlain, in _The
New York Times_.
HAZLITT, HENRY. _The Great Idea._ Appleton-Century-Crofts. 1951. 374
pp.
This is written as a novel, set in the future, in a completely
communized world, from which every trace of the former capitalist
civilization has been removed; but in trying to solve their problems
the people of this world rediscover democracy and the free enterprise
system. I used this story-and-dialogue form because it seemed to me
not only the most effective way to dramatize the contrast between
communism and socialism on the one hand and capitalism or a free market
economy on the other, but the most effective way to explain some of the
fundamental and even abstruse problems involved in the choice.
The theme of the book might also be stated in the form: If capitalism
did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it--and its discovery
would be rightly regarded as one of the great triumphs of the human
mind.
The title of the British edition of the book is _Time Will Run Back_
(London: Ernest Benn).
HAZLITT, HENRY. _Will Dollars Save the World?_ Irvington, N. Y.:
Foundation for Economic Education. 1947. 95 pp.
A critical examination of the Marshall Plan, made when it was first
proposed. It analyzes the fallacies behind most of the American
inter-governmental “foreign-aid” programs, the controlist, statist or
socialist assumptions implicit in them, and their consequent tendency
to encourage and prolong controls, statism and socialism in the nations
receiving aid. A 48-page pamphlet, also by the present author and under
the imprint of the same publisher, makes a similar analysis of the
_Illusions of Point Four_ (1950).
HEARNSHAW, F. J. C. _A Survey of Socialism: Analytical, Historical,
and Critical._ Macmillan. 1929. 473 pp.
“An unusually able student of the literature of liberty speaks of
Hearnshaw’s _A Survey of Socialism_ as the only thing of its kind in
existence. And were there many competitors, one would expect this to
be acclaimed the best. Written by an outstanding British historian in
a period when Britain had many and the United States had few, this
is a reference book on socialism which anyone fortunate enough to
possess a copy will want at his elbow. It treats persons, ideas, and
programs from the earliest ancient times. Its depth and thoroughness
reflect the forty years study of socialism which preceded its being
written. Starting as a socialist sympathizer, his study radically
altered his view to one of its most learned historical critics. He
makes socialism a tragic drama on a literary stage where important
personages from Moses onward take their places in the unfolding events
and concepts.”--F. A. Harper.
HEARNSHAW, F. J. C. _Democracy and Labor._ Macmillan. 1924. 274 pp.
“A vigorous attack on Socialism chiefly on the grounds that it is
undemocratic. Democracy is held, rather optimistically, perhaps, to
be the most effective means of securing freedom. The author, who
is an eminent historian, is an Individualist of the Conservative
school defending existing society on the grounds that it is based on
Individualism. “It is becoming evident that the supreme issue of the
day is the issue of Socialism versus Individualism: of Authority versus
Freedom ... of the maintenance of the Existing Order versus Utopian
and Revolutionary Reconstruction.” The book is a sequel to and in some
respects a revision and abridgment of _Democracy at the Cross-Ways_,
published in 1918. It is often witty and epigrammatic.”--PI.
HECKSCHER, E. _Mercantilism._ Macmillan. 1935. 2 vols. 472 pp. 419 pp.
An effort has recently been made (e.g., by the late Lord Keynes and
some of his disciples) to resuscitate mercantilism and to pretend that
the mercantilists were more nearly right than Adam Smith and their
other liberal critics. Anyone who is inclined to take this argument
seriously, or to believe in modern State “planning” (which is little
more than a revival of mercantilism) would do well to read this
book by a Swedish economic historian. Here is a passage concerning
French mercantilism during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
(p. 173): “It is estimated that the economic measures taken in this
connection cost the lives of some 16,000 people, partly through
executions and partly through armed affrays, without reckoning the
unknown but certainly much larger number of people who were sent to
the galleys or punished in other ways. On one occasion in Valence, 77
were sent to the galleys, one was set free and none were pardoned.
But even this vigorous action did not help to attain the desired end.
Printed calicoes spread more and more widely among all classes of the
population, in France as everywhere else.”
HEILPERIN, MICHAEL A. _The Trade of Nations._ Knopf. 1947. 1952. 302
pp.
Intended as a book for the intelligent layman interested in the
workings of the world economy, as well as a guide and reference for
the professional economist. “In contemporary economic literature
this book fills a niche that has been empty far too long. Michael
Heilperin presents a spirited and intelligent defense of economic
internationalism and its twin, free enterprise in international trade
and investment, and a refutation of both the traditional and the new
collectivist protectionism.”--_Fortune._
HENDERSON, H. D. _Supply and Demand._ Harcourt, Brace. 1922. 181 pp.
“The best short exposition of the standpoint of the modern ‘Cambridge
School’ of economists. It is a very clearly written text-book, and the
first chapter, ‘The Economic World,’ gets right to the heart of what
may be called the _Laissez-faire_-Socialist controversy. The existence
of an anti-Individualist bias may be suspected in his allusion to
attempts by some persons to glorify the existing system of society
whilst ‘plastering over’ such things as wastefulness in production,
sweating, unemployment and slums. A reference to Bastiat suggests that
Mr. Henderson has in mind those people who believe that the evils
referred to are largely caused or aggravated by irrational government
interferences with forces that he himself regards as fundamental.”--PI.
HERBERT, AUBERON. _A Politician in Trouble About His Soul._ Chapman &
Hall. 1884.
“This publicist, who (as will be acknowledged by all who had the good
fortune to meet him) was one of the most charming personalities of
his day, deserves considerably more attention than he has received.
Accepting Herbert Spencer’s strict Individualist creed, Herbert gave
up his political career and devoted himself to its propagation in a
form so thorough that to his contemporaries he appeared as a modern
Don Quixote tilting at windmills. He long provided funds for a little
journal called _Free Life_, whose main tenet was voluntary taxation.
Auberon Herbert’s proposals were derided as ‘Anarchy plus a Policeman,’
and they were too extreme for practical politics at a time when
Socialism had not become formidable or very mischievous. It may be,
however, that the spirit of Auberon Herbert will revive and inspire a
new generation in England.
“_A Politician_ is a charmingly written dialogue in which a Member
of Parliament announces to his friends his intention of giving up
his political career and entering upon a crusade for ‘the perfect
creed of liberty which he found in the writings of Herbert Spencer.’
Doubtless, the zeal of the new convert went far beyond that of his
master; Herbert admits this with his accustomed candor and urbanity.
‘Would Mr. Spencer, do you think, agree to all these applications of
his principle?’ asked Argus. ‘I fear that Mr. Spencer would dissent.
You must not regard him as responsible for any corollaries which I have
drawn.’”--PI.
HERBERT, AUBERON. _The Voluntarist Creed._ Oxford University Press.
1908. 107 pp.
“The swan-song of Auberon Herbert--the latter half was finished a few
days before his death. The first, ‘Mr. Spencer and the Great Machine,’
was delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford. The second,
‘The Great Machine,’ was addressed principally to the ‘workers.’
He entreated his audience: ‘Don’t believe in suppressing by force
any form of evil--always excepting direct attacks upon person and
property.’ He declared that ‘these new bonds and restrictions in which
the nations of today have allowed themselves to be entangled’ merely
prepare ‘docile and obedient State-material, ready-made for taxation,
ready-made for conscription--ready-made for the ambitious aims and ends
of the rulers.’ He tells the wage-earners: ‘Property is the great and
good inducement that will call out your efforts and energies for the
remaking of the present form of society.’ No man has suffered more than
Auberon Herbert from his contempt of the Time Spirit, and, undoubtedly,
there was in his own day only a small audience for his creed. But the
battle is not over, and he showed a way to success. The ‘selfish’
system of Bentham may repel sentimentalists and altruists. Auberon
Herbert aimed at giving Individualism a noble spiritual significance.
His writings are worthy of careful study, though he underestimated the
value and possibilities of the modern State as a means of organizing
public-spirited activity. In the eighteenth century the State was
regarded, with considerable justification, as hostile to liberty.
This was Herbert’s view, and since his death the extension of State
functions has made another revival of Individualism imperative in order
to save Democracy from itself.”--PI.
HERLING, ALBERT K. _The Soviet Slave Empire._ Funk. 1951. 230 pp.
An exposé of slave labor in the U.S.S.R. and its satellite countries.
The report contains reprinted photostats of documents from the files
of the Russian secret police. The author is a Unitarian minister who
temporarily left his parish to devote himself to investigating this new
slavery. He became director of research for the commission of inquiry
into forced labor, which was set up in December 1948.
HERMANS, FERDINAND. _Democracy or Anarchy?_ University of Chicago
Press. 1940. (University of Notre Dame. 1951). 447 pp.
This study presents the arguments against proportional representation
and in favor of majority rule. “What the conservatives have lacked up
to now has been a well-documented scholarly analysis of the failure
of proportional representation where it has been tried, and of the
appalling contribution which this gadget has made to the growth of
communism, fascism and other undemocratic phenomena. Professor Hermans,
who has long since been regarded as a leading authority in this field,
has now filled the gap by an excellent volume entitled _Democracy or
Anarchy?_”--Robert Moses, in the _Political Science Quarterly_.
HEWART OF BURY, LORD. _The New Despotism._ London: Ernest Benn. 1929.
311 pp.
By the “new despotism” the author, who at the time of the appearance of
this book in 1929 was Lord Chief Justice of England, means the danger
which threatens the institutions of self-government through the steady
encroachment of the executive upon the powers of the legislative and
judiciary. His book is a strong argument against bureaucracy--the
practice by which Parliament delegates wide powers of legislation
to government departments and commissions. “Lord Hewart’s new book
is a political event of first-rate importance.”--_Saturday Review._
“Lord Hewart proves his case. He gives chapter and verse for all his
accusations.”--_Spectator._
HEWES, THOMAS. _Decentralization for Liberty._ Dutton. 1947. 238 pp.
“Mr. Hewes’ legal background, his obviously extensive studies of the
literature on liberty, much experience in public service, and keen
insight have enabled him to see clearly the great problem that Western
Civilization must solve if it is to survive. In terms understandable
to the layman he has described the principal features of this problem.
That accomplishment alone is a meritorious public service.”--American
Institute for Economic Research.
HIRST, FRANCIS W. _Early Life and Letters of John Morley._ Macmillan.
1927. 2 vols. 327 pp. 285 pp.
Morley’s “political doctrine,” writes Hirst, “unites the traditions
of the philosophical Radicals and of the Manchester School. Disciple
of Mill, biographer of Cobden, friend of John Bright, favorite and
most trusted colleague of Gladstone in his two last administrations,
he held in later years a unique position as the philosophic guide of
English Liberals.” As Morley was the disciple of Mill, Hirst was the
disciple of Morley; and Hirst has been himself described as “the most
distinguished Cobdenite spokesman and political philosopher of his
generation.” He died in 1953, in his eightieth year. He was editor of
the London _Economist_ from 1907 to 1916, honorable fellow of Wadham
College, Oxford, and governor of the London School of Economics.
HIRST, FRANCIS W. _Adam Smith._ Macmillan. 1904. 240 pp.
A standard biography.
HIRST, FRANCIS W. _Life and Letters of Thomas Jefferson._ Macmillan.
1926. 588 pp.
A full biography of a great individualist statesman.
HOFF, TRYGVE J. B. _Economic Calculation in the Socialist Society._
1938. London: Hodge. 1949. 264 pp.
This book by a distinguished Norwegian economist and editor originally
appeared in Norway in 1938 and was not translated into English until
1949. In it Dr. Hoff examines the crucial question whether economic
calculation is or is not possible in a completely socialist society. He
concludes, with Drs. Mises and Hayek, that it is not. “Very balanced
and fair.... It is a pleasure to read such a scholarly, clear and
patient exposition.”--H. D. Dickenson, in _The Economic Journal_.
HOFF, TRYGVE J. B. _Fred og Fremtid. Liberokratiets vei._ Oslo: H.
Aschehoug. 1945. 500 pp.
This is a book by an eminent Norwegian economist, editor of the
magazine _Farmand_, published in Oslo. The book was written during
World War II, the last chapter in a German concentration camp. It is
a homage to Western culture and stresses the necessity of opposition
to collectivist and Asiatic ideals, to the extent that the latter are
fundamentally aggressive.
The book is also a plea for a new liberalism to which Mr. Hoff gives
the name “liberocracy.” In his own words: “Liberocracy is the name of
an economic and political system representing the best in liberalism,
in democracy and the aristocratic form of rule. It does not pretend to
be something new; it is a new name for a new combination of old but
revised ideas. Liberocracy means the rule of the free by the free. Its
central idea is freedom--freedom for the individual, freedom of press,
freedom for science and art, freedom to choose and exchange goods and
services within and outside national borders.”
The Norwegian title may be translated as _Peace and Future: The Way of
Liberocracy_.
HOFFER, ERIC. _The True Believer._ Harper. 1951. 176 pp.
This carries the subtitle, “Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements.”
It is a scholarly, witty, epigrammatic, sometimes flippant but usually
penetrating analysis of fanaticism, particularly in the political realm.
HOLYOAKE, G. J. _Self-Help a Hundred Years Ago._ London: Swan,
Sonnenschein. 1888. 214 pp.
“Deals with the various elementary forms of self-help, in which
the poor with the assistance of the well-to-do engaged during the
darkest days of the Industrial Revolution. The spirit of the plucky,
self-reliant man in adversity is still valuable, perhaps more necessary
than ever. In our time we are too much inclined to scoff at thriftful
industry. Yet may we not expect a finer character from one who rises by
these means from poverty than from one who applies for the dole as soon
as he sees the approach of trouble?”--PI.
HOOK, SIDNEY. _Heresy, Yes, Conspiracy, No._ Day. 1953. 283 pp.
A treatise on the nature of liberal thinking and its place in American
life, particularly in academic circles. The author is opposed to
communism because it is secret and conspiratorial, but holds that
the outspoken leftist critic should not be silenced. “A balanced and
incisive contribution.”--E. N. Case, in _The New York Times_.
HOOVER, HERBERT. _American Individualism._ Doubleday. 1922. 72 pp.
A short but vigorous and important book, arguing for American
individualism, “our most precious possession,” and against governmental
encroachment on personal freedom, initiative and enterprise.
HOOVER, HERBERT. _Challenge to Liberty._ Scribner’s. 1934. 212 pp.
“The challenge to liberty is, briefly, regimentation. This, as Mr.
Hoover points out, is close kin to Fascism, Communism, Nazism and
Socialism in that it implies that the individual is the pawn of the
state.”--_Books._
HOOVER, HERBERT. _Memoirs: The Great Depression._ Macmillan. 1951. 503
pp.
The third volume of ex-President Hoover’s memoirs covers the years
1929 to 1941. In it he reviews the great depression era and gives his
defense of his administration in Washington. “Mr. Hoover has turned
his pen to a great penetrating analysis of the causes of the great
depression, that economic catastrophe that nearly overwhelmed the
Western world in 1929 and the years immediately after. Unthinking or
malicious people have often dubbed this ‘Hoover’s depression,’ one of
the basest slanders of this century. The mountain of facts presented in
this book should do much to sound the death knell of this calumny.”--W.
H. Baker, in the _San Francisco Chronicle_.
HOPKINSON, AUSTIN. _The Hope of the Workers._ London: Martin
Hopkinson. 1923. 104 pp.
“The point of view of one who has himself been successful as an
employer and is well known as an Individualist. In form a criticism of
the Socialist attitude and an exposure of Socialist fallacies, the book
is addressed as much to employers as to the work people of the country.
Mr. Hopkinson believes that the survival of Socialist fallacies has
been largely due to the fact that those who support the Individualist
system have failed to show clearly that ‘they do so, not for their own
selfish ends, but because it is the one system under which prosperity
and liberty can be secured to the people.’”--PI.
HUGHES, FRANK. _Prejudice and the Press._ Devin-Adair. 1950. 654 pp.
A restatement of the principle of freedom of the press with specific
reference to the Hutchins-Luce commission. “_Prejudice and the Press_
cannot be shrugged off. It presents a considerable body of authentic
material, with citations and some documentation, which goes to the
heart of the issues discussed in _A Free and Responsible Press_ and
which upsets many of the too facile generalizations of the group
responsible for that ‘report.’”--F. L. Mott, in the _New York Herald
Tribune_.
HUME, DAVID. _Essays Moral, Political and Literary._ 1741-2. Numerous
editions. 616 pp.
Although Adam Smith referred to David Hume in his _Wealth of Nations_
as “by far the most illustrious philosopher and historian of the
present age,” even professional economists seldom seem to recognize
the great intellectual debt that Smith owed to his older friend
Hume, not merely in general philosophy but in the special realm of
economics. These essays, published more than thirty years before _The
Wealth of Nations_, embody many important ideas which Adam Smith later
expanded and pushed further. The most important economic essays are
Of Commerce, Of the Balance of Trade, Of the Jealousy of Trade, Of
Money, Of Interest, Of Taxes, and Of Public Credit. In addition there
are political essays, Of the Liberty of the Press, Of the Independence
of Parliament, and Of Civil Liberty, that stand among the earlier
developments of the modern philosophy of individualism. Hume was hardly
less distinguished for the excellence of his literary style than for
the originality and acuteness of his ideas.
HUNOLD, ALBERT (ed.). _Die Konvertibilität der europäischen
Währungen._ Zurich: Eugen Rentsch. 1954. 336 pp.
An anthology on the measures that can be taken to bring about a
return to freedom of currency convertibility. The contributors
include G. Haberler, P. Jacobson, W. Röpke, G. Carli, F. Collin, H.
Germain-Martin, H. Homberger, J. E. Meade, F. W. Meyer, S. Posthuma,
and F. A. Lutz.
HUNT, R. N. CAREW. _Marxism: Past and Present._ Macmillan. 1955.
“It is a worthwhile endeavor to put the claims of Marxism through the
wringer of factual analysis. This is what a British scholar, Mr. R.
N. Carew Hunt, has now done with conspicuous success.... One Marxian
dogma after another is fairly stated, examined and dismissed with
the reasoned verdict: disproved or unprovable. From this searching
examination a very deflated Marx emerges, stripped of all pretension to
be recognized as a seer of the shape of things to come, or even as a
reasonably accurate guesser.”--William Henry Chamberlin.
The author pronounces this final judgment on utopianism in general
and Marxism in particular: “It is easy enough to attack any economic
system, as it is certain to contain features which are open to
criticism, and to make large promises of replacing it by a new order of
ideal harmony. But in an imperfect world no such order is attainable.
‘It is a disease of the soul,’ says a Grecian sage, ‘to be in love with
impossible things.’”
HUNT, R. N. CAREW. _The Theory and Practice of Communism._ Macmillan.
1951. 231 pp.
“The book falls into three sections. The first deals with the basis of
Communist theory as laid down by Marx and Engels, which is still the
official creed of the movement. The second covers the development of
the European labor movement in the Nineteenth Century, with special
reference to Marxist influence upon it and to the cross-currents of
opinion which arose by way of reaction to his doctrines.... The third
brings us to the period when the revolutionary movement begins to be
shaped by Russia, which has since directed it, and deals with the
attempts by Lenin and Stalin to apply Marxist principles to the changed
conditions of the present century.”--From the Foreword. “With a single
demurrer, I recommend _The Theory and Practice of Communism_ as a book
that every man of politics, and every one prone to get into political
arguments, ought to carry in his pocket.”--Max Eastman, in _The New
York Times_.
HUNTER, EDWARD. _Brain-Washing in Red China._ Vanguard Press. 1951.
311 pp.
The calculated destruction of men’s minds. “One of the largest and
most important jobs confronting the initial band of Chinese Communists
was to subject their citizens to ‘brainwashing’ in order to rid them
of ‘imperialist poison’ and to qualify them for their position in the
‘new democracy.’... The author interviewed at length returnees from
the mainland to Hongkong, and his story is a horribly incredible one
of exploitation of human nature, destruction of individualism, and
intellectual conquest.”--_Library Journal._ “Mr. Hunter points up the
basic issue of the struggle between Communism and democracy--that
is, that Communism means the end of individual freedom. He says that
we must find means of checking the psychological offensive of the
Communist world if we ourselves are to be safe from brain washing and
brain changing.”--A. T. Steele, in the _New York Herald Tribune_.
HUTT, W. H. _The Theory of Collective Bargaining._ 1930. Glencoe,
Ill.: Free Press. 1954. 150 pp.
This is a short but lucid and penetrating “history, analysis and
criticism of the principal theories which have sought to explain
the effects of trade unions and employers’ associations upon the
distribution of the product of industry.” As Ludwig von Mises writes
in his preface to the 1954 edition: “Professor Hutt’s brilliant essay
is not merely a contribution to the history of economic thought. It
is rather a critical analysis of the arguments advanced by economists
from Adam Smith down and by the spokesmen of the unions in favor of
the thesis that unionism can raise wage rates above the market level
without harm to anybody else than the ‘exploiters.’ As such it is of
utmost use not only to every student of economics but to everybody who
wants to form a well-founded opinion about one of the most vital as
well as most controversial political issues of our age.”
HUTT, W. H. _Plan for Reconstruction._ Oxford University Press. 1943.
328 pp.
Appearing during World War II, this presented Professor Hutt’s project
for victory in war and peace. “It is a careful and sound analysis of
all forms of restrictionism, and it is a skilful discussion of some of
the most important economic evils of our era.”--B. F. Hoselitz, in the
_American Journal of Sociology_.
HUXLEY, ALDOUS. _Brave New World._ Doubleday. 1932. 311 pp.
A chilling satirical novel on the “brave new world” of the future, when
human liberty, dignity and individuality will have been systematically
destroyed by “scientific conditioning.”
HUXLEY, ALDOUS. _Ends and Means._ Harper. 1937. 386 pp.
This book, which combines lucidity and insight with mysticism and
confusion, has a mixed value for the individualist. Reviewing it in
_The New York Times_ of Dec. 12, 1937, I wrote: “_Ends and Means_
rests on the premise ... that the end cannot justify the means,
for the simple reason that the means employed inevitably determine
the nature of the ends produced. Hence Huxley is opposed to all
efforts to achieve a better world through the method of violence....
He is against the ‘capitalistic system,’ or at least he thinks he
is.... Yet he fails to realize how much more opposed he is to the
real alternative to capitalism.... ‘State Socialism,’ he recognizes
explicitly at one point, ‘tends to produce a single centralized,
totalitarian dictatorship, wielding absolute authority over all its
subjects through a hierarchy of bureaucratic agents.’ The political
road to a better society, he tells us, on the other hand, is ‘the
road of decentralization and responsible self-government.’ But this
comes pretty close to being a definition of private enterprise in the
economic field.”
HYDE, DOUGLAS. _I Believed._ Putnam. 1950. 312 pp.
Autobiographical account of how the author became a communist, worked
hard for many years in the British Communist Party, and then left the
party and became a convert to Catholicism. “This book is one of the
most interesting and revealing of the score or so of confessions by
ex-Communists.”--Freda Utley, in the _Chicago Sunday Tribune_.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS. _The Declaration of Independence._ 1776. 1 p.
This is the most famous short statement in existence of the principles
of political liberty (with the possible exception of Magna Charta
[1215], if the two can be compared). Certainly, nothing bearing on
those principles is more often quoted than the second paragraph of the
Declaration, beginning: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness.” Although Jefferson drew up the Declaration, it
was slightly amended by Adams and Franklin.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS. _The Life and Selected Writings of._ Many editions.
(Modern Library. 1944. 756 pp.)
Every student of human liberty should know something of the philosophy
and writings of Jefferson (in addition to the Declaration of
Independence, here listed separately). There are several collections
and many selections. The volume listed above gives the _Notes on
Virginia_ and the _Autobiography_ virtually complete, and allots the
greatest amount of space to the letters. Jefferson was a staunch
champion of limited government and the diffusion and decentralization
of powers. He favored (p. 323) “a wise and frugal government, which
shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave
them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and
improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it
has earned. This is the sum of good government.”
JEVONS, W. STANLEY. _The Theory of Political Economy._ 1871. Numerous
editions.
A work of epoch-making importance. John Maynard Keynes writes of it:
“Jevons’s _Theory_ is the first treatise to present in a finished
form the theory of value based on subjective valuations, the marginal
principle and the now familiar technique of the algebra and diagrams
of the subject. The first modern book on economics, it has proved
singularly attractive to all bright minds newly attacking the
subject;--simple, lucid, unfaltering, chiselled in stone where Marshall
knits in wool.”
JEVONS, W. STANLEY. _The State in Relation to Labor._ 1882. Macmillan.
174 pp.
In this book Jevons takes a cautious, intermediate position regarding
state intervention: “The all-important point,” he explains in the
preface, “is to explain if possible why, in general, we uphold the
rule of _laisser-faire_, and yet in large classes of cases invoke the
interference of local or central authorities.... The outcome of the
inquiry is that we can lay down no hard-and-fast rules, but must treat
every case in detail upon its merits.” But in his _Primer on Political
Economy_, published in 1878, he wrote, for example: “There is no reason
whatever to think that trades unions have had any permanent effect in
raising wages in the majority of trades.”
JEVONS, W. STANLEY. _The Coal Question._ 1865. Macmillan. 383 pp.
This bears the subtitle: “An enquiry concerning the progress of
the nation, and the probable exhaustion of our coal mines.” It is
significant as foreseeing far in advance a physical condition which,
when it developed, was attributed to the wastefulness of private
competition and led to Britain’s futile nationalization of the coal
mines.
JEWKES, JOHN. _Ordeal by Planning._ Macmillan. 1948. 248 pp.
The most forthright and powerful attack on government economic planning
that has appeared in England since Hayek’s _Road to Serfdom_. While it
lacks some of the philosophic penetration and depth of Hayek’s book,
it is more explicit and concrete. Its style is lively, sparkling, and
witty. Professor Jewkes was a wartime member of the British bureaucracy
and has seen central economic planning from the inside. “The planned
economy,” he concludes, “must finally destroy the very instruments
of free speech.... This is no accident.... It is due to the logical
incompatibility of a planned economy and freedom for the individual....
There is no end to this process of seeking to cure the evils of
planning by more planning except a totalitarian economy of the Russian
type.”
JOSEPH, H. W. B. _The Labor Theory of Value in Karl Marx._ Oxford
University Press. 1923. 176 pp.
Professor Joseph holds that the theory which finds an objective measure
of value for things in the labor embodied in them is fundamentally
false. The author is well known as a logician. The late L. Susan
Stebbing called his _Introduction to Logic_ “by far the best systematic
exposition of the traditional logic.” James Bonar wrote of the present
book in _The Economic Journal_: “It is not censure but commendation
that in showing [that Marx’s theory is false] Mr. Joseph follows
the lines of many predecessors, especially Böhm-Bawerk, that model
of conscientious thoroughness.... The book is sane and helpful. Its
discussions give good training in Applied Logic.”
JOUVENEL, BERTRAND DE. _The Ethics of Redistribution._ Cambridge
University Press. 1951. 91 pp.
Deliberately putting aside the argument that current government efforts
to redistribute incomes reduce or destroy incentives, Baron de Jouvenel
seeks to deal with the subject on purely ethical grounds. Would
total equalization of incomes, he asks, even if it did not reduce
production, be good or desirable? Or does justice demand individual
rewards proportionate to the value of individual services? In an acute
and original discussion, de Jouvenel shows not only how disappointing
(in Great Britain, for example) the results of a further redistribution
of incomes would be, but how redistribution has turned out to mean in
effect “far less a redistribution of free income from the richer to
the poorer, as we imagined, than a redistribution of power from the
individual to the State.”
JOUVENEL, BERTRAND DE. _On Power._ Viking Press. 1949. 421 pp.
“M. de Jouvenel, a French journalist and historian, who finished this
book in exile during the war, maintains that all power is corrupt, no
matter what political philosophy it is dedicated to. Even revolutions,
which break up special privilege in the name of the common good, are
the products of a desire for power, he believes, and the iniquities
of power cannot be prevented by putting philosophers, scientists, and
‘men of good will’ in high office, for as soon as they are on top, they
become politicians.... The book is not a tract, but a fully considered
line of thinking, and has caused a great deal of comment in Europe. An
important book, brilliantly written.”--_New Yorker._
KALME, ALBERT. _Total Terror._ Appleton-Century-Crofts. 1951. 310 pp.
An account of the fate of the three Baltic countries--Estonia, Latvia
and Lithuania--under the Nazis and the Russian communist regime.
KANTOROWICZ, HERMANN U. _The Spirit of British Policy, and the Myth of
the Encirclement of Germany._ Oxford University Press. 1931. 541 pp.
The primary purpose of this scholarly and thorough book by an eminent
German jurist is to disprove the notion of the “encirclement” of
Germany through the operations of British diplomacy as a cause of World
War I.
KAPLAN, A. D. H. _Big Enterprise in the Competitive System._ Brookings
Institution. 1953. 269 pp.
A careful statistical study which throws a brilliant light on the
question of bigness, monopoly, “oligopoly” and competition in American
industry. Dr. Kaplan shows, for example, that of the 100 largest
industrial firms in the United States in 1909 only 36 stayed in the
list of the 100 largest for 1948. “The top is a slippery place,” and
no safeguard against the hazards of competition. Dr. Kaplan points
out that the attitude of the American public toward “big business”
is oddly inconsistent. Individually, as investors, employees, and
consumers, the people support and promote the growth of big business
enterprises. But collectively they regard “big business” with distrust.
KASENKINA, OKSANA. _Leap to Freedom._ Lippincott. 1949. 295 pp.
Autobiography of the Russian teacher, Oksana Kasenkina. “Her story
of the first faint glimmering of the idea of breaking away from the
soul-crushing tyranny which surrounded her, of the slow growth of her
hope and determination, of her first abortive attempt to pull free and
of her final desperate plunge from a window of the Soviet Consulate
into the courtyard below, and into the welcoming arms of America, make
up the best part of the book. Even though you know that she did escape,
the suspense at the end is terrific.”--Oriana Atkinson, in _The New
York Times_.
KEETON, G. W. _The Passing of Parliament._ London: Ernest Benn. 1952.
208 pp.
G. W. Keeton is dean of the Faculty of Laws at University College,
London. During the past seventy years, he points out, the British
Parliament, although still nominally supreme, has conferred on
government departments and agencies increasingly wide powers of
lawmaking. The jurisdiction of the courts and the legislative powers of
the House of Lords have been seriously curtailed. Party discipline has
intensified, so that a government may rely upon a firm majority in the
House of Commons to give legal force to almost any measure it proposes.
The Rule of Law has been gravely undermined. It is Professor Keeton’s
thesis that, in consequence of these developments, the sovereignty
of Parliament is in danger of becoming a fiction, and that all the
necessary machinery for Cabinet dictatorship already exists. This
scholarly and cogent book is a worthy successor to _The New Despotism_
written by Lord Hewart (q.v.) more than twenty years ago.
KEEZER, DEXTER MERRIAM, and associates. _Making Capitalism Work._
McGraw-Hill. 1950. 316 pp.
A program for preserving freedom and stabilizing prosperity. The volume
is the joint product of several members of the economics department
of the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. Its own declaration of purpose
is: “This book is written from a definite point of view and with a
clear-cut purpose. The point of view is that capitalism is the best way
to economic life for the United States of America. The purpose is to
explain that point of view and present a series of steps which, in the
view of the authors, must be taken to give capitalism the promise of a
prosperous future in the United States.”
KELLER, THE REV. EDWARD A. _Christianity and American Capitalism._
Chicago: Heritage Foundation. 1954. 92 pp.
Father Keller examines socialism, capitalism, big government and big
labor, and restates the case for the American economic system.
KELSEN, HANS. _The Political Theory of Bolshevism._ University of
California Press. 1948. 60 pp.
A critical analysis of the political theory of bolshevism. “The purpose
of this study is to show the paradoxical contradiction which exists
within bolshevism between anarchism in theory and totalitarianism
in practice, and to defend the true idea of democracy.”--From the
Introduction.
KELSEN, HANS. _The Communist Theory of Law._ Frederick A. Praeger.
1955. 203 pp.
“Hans Kelsen is one of the world’s leading authorities on legal theory
and international law.... He begins with an analysis of the Marx-Engels
theory of state and law that is positively brilliant.... Kelsen’s
analysis of the logical contradictions in historical materialism
and its application to state and law has, so far as I know, no
equal.”--Bertram D. Wolfe, in _The New York Times_.
KEMMERER, E. W. _The A B C of Inflation._ Whittlesey House. 1942. 174
pp.
An excellent little book on the causes and consequences of monetary
inflation, although the threat of inflation to liberty was not as clear
when this book was written as it has since become.
KIEKHOFER, WILLIAM H. _Economic Principles, Problems and Policies._
Appleton-Century-Crofts. 1951.
A standard college textbook.
KING, WILLFORD I. _The Keys to Prosperity._ Constitution and Free
Enterprise Foundation. 1948. 242 pp.
Dr. King believes that most of the keys that unlock the gates to
prosperity were found by Adam Smith in _The Wealth of Nations_.
Additional “keys” have been discovered since that time. Yet “a great
tangle of misconceptions and fallacies” has buried many of them “so
deeply that it has required a trained eye to detect them.” Dr. King
attempts here to disentangle the fallacies from the economic truths in
order that the reader may find the “keys to prosperity.” He writes with
lucidity and statistical authority.
KINTNER, WILLIAM R. _The Front Is Everywhere._ University of Oklahoma
Press. 1950. 274 pp.
“The author, now at Fort Leavenworth, started research for this book
while doing graduate work at Georgetown University. He believes that
an overruling military purpose shapes every aspect of Communist
organization. Kintner endeavors to prove his point by examining the
history of the Marxist movement from origins to era of Lenin and
Stalin. The volume contains some significant observations, based on
wide acquaintance with Communist literature.”--_Library Journal._
KIRK, RUSSELL. _The Conservative Mind._ Regnery. 1953. 458 pp.
In my Introduction to this bibliography I call attention to the
compatibility of an intelligent conservatism with a vigorous defense
of freedom. Russell Kirk recognizes this. “Political liberalism before
the middle of the nineteenth century,” he writes, “was conservatism of
a sort: it intended to conserve liberty.” The present book analyzes
the conservative spirit and philosophy as exemplified in a series
of writers from Edmund Burke to George Santayana. “The author of
_The Conservative Mind_ is as relentless as his enemies, Karl Marx
and Harold Laski, considerably more temperate and scholarly, and in
passages of this very readable book, brilliant and even eloquent....
Against the Hegel-Marx-Laski axis he analyzes and describes the
affirmative tradition of Burke, de Tocqueville and Irving Babbitt.”--G.
K. Chalmers, in _The New York Times_.
KNIGHT, FRANK H. _Risk, Uncertainty and Profit._ Houghton Mifflin.
1921. 381 pp.
In his preface, Professor Knight declares: “The particular technical
contribution to the theory of free enterprise which this essay purports
to make is a fuller and more careful examination of the role of the
_entrepreneur_ or enterpriser, the recognized ‘central figure’ of the
system, and of the forces which fix the remuneration of his special
function.”
“The outstanding fact about Professor Knight’s book is that the author
has made a contribution to the theory of profit that no student of
the subject can afford to neglect.”--G. P. Watkins, in the _Quarterly
Journal of Economics_.
KNIGHT, FRANK H. _The Ethics of Competition, and Other Essays._
Harper. 1935. 363 pp.
A collection of eleven important essays by Professor Knight, brought
together by a group of his former students. It includes a bibliography
of his writings from 1915 to 1935. “Professor Knight ... manages in
the course of this volume to throw original and arresting light on
almost every corner of the contemporary economic problem. One page
after another in his book is filled not merely with great wisdom and
subtlety, but with constant aphoristic sentences that strike the reader
at once with their pertinence and truth.... It is ... because Professor
Knight is an economic theorist of the first rank and a believer in
personal and political liberty, that his criticism of the existing
economic system is so extremely valuable. He also has the great merit
of seeing the philosophical background clearly, and not falling back,
like some economists, on philosophical solecisms while professing to
eschew philosophy altogether.”--London _Times Literary Supplement_.
KNIGHT, FRANK H. _Freedom and Reform._ Harper. 1947. 409 pp.
Essays in economic and social philosophy. “Knight’s personal influence,
through his teaching, exceeds even the influence of his writings. It is
hardly an exaggeration to state that nearly all the younger American
economists who really understand and advocate a competitive economic
system, have at one time been Knight’s students.”--F. A. Hayek.
KNOWLES, LILIAN C. A. _Industrial and Commercial Revolutions in Great
Britain during the Nineteenth Century._ Dutton. 1921. 420 pp.
“The best general economic history of England in the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. On the question of the interpretation of
State intervention during this period, its attitude may be described as
‘neutral.’”--PI.
KOESTLER, ARTHUR. _Darkness at Noon._ Macmillan. 1941. 267 pp. (Also
Modern Library. 1946.)
A powerful novel based on the famous Moscow trials. It centers about
a former People’s Commissar who has followed certain practices for a
cause that seemed of supreme importance, and now finds himself victim
of his own methods. In portraying the psychology of a loyal communist,
the novel illuminates not only Russia but the conflict between the
individual and the State.
KOESTLER, ARTHUR. _The Yogi and the Commissar._ Macmillan. 1945. 247
pp.
A collection of sixteen essays. These essays contain the shrewd and
sometimes brilliant insights of a former communist--and the confusions
of one who still remains a socialist.
KORNER, EMIL. _The Law of Freedom as the Remedy for War and Poverty._
London: Williams & Norgate. 1951. 2 vols. 562 pp. 663 pp.
This work, translated from the original German, contains much
that seems to me confused and crotchety, but also much that
is illuminating. “Korner offers stimulating viewpoints to
those who adhere to L. Mises’, F. A. Hayek’s and L. Robbins’
doctrines of economic freedom or to H. C. Simons’ _Positive
Program of Laissez-faire_ and reject Marxism as well as Keynesian
economics.”--Theo Surányi-Unger, in _The American Economic Review_.
KRAVCHENKO, VICTOR. _I Chose Freedom._ Scribner’s. 1946. 496 pp.
“About two months before D-Day on the beaches of Normandy, a frightened
member of the Soviet Purchasing Commission deserted his post in
Washington and placed himself under the protection of the people of the
United States. He was Victor Kravchenko, long a member of the Communist
party, an engineer, a factory director and for a time an official in
the Council of Peoples Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative
Socialist Republic, by far the largest of the republics constituting
the U.S.S.R. Kravchenko was not frightened of shell-fire but of the
long arm of Soviet law dealing with a renegade. He escaped, however,
and in _I Chose Freedom_ he and his translator have described his life
in the Soviet Union, his views of the Soviet régime and the events that
prompted him to desert.”--_Weekly Book Review._ “It is, I believe, the
most remarkable and most revelatory report to have come out of the
Soviet Union from any source whatsoever.”--Dorothy Thompson, in the
_Saturday Review of Literature_.
KRAVCHENKO, VICTOR. _I Chose Justice._ Scribner’s. 1950. 458 pp.
“A sequel to _I Chose Freedom_. The author describes his successful
libel suit against _Les Lettres Françaises_, a Parisian Communist
magazine which had called his book a fake.”--_The New York Times._ “The
world is indebted to the author for material which should settle once
for all every honest doubt as to the Kremlin’s determination to destroy
human liberties.”--_Catholic World._
KROPOTKIN, PRINCE. _Mutual Aid._ London: Heinemann. 1904. 348 pp.
“The Anarchists are Individualists of a somewhat perverse kind. So
extreme an Individualist as Auberon Herbert was very careful to
disclaim any connection with Anarchy. Kropotkin--who was considerably
influenced by the farm-loving Fourier--advocated the extreme
Individualism which threw off all restraint, and arrived, through
Anarchy, at Communism. But the goal is ‘free Communism untrammelled
by the State.’ In economics a good time is coming.... In social life
and politics there is to be the enjoyment for all of the same liberty.
All contracts--above all, marriage--are void unless ‘voluntarily and
frequently renewed.’ With almost incredible optimism, the Anarchists
held that sovereign Reason coupled with the inherited instinct of
solidarity impelling men towards mutual aid (this seems to have
been Kropotkin’s own and comparatively commonsense contribution)
would be sufficient to control human passions. Government would be
quite unnecessary. There is a myth that the philosopher Empedocles,
to prove some philosophical principle, threw himself into Etna and
perished. Much the same fate befell poor Kropotkin. Believing that his
principles had triumphed in Russia, he hurried to his native land in
the expectation of seeing the world’s great age begin anew. He soon
discovered that, as the Jacobins were said to have no need of chemists,
so the Leninites had no use for philosophers, and he died in poverty
that almost amounted to starvation.”--PI.
KRUTCH, JOSEPH WOOD. _The Measure of Man._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1954. 261 pp.
This is a well-written and closely reasoned book. It is a significant
and hopeful sign that Joseph Wood Krutch, whose background has
been mainly that of a literary and dramatic critic, and who has no
special knowledge of economics and politics, should have arrived by
an independent route at much the same conclusions as those of F. A.
Hayek in _The Counter-Revolution of Science_ (q.v.). Although the two
writers show no knowledge of each other’s work, Krutch, like Hayek,
has become profoundly critical of the mechanistic, “conditioning”
and “engineering” point of view toward man and society: he answers
the arguments of the mechanists not on emotional or mystical, but on
scientific and rational, grounds. Historically he shows how nineteenth
century thought, under the influence of Darwin, Marx, Freud, and
their followers, left us the heritage of materialism, mechanism and
determinism that has played into the hands of the totalitarians. Krutch
contends that man is capable of making independent choices and value
judgments and of freely choosing what he will do.
KÜHNELT-LEDDIHN, ERIK MARIA VON. _Liberty or Equality._ Caldwell,
Idaho: Caxton Printers. 1952. 395 pp.
“The book is an exploration of certain interconnected hypotheses,
of varying generality, about contemporary politics. The first set
of propositions to be examined is: That the impulse of ‘democracy’
(popular government) is the pursuit of equality, and that this leads
unavoidably (and has in fact led) to collectivism and on to oppressive
totalitarianism; and that ‘liberalism’ is the pursuit of liberty and is
an incompatible mate for ‘democracy.’... The second proposition: That
‘monarchy’ is a more serviceable manner of government than ‘democracy’
and likely to be more ‘liberal.’... The third: That the political
temper of Catholic nations is more ‘liberal’ than that of Protestant
nations.”--_Spectator._ “The book is uneven--sometimes naive, sometimes
poorly thought out, and sometimes exasperatingly repetitious. But its
genuine insights make it worth reading, despite its weaknesses.”--W. P.
Clancy, in _Commonweal_.
LACOUR-GAYET, JACQUES, and LACOUR-GAYET, ROBERT. _De Platon à la
Terreur._ Paris: Éditions SPID. 1948. 268 pp.
This is a short history of the philosophy and practice of State
economic planning and price controls “from Plato to the Terror.” It
contains chapters on Plato and the planned economy, the price-fixing
edicts of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, reflections on the “just price”
of medieval theory, the search for economic liberty in France from
1789 to 1791, the enormous inflation of the French currency, and its
culmination in the dreadful Law of the Maximum (price control), which
made the situation far worse and abolished liberty.
LACOUR-GAYET, JACQUES (ed.). _Vingt Ans de Capitalisme D’État._ Paris:
Éditions SPID. 1951. 302 pp.
A critical examination by nine writers of “twenty years of State
capitalism” in France. The authors show the deleterious consequences
of the nationalization of various industries in the period from 1930
to 1950. The contributors are: André Armengaud, Louis Baudin, Jacques
Chastenet, Pierre Fromont, Emile Mireaux, Marcel Pellenc, André Thiers,
Daniel Villey and Jacques Lacour-Gayet.
LACOUR-GAYET, JACQUES (ed.). _Monnaie d’Hier et de Demain._ Paris:
Éditions SPID. 1952. 226 pp.
Essays by five distinguished French economists on the vicissitudes of
French money in recent years and on the necessity for returning to an
international gold standard. Charles Rist writes on the experience of
1926 and the franc of today. Jacques Rueff writes on the reasons for
returning to a gold standard. Alfred Pose writes on monetary stability
and gold money. And Edmond Giscard d’Estaing writes on commerce and the
need for an international money.
LACY, MARY G. _Food Control During Forty Centuries._ _Scientific
Monthly_, June, 1923. 14 pp.
Mary G. Lacy was librarian of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics
of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This paper on the results of
government efforts to control food prices through the centuries was
reissued in pamphlet form by Swift & Co. in 1933. Although compact, it
is remarkably comprehensive and carefully documented, and deserves to
be far better known. Mary Lacy also compiled in 1926 (with Annie M.
Hannay and Emily L. Day), _Price-fixing by Governments, 424_ B.C. _to
1926_ A.D.
LANE, ARTHUR BLISS. _I Saw Poland Betrayed._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1948. 344
pp.
The author was appointed United States ambassador to Poland in July
1944 and took up his duties while the Potsdam conference was still
in session, July 1945. He retired in 1947, after nearly two years of
frustration, to “tell the story as I had seen it.” “For the sake of the
American share in the history of the post-war years, one is sorry that
the analysis of Soviet plans, the pattern for ideological conquest,
were not presented to the public during the last days of the war. But
since Lane was a career diplomat, that was impossible. He has done his
best. It is very good.”--Drew Middleton, in _The New York Times_.
LANE, ROSE WILDER. _The Discovery of Freedom._ John Day. 1943. 262 pp.
A discussion of man’s struggle against authority. Mrs. Lane argues (1)
that progress depends on a minimum of governmental control; and (2)
that the only true control is individual and that individual control is
in accord with religious faith. The book is eloquent and stimulating
and covers a wide range of subjects.
LANE, ROSE WILDER. _Give Me Liberty._ Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton
Printers. 1945. 56 pp.
An expansion of an article that originally appeared in _The Saturday
Evening Post_. Mrs. Lane vividly describes her friendliness with
communists in New York, her encounters with socialist bureaucracies
in Europe, and her observations and discussions with simple villagers
and primitive communists in Russia during the early years of the
Soviet regime. She tells how she came to understand the rarity and the
supremely precious values of personal freedom.
LE BON, GUSTAVE. _The Psychology of Socialism._ London: Unwin. 1909.
489 pp.
“This brilliant work by a convinced opponent of Socialism is based
on the view that the best way to fight it and expose it is to make a
scientific examination of it.... ‘Hitherto psychologists has disdained
to study it.’... The book abounds in epigrammatic apothegms.... ‘All
that has gone to make the greatness of civilization [he insists]:
sciences, arts, philosophies, religions, military power, etc., has
been the work of individuals, not of aggregates.... The peoples among
whom Individualism is most highly developed are by this fact alone
at the head of civilization, and today dominate the world.’... The
theories of Socialism and its history are subjected to a penetrating
analysis. Le Bon seems to fear that it will be victorious, and thus, he
thinks, bring about the destruction of modern civilization.... Le Bon’s
other works are _The World in Revolt_, 1921; and _The Crowd_, 16th
impression, 1926.”--PI.
LECKY, W. E. H. _Democracy and Liberty._ Longmans, Green. 1896. 2
vols. 1169 pp.
“Of all English publicists Lecky was the most fit to take the place
vacated by John Stuart Mill. He differed from Mill in most of his
political and philosophical views, but he has the same candor and
delight in learning. This discursive treatise is not one of his best
works, but it has many wise comments on modern democracy, and the
chapters on Socialism and Labor Questions should be studied. There is
no systematic attack upon Socialism, but Lecky’s intellectual attitude
is Individualistic. He observes that ‘Socialism is essentially opposed
to Free Trade and international commerce.’ As democracy is hasty and
impatient, it may make changes in a collectivist direction. ‘But
proposed changes which conflict with the fundamental laws and elements
of human nature can never, in the long run, succeed. The sense of right
and wrong, which is the basis of the respect for property and for the
obligation of contract; the feeling of family affection, on which the
continuity of society depends, and out of which the system of heredity
grows; the essential difference of men in aptitudes, capacities, and
character, are things that never can be changed, and all schemes and
policies that ignore them are doomed to ultimate failure.’”--PI.
LEVINE, ISAAC DON. _Stalin._ Cosmopolitan Book. 1931. 421 pp.
The first clear and complete account of the life of Stalin to appear
in English, published when the Russian dictator was still an enigmatic
figure to the Western world. The author’s thesis is that “if it was
Lenin who conceived the Communist party as a military order ... it is
to Stalin that is due the lion’s share of the credit or onus of forging
this order into an army of steel.” The book gives a portrait of Stalin
that is “vivid, graphic, intelligent and convincing.... Moreover, it
portrays Bolshevism infinitely better than most of the books on Russia
do.”--Alexander Nazaroff, in _The New York Times_.
LHOSTE-LACHAUME, PIERRE. _Réhabilitation du Libéralisme._ 1950. Paris:
Éditions SÉDIF. 320 pp.
The liberalism that this French economist wants to see restored is the
traditional kind which demanded that the state should not encroach on
“liberty of thought, of speech and of the press, private ownership of
the means of production and a free market.” Felix Morley writes: “The
epic struggle of today, as M. Lhoste-Lachaume sees it, is between true
liberalism and communism. The parliamentary socialists, among whom he
includes many Americans who would resent the description, will in the
long run be taken over by communism. When people get the habit of
living on subsidies, and expecting ‘social security’ from government,
they tacitly become the fellow-travelers of the communists.” The book
is the first of a contemplated trilogy, and has not yet been translated
into English.
LHOSTE-LACHAUME, PIERRE. _The Keystone of Liberty._ Paris: Éditions
SÉDIF. 1954. 79 pp.
The French title of this book is _La Clef de Voute de la Liberté_. It
presents the English text on each left-hand page, and the French on
each right-hand page, of an article that appeared originally in the
British quarterly, _The Owl_, in September 1953. The book discusses
the liberal era of the nineteenth century, the gradual giving up
of traditional liberal principles, and the necessity of a “liberal
renovation” which would recognize the beneficial effects of the free
market and avoid “the blind alley of democratic socialism.” The
author believes that the world’s present choice is between either a
“spiritualist liberalism” or a totalitarian materialism. There is an
eight-page appendix presenting an extensive bibliography of recent
books in French, German, Italian, Dutch, and English which support a
free society and a free economy.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE SERVICE. _Communism in
Action._ U. S. Government Printing Office. 1946. 141 pp.
A documented study and analysis of communism in operation in the Soviet
Union. House Document No. 754. There is a foreword by Congressman
Everett M. Dirksen.
LINDBLOM, CHARLES E. _Unions and Capitalism._ Yale University Press.
1949. 267 pp.
This is a strange book, written by an associate professor of economics
at Yale University, a declared “liberal” (in the recent American
sense, as opposed to “conservative”), yet which states the menace of
present-day big unionism with far more power and clarity than most
conservative economists have dared to state it. Professor Lindblom’s
thesis, in his own words, “is that unionism and the private enterprise
economy are incompatible.... Unionism is destroying the competitive
price system.... The strike ... paralyzes production, and it is
dramatic. But the real labor problem is its aftermath.... For if wage
disputes call a halt to production temporarily, their settlement may
disorganize it permanently. Unionism will destroy the price system
by what it wins rather than by the struggle to win it. It sabotages
the competitive order, not because the economy cannot weather the
disturbance of work stoppages but because it cannot produce high output
and employment at union wage rates.” His grim conclusion is, in sum,
that “union monopoly destroys the price system because it produces ...
waste, unemployment, inflation, or all combined ... to a degree which
the economy cannot survive.”
LINK, HENRY C. _The Rediscovery of Morals._ Dutton. 1947. 223 pp.
A discussion of what is wrong with the world of today and its people,
and what can be done about it. Problems of race and class conflict
are given special attention. The author takes our educational system
to task for its lack of emphasis on morals, and advocates a return to
Christian morality.
LIPPER, ELINOR. _Eleven Years in Soviet Prison Camps._ Regnery. 1951.
310 pp.
“A gently nurtured Dutch girl studying medicine in Berlin in 1931
was deeply touched by the miseries of the German unemployed, and at
Hitler’s ascendancy transferred her loyalties to the Soviet Union. From
1937-1948 she was a political prisoner held without trial for the bulk
of her hideous, subhuman imprisonment at Kolyma in Siberia.”--_Library
Journal._
LIPPMANN, WALTER. _The Good Society._ Little, Brown. 1937. 402 pp.
Reviewing this book in _The New York Times_ of Sept. 26, 1937, I
wrote: “No more powerful and thorough indictment” of the fallacies of
collectivism and of a managed economy “has been written in America.”
The latter part of the book is marred by an inconsistent support of an
apparently Keynesian type of “monetary management.” But the first half
is as penetrating as it is eloquent. Mr. Lippmann contends that it is
governmental coercion that is creating the very chaos it purports to
conquer. He insists that a managed economy must mean a censored and
managed opinion. He concludes that the consequences of collectivism
must be regimentation, censorship, militarism, war, despotism,
impoverishment, and barbarism, and that the only hope of mankind lies
in the restoration of liberal doctrine.
LOCKE, JOHN. _Two Treatises of Civil Government._ 1690. Many editions.
(Everyman’s Library. 1924.) 242 pp.
The historical importance of these two works in the history of
individualism is enormous. (For a discussion, see the introductory
essay to this list, “Individualism in Politics and Economics.”)
LOCKE, JOHN. _An Essay Concerning Human Understanding._ 1690. Many
editions.
“This work, which is a landmark in the history of philosophy, does not
bear directly upon Individualism; but some of the earlier chapters
at least should be carefully studied, in order that the reader may
grasp Locke’s general principles, which guided politics in England
and the United States for some 200 years. It bases all knowledge and
practice on experience.... As Sir James Mackintosh said: ‘Few books
have contributed more to rectify prejudice--to diffuse a just mode of
thinking--to excite a fearless spirit of inquiry--and yet to contain
it within the boundaries which nature has prescribed to the human
understanding.’ This ‘fearless spirit of inquiry’ was subversive of the
faith in established laws and governments and was a necessary equipment
for those who, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, began
their attack upon obsolete institutions. It was thus a preliminary to
Individualism, to voluntary instead of compulsory co-operation--to use
the phraseology of Herbert Spencer.”--PI.
LOCKE, JOHN. _Considerations on the Lowering of Interest._ 1691.
Several editions. 138 pp.
“Here Locke anticipated many of the arguments of the better-known work
_On Usury_ by Bentham, i.e., his position was _laissez-faire_.”--PI.
LUTZ, HARLEY L. _Guideposts to a Free Economy._ McGraw-Hill. 1945. 206
pp.
A series of essays on federal fiscal policy, taxation, and public
expenditures that give a rounded understanding of our journey along
two divergent roads of fiscal policy--one leading to a controlled
economy and the other to the strengthening of the enterprise system and
individual freedom in a free economy. “Professor Lutz has written such
a book as will give true liberals no end of satisfaction and cause the
national planners acute anguish.”--G. R. E., in the _Christian Science
Monitor_.
LUTZ, HARLEY L. _A Platform for the American Way._
Appleton-Century-Crofts. 1952. 114 pp.
The author, who was Professor of Public Finance at Princeton for
nearly twenty years, is distinguished for his clarity and logic and
his vigorous defense of the free enterprise system. His thesis in this
book is that “we are both drifting and being steered into some form of
the national socialist state.” He regards the Right to Own as a basic
human right, and he here offers “a program and a way of life to all who
believe in freedom and who want to remain free here in America.”
LUTZ, HARLEY L. _Public Finance._ Appleton-Century. 1936. 940 pp.
A solidly reasoned textbook pointing to the dangers in deficit
financing and reaffirming the case for balanced budgets and other
“orthodox” fiscal practices.
LYONS, EUGENE. _Assignment in Utopia._ Harcourt, Brace. 1937. 658 pp.
The author writes of his years of growing disillusionment in Russia,
where he served as an American newspaper correspondent from 1928 to
1934. He describes among other things the famine of 1932-1933, and
some of the causes of it. “An important book--vivid, sincere and full
of factual and of psychological interest.”--London _Times Literary
Supplement_.
LYONS, EUGENE. _The Red Decade._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1941. 423 pp.
A study of the activities of communists and fellow-travelers in the
United States during the decade from 1930 to 1940. “The facts are
fabulous, and Lyons relates them with a gusto that rises at times
almost to hilarity. He has a gift of slashing satire, and no fear
of calling foolish acts and famous people by their exact names. But
besides that, and somewhat surprisingly combined with it, he possesses
sympathetic understanding.”--Max Eastman, in _The New York Times_.
MACAULAY, LORD. _Selections from Writings and Speeches._ 1853. Many
editions.
“Among Macaulay’s Essays the most notable for our purposes is on
Southey’s _Colloquies on Society_. Among the speeches should be read
that on the Ten Hours Bill (1846), in which he takes the modern view
that in some cases it may be the duty of the State to protect labor.
That on the Corn Laws (1845) is a vigorous statement of the Free
Trade position. Another noteworthy speech is on the People’s Charter
in 1842. To Macaulay the Chartists appeared as the Communists appear
to most people today. He was convinced that their object was the
nationalization of the land and the abolition of private property. He
says: “The doctrine of the Chartist philosophers is that it is the
business of the government to support the people. It is supposed by
many that our rulers possess, somewhere or other, an inexhaustible
storehouse of all the necessaries and conveniences of life, and, from
mere hard-heartedness, refuse to distribute the contents of this
magazine among the people.... Is it possible to believe that the
millions who have been so long and loudly told that the land is their
estate and is wrongfully kept from them, should not, when they have
supreme power, use that power to enforce what they think their rights?
What could follow but one vast spoliation?’”--PI.
MCCARRAN, SISTER M. MARGARET PATRICIA. _Fabianism in the Political
Life of Britain._ Chicago: Heritage Foundation. (Catholic University
of America Press.) 1952. 612 pp.
The Fabian Society, which later, through the membership of Bernard
Shaw, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, H. G. Wells and others, came to
exercise an enormous intellectual influence for socialism out of all
proportion to its numbers, was originally founded in 1883 by a few
obscure young people in London with the object of “reconstructing
society in accordance with the highest moral possibilities.” This is a
highly critical but encyclopedic reference work on the history of the
society and its activities.
MACCUN, JOHN. _Six Radical Thinkers._ London: Arnold. 1907. 268 pp.
“The articles on Bentham and Cobden are worth notice.”--PI.
MACEOIN, GARY AND ZOMBORY, AKOS. _The Communist War on Religion._
Devin-Adair. 1951. 264 pp.
“Today few Americans are complacent about the threat Communism
constitutes to the things they hold dear.... But we are still hazy
about the essence of the Communist threat. The essential threat is
to truth and freedom: that is, the freedom of men to be men, free
to choose, free to move, to speak, to think--free to worship God.
Wherever the Communists have seized power, they have destroyed these
freedoms, wading through seas of human blood.... This book tells
that story as illustrated in the persecution of religion in every
Communist-controlled country.”--From the Introduction.
MACINNES, HELEN. _Neither Five Nor Three._ Harcourt, Brace. 1951. 340
pp.
“A group of attractive, intelligent, well-intentioned New Yorkers
who create, edit and publish an influential popular magazine called
‘Trend’ suddenly wake up to the fact that their magazine has been
infiltrated, quietly and with devilish cleverness, that its columns
are now being used subtly to disparage and undermine faith in
everything American.”--_New York Herald Tribune._ “It is good, exciting
reading.”--Edmund Fuller, in the _Saturday Review of Literature_.
MACKIEWICZ, JOSEPH. _The Katyn Wood Murders._ London: Hollis & Carter.
1951. 252 pp.
A former member of the Polish underground, who went to Katyn while the
Polish Red Cross was investigating the discovery of the mass graves,
describes his experiences and his beliefs about the crime. “The book is
as fascinating as a detective story and deserves the widest possible
audience as a final, conclusive exposure of Soviet responsibility for
an atrocious butchery. This responsibility was hushed up far too long
because of the supposed necessity of appeasing Stalin during the war
years.”--W. H. Chamberlin, in the _Chicago Sunday Tribune_.
MADISON, JAMES. _Reports of Debates in the Federal Convention._ 1787.
Several editions. 3 vols.
The basic source book on the actual framing of the American
Constitution.
MAINE, SIR HENRY SUMNER. _Popular Government._ Holt. 1886. 261 pp.
“Including the famous essay on the ‘Constitution of the United States.’
The careful student will also familiarize himself with Maine’s _Ancient
Law_.”--Felix Morley.
MALLOCK, W. H. _A Critical Examination of Socialism._ Harper. 1907.
303 pp.
“Mallock was a brilliant critic. This book in substance consists
of lectures delivered in the United States in 1907. It is an able
attack upon Socialism. He rightly begins with Marx, pointing out the
main error of his theory of labor--the leaving out of consideration
_directive ability_.”--PI.
MALLOCK, W. H. _Social Reform as Related to Realities and Delusions._
Dutton. 1915. 391 pp.
“The primary purpose of this book is to illustrate the ‘mischievous
delusions’ by which popular opinion is vitiated in questions of social
reform owing to the general lack of knowledge and understanding of the
structure and functioning of the social system.... The immense material
advance which the nineteenth century has witnessed is constantly
emphasized. Strangely enough, most of the specific delusions to which
Mallock drew attention in 1914 still seem to persist almost as much as
they did when the book was published.”--PI (in 1927).
MALLOCK, W. H. _Democracy._ 1924. 213 pp.
“A ruthless exposure of the fallacies lurking in the term ‘democracy.’
The present edition is an abridgment of an earlier and very much larger
work entitled _The Limits of Pure Democracy_. [London: Chapman & Hall.
1918. 397 pp.]”--PI.
MALLOCK, W. H. _Property and Progress._ Putnam. 1884. 248 pp.
“A criticism of Henry George’s _Progress and Poverty_ (1882). Also
somewhat out of date, even as George is out of date. But the Georgian
theory of land is historically important and still has its influence on
a certain type of Radical.”--PI.
MALTHUS, THE REV. THOMAS R. _An Essay on Population._ 1798, etc. Many
editions. (Everyman’s Library. 2 vols. 315 pp. 285 pp.)
This book has perhaps been “refuted” more often, and denounced and
ridiculed more often, than any other. Yet it is one of the world’s
great seminal works. In the scientific field it helped to inspire
Darwin’s theory of evolution. And in the economic field, if its
influence has been unfortunately less than it should have been, it has
given birth to an enormous body of controversial literature. The form
in which Malthus stated his theory in his first edition was certainly
extreme and erroneous. Yet he was the first to seize and document a
great and sobering truth. This is that, unless restrained, population
tends to increase up to the limits of the means of subsistence. Because
he overlooked many technical and scientific possibilities, Malthus’s
personal pessimism has not been justified by events. But it does
not follow that his proposition, in its most general form, has been
disproved by events, as it has been so often fashionable to believe.
The rising standard of living in the Western world has been at least
partly the result of deliberate population restraint (even if in the
form of birth control rather than of the sexual “continence” that
Malthus advocated). Where this population restraint still does not
exist, as in India, China, and other parts of the Orient, the lesson of
Malthus is only too plain today. An important corollary of his theory
is that schemes of social reform and “redistribution of wealth” are not
only futile but pernicious when they neglect the effect upon population
growth.
MANDEVILLE, BERNARD. _The Fable of the Bees._ 1705. (Ed. by F. B.
Kaye. Oxford. 1924.)
“The decisive importance of Mandeville in the history of economics,
long overlooked or appreciated only by a few authors (particularly
Edwin Cannan and Albert Schatz) is now beginning to be recognized,
mainly thanks to the magnificent edition of the _Fable of the Bees_
which we owe to the late F. B. Kaye. Although the fundamental ideas of
Mandeville’s work are already implied in the original poem of 1705, the
decisive elaboration and especially his full account of the origin of
the division of labor, of money, and of language occur only in Part II
of the _Fable_ which was published in 1728.”--F. A. Hayek.
MANION, CLARENCE. _The Key to Peace._ Chicago: Heritage Foundation.
1950. 121 pp.
This bears the subtitle: “A Formula for the Perpetuation of Real
Americanism.” The author, dean of the law school of Notre Dame
University, believes that the only possible formula for peace was
discovered by the Founding Fathers when they wrote the Declaration
of Independence and framed the American Constitutional system. The
basic American principle, he declares, is “an uncompromising and
uncompromised demand for the freedom and independence of the individual
man.”
MARKHAM, REUBEN HENRY. _Rumania Under the Soviet Yoke._ Meador. 1949.
601 pp.
“There is no better informed or more responsible writer on Balkan
affairs than Mr. Markham. He was a European correspondent for the
_Christian Science Monitor_ for twenty years, and for _The Christian
Century_ for a shorter period, and during the war he served as
deputy director of the Office of War Information. He knows the
people, the languages, the history and (so far as anyone can) the
present conditions in the Balkan states. In the 600 pages of this
volume he surveys Rumania before and during the Hitler regime and
recites in detail the course of events since the beginning of Soviet
domination.”--_The Christian Century._ “Mr. Markham’s book is one
of the strongest and best documented indictments of the system of
political communism flourishing under the ever-lengthening shadow of
Moscow.”--_Christian Science Monitor._
MARSHALL, ALFRED. _The Principles of Economics._ 1890. Often
reprinted. Macmillan. Eighth edition, 1920. 871 pp.
“This book has had an immense influence and will remain a standard work
for many years to come. It shows a pronounced reaction from the severe
Individualism of most of the early economists, and, whilst no one would
belittle its value in focussing and clarifying earlier thought, one
may doubt whether the ultimate verdict of economists will regard the
reaction that it heralded as entirely good.”--PI.
MARTIN, EVERETT DEAN. _Liberty._ Norton. 1930. 307 pp.
The author seeks to arrive at the meaning of liberty partly through
the method of historical survey. He discusses the Grecian conception,
the contributions of Christianity and the Renaissance, of Rousseau,
Voltaire, and others. In reviewing this book in _The Nation_ of June
18, 1930, I wrote: “It is with misgivings that one approaches Everett
Dean Martin’s _Liberty_. These misgivings soon dissolve, however,
before the flow of Mr. Martin’s eloquence, his gift for felicitous
and forcible statement, his attractive historical summaries, his
broad, humane culture, his shrewd analysis and unfailing clarity. His
_Liberty_ is not perhaps a profound book or a remarkably original one,
but it is none the less admirable. For in spite of the great existing
classics, and of the fact that much of his argument is necessarily
repetition, Mr. Martin has done a task that greatly needed to be done.”
MENGER, KARL. _Principles of Economics._ Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press.
1950. 328 pp.
This epoch-making book, “one of the great landmarks in the development
of economic thought,” as Frank H. Knight calls it, had to wait
seventy-nine years before it appeared in the present (or any other)
English translation. The “Austrian School,” of which Menger was the
founder, was a fountainhead of classical liberalism on the European
continent. F. A. Hayek, who calls Menger’s _Principles_ “the best
introduction to the understanding of the theory of value which we
possess,” has also pointed out that Menger was “among the first in
modern times consciously to revive the methodical individualism of Adam
Smith and his school.”
MIKOLAJCZYK, STANISLAW. _The Rape of Poland._ Whittlesey. 1948. 309 pp.
“The author, formerly Premier of Poland and head of the now suppressed
Peasants’ Party, witnessed what he calls the betrayal of his country
from every political level, starting as a common soldier during the war
in Poland.... After the war, he was helpless, even as a leader of one
of the great parties, to avert the violent destruction of his country’s
democratic processes and finally had to flee in disguise. He believes
that the Soviets were resolved from the first to annihilate Poland and
says flatly that they killed fifteen thousand Polish officers in the
woods around Katyn, near Smolensk, and that they purposely delayed
giving help to General Bor during the Warsaw uprising until it was too
late.... This book, heavily documented and written without fireworks,
is a pretty powerful indictment.”--_New Yorker._
MILL, JOHN STUART. _Utilitarianism._ 1861. _On Liberty._ 1859.
_Representative Government._ 1861. Many editions. (Dutton. 1950.) 532
pp.
“Three short but vital works. The first is outside our immediate
purpose, being ethical, but it should be read; it reveals the mind of
Mill perhaps better than any other of his works.
“_On Liberty_ may be called the Individualist’s textbook. It is a
plea for allowing scope to individual character and action--even
eccentricity is better than convention. Its whole argument should be
carefully studied. There is also a concise and useful statement towards
the end: ‘The objections to government interference, when it is not
such as to involve infringement of liberty, may be of three kinds.
The first is when the thing to be done is likely to be better done by
individuals than by the government.... The second ... in many cases,
though individuals may not do the particular thing so well, on the
average, as the officers of government, it is nevertheless desirable
that it should be done by them, rather than by the government, as a
means to their own mental education.
“(Thus juries, ‘free and popular local and municipal institutions,’ and
‘the conduct of industrial and philanthropical enterprises by voluntary
associations,’ are valuable on this principle as well as in themselves.)
“‘The third and most cogent reason for restricting the interference
of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power.’
Gladstone, with most of our Victorian statesmen, disliked increasing
the functions and expenditure of the State. He came to regard with
dismay the vigorous growth of the Income Tax, his own child, which he
had adopted from Peel, its actual father. He sometimes likens it to a
sword of excessive sharpness which is a dangerous weapon to entrust to
a minister. He writes to Cobden in 1864 (Morley’s _Gladstone_, Book V,
Chapter iv): ‘I seriously doubt whether it [the spirit of expenditure]
will ever give place to the old spirit of economy, as long as we have
the income tax.’ The income tax was then sevenpence in the pound, and
within fifteen months was to fall to fourpence, and a little later to
twopence!
“Mill’s book _On Liberty_ gives the pure doctrine of Individualism. His
excellent _Representative Government_ does not bear so closely upon our
subject. The present Master of Balliol (Mr. A. D. Lindsay) remarks:
‘It reflects strikingly Mill’s curious political position, combining
as it does, an enthusiastic belief in democratic government with most
pessimistic apprehensions as to what the democracy was likely to do.’
This is due to Mill’s Individualism, for he saw that individual freedom
might incur great danger from majority rule in a Democracy. It led
him to attach much importance to such schemes as Hare’s Proportional
Representation, which he hoped would protect minorities against
tyrannical ignorance.”--PI.
MILL, JOHN STUART. _Autobiography._ 1873. Many editions. (Columbia
University Press. 1944. 240 pp.)
“All who study Individualism or any kind of economic or political
science must devote much careful consideration to Mill. This
autobiographical masterpiece is too well known to require much comment.
It shows the influences to which Mill was subjected, his reactions, and
his invincible candor. It is pardonable to repeat that Mill’s great
object was not to found a sect but to discover truth, as far as it is
discoverable.”--PI. (See also PACKE, MICHAEL ST. JOHN.)
MILL, JOHN STUART. _Principles of Political Economy._ 1848. Many
editions. 1013 pp.
“Mill wrote this work at a time when Individualism had reached its
zenith, and its triumph was largely due to the efforts of his spiritual
and actual fathers, Bentham and James Mill. Thus this most important
work is, in the main, an exposition of Individualism. But J. S. Mill
here aims at stating his opponents’ case, and so has given Socialists
the opportunity of citing him in their favor. In I, I, sec. 3, he
makes an amazing observation: ‘If, therefore, the choice were to be
made between Communism [Socialism] with all its chances, and the
present state of society with all its sufferings and injustices; if
the institution of private property necessarily carried with it as a
consequence, that the produce of labor should be apportioned as we now
see it, almost in an inverse ratio to the labor--the largest portions
to those who have never worked at all, the next largest to those whose
work is almost nominal, and so in a descending scale, the remuneration
dwindling as the work grows harder and more disagreeable, until the
most fatiguing and exhausting bodily labor cannot count with certainty
on being able to earn even the necessaries of life; if this, or
Communism, were the alternatives, all the difficulties, great or small,
would be but as dust in the balance.’
“Again, Mill was so dominated by the Malthusian theory, that he was
ready to adopt stringent Government measures to check overpopulation,
e.g., by ‘a great national measure of colonization.’ (II, XIII, sec. 4.)
“Again we have his celebrated apology for occasional Protection when
duties ‘are imposed temporarily (especially in a young and rising
nation) in hopes of naturalizing a foreign industry, in itself
perfectly suitable to the circumstances of the country.’ (V, X, sec. 1.)
“But the general spirit of the book is very strongly _laissez-faire_.
The foregoing passages are exceptional. The following sentence is
representative: ‘The grounds of this truth are expressed with tolerable
exactness in the popular dictum, that people understand their own
business and their own interests better, and care for them more, than
the government does, or can be expected to do.’ (V, XI, sec. 5.)
Throughout his life Mill believed, as he tersely expresses the truth
in _Liberty_, that everyone ought to be allowed to do as he likes,
provided that he does not make himself a nuisance to his neighbor.
His candid mind brought forward numerous exceptions, but he steadily
maintained his rule.”--PI.
MILLAR, FREDERICK. _Socialism: Its Fallacies and Dangers._ London:
Watts. 1907. 1923. 96 pp.
“This little shilling work was written to warn the public of the
dangers of Socialism. It has chapters to show that it means material
and national decay, the abolition of family life, its impossibility,
etc. The writer has a healthy dislike of all kinds of Government
interference. ‘To attack wealth, to menace the free accumulation of
private property, is like cutting open the bellows to see where the
wind comes from. In this matter of wealth it comes from self-interest,
and, therefore, the more you seek politically to prevent the free,
unfraudulent, and unaggressive expression of self-interest, the less
wind you will have to blow your fire, and consequently the worse off
you will be.”--PI.
MILTON, JOHN. _Areopagitica._ 1644. Many editions.
This written oration against censorship is the noblest of Milton’s
tracts, and one of the great documents on liberty. It is rich in
magnificent sentences: “As good almost kill a man as kill a good book:
who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who
destroys a good book kills reason itself.”... “Who ever knew Truth put
to the worse in a free and open encounter?” John Morley, in an article
in the _Fortnightly Review_ (August, 1873) wrote: “[John Stuart] Mill’s
memorable plea for social liberty was little more than an enlargement,
though a very important enlargement, of the principles of the still
more famous speech for liberty of unlicensed printing with which Milton
enobled English literature two centuries before.”
MISES, LUDWIG VON. _Human Action._ Yale University Press. 1949. 889 pp.
Reviewing this book in _Newsweek_ of Sept. 19, 1949, I wrote: “_Human
Action_ is, in short, at once the most uncompromising and the most
rigorously reasoned statement of the case for capitalism that has yet
appeared. If any single book can turn the ideological tide that has
been running in recent years so heavily toward statism, socialism and
totalitarianism, _Human Action_ is that book. It should become the
leading text of everyone who believes in freedom, in individualism, and
in the ability of a free-market economy not only to outdistance any
government-planned system in the production of goods and services for
the masses, but to promote and safeguard, as no collectivist tyranny
can ever do, those intellectual, cultural, and moral values upon which
all civilization ultimately rests.”
MISES, LUDWIG VON. _Socialism._ 1936. Yale University Press. 1951. 599
pp.
Reviewing this book in _The New York Times_ of Jan. 9, 1938, I wrote:
“This book must rank as the most devastating analysis of socialism yet
penned. Doubtless even some anti-socialist readers will feel that he
occasionally overstates his case. On the other hand, even confirmed
socialists will not be able to withhold admiration from the masterly
fashion in which he conducts his argument. He has written an economic
classic in our time.”
MISES, LUDWIG VON. _The Theory of Money and Credit._ 1935. Yale
University Press. 1953. 493 pp.
“In continental circles it has long been regarded as the standard
textbook on the subject.... I know few works which convey a more
profound impression of the logical unity and the power of modern
economic analysis.”--Lionel Robbins.
It may seem strange to include any work on money and credit in a
bibliography concerned primarily with individual liberty. But Professor
Mises shows here as elsewhere how mistaken monetary policies lead to
the destruction of liberty. As F. A. Hayek has written, Mises “has
been working since the early twenties on the reconstruction of a
solid edifice of liberal thought in a more determined, systematic and
successful way than anyone else.”
MISES, LUDWIG VON. _Omnipotent Government._ Yale University Press.
1944. 291 pp.
In this book Professor von Mises provides an economic explanation of
the international conflicts which caused both World Wars. He shows that
economic nationalism and the trend toward economic self-sufficiency
are the necessary outcome of present-day policies of government
intervention in the private enterprises of citizens. He supports his
analysis with an interpretation of the historical facts which both gave
rise to Nazism and prevented Germany and the rest of the world from
stopping until it was too late to do so without a frightful cost in
blood and terror.
MISES, LUDWIG VON. _Bureaucracy._ Yale University Press. 1944. 125 pp.
Reviewing this book in _The New York Times_ of Oct. 1, 1944, I wrote:
“The main thesis of Professor von Mises is that bureaucracy is merely
a symptom of the real disease with which we have to deal. That disease
is excessive State domination and control. If the State seeks excessive
control over the economic or other activities of the individual it is
bound to need a bureaucracy to do it, and this bureaucracy is bound to
function in a certain way.... Professor von Mises’ penetrating analysis
is closely reasoned.... Published on the day after F. A. Hayek’s
_The Road to Serfdom_, [it] once more calls attention to the ironic
fact that the most eminent and uncompromising defenders of English
liberty, and of the system of free enterprise which reached its highest
development in America, should now be two Austrian exiles.”
MISES, LUDWIG VON. _Planning for Freedom._ South Holland, Ill.:
Libertarian Press. 1952. 174 pp.
This is a collection of twelve addresses and essays which supplement
and present in simpler and shorter form the analyses of Professor von
Mises in his great works on _Human Action_ and _Socialism_. Readers
without a special background in economic theory will find these essays
not only rewarding in themselves but an excellent introduction to von
Mises’ work. The essays are: Planning for Freedom; Middle-of-the-Road
Policy Leads to Socialism; Laissez-Faire or Dictatorship; Stones Into
Bread, the Keynesian Miracle; Lord Keynes and Say’s Law; Inflation and
Price Control; Economic Aspects of the Pension Problem; Benjamin M.
Anderson Challenges the Philosophy of the Pseudo-Progressives; Profit
and Loss; Economic Teaching at the Universities; Trends Can Change;
and The Political Chances of Genuine Liberalism.
MISES, LUDWIG VON. _Liberalismus._ Jena: Gustav Fischer. 1927. 175 pp.
This is a discussion of Liberalism (in the traditional sense of the
term), of the political basis, economic policy and foreign policy
appropriate to it, and of its probable future. There is an appendix on
the literature of liberalism.
MISES, LUDWIG VON. _Kritik des Interventionismus._ Jena: Gustav
Fischer. 1929. 136 pp.
Five collected essays discussing interventionism, restrictionism, price
control, and the economic theories behind these policies.
MOLEY, RAYMOND. _How to Keep Our Liberty._ Knopf. 1952. 339 pp.
Raymond Moley, contributing editor of _Newsweek_ magazine and professor
of public law at Columbia University, created and headed the famous
Brains Trust of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first campaign for the
Presidency and later was a major architect of the early New Deal. His
opposition to later developments in national policy culminated in this
lucid and vigorous, but admirably organized and carefully thought-out,
“conservative manifesto.” “Today the people of this nation,” he writes,
“are presented with a choice between two forms of political and
economic life. One form is that of our traditions, in which individual
liberty prevails and is guarded by ‘the long, still grasp of law.’ The
other is the dominance of the state in human affairs. My purpose here
has been to present a plan for political action for those who do not
wish to go down the road to socialism.” Mr. Moley’s book combines rich
scholarship with the readability of first-rate journalism.
MONTESQUIEU, BARON DE. _The Spirit of Laws._ 1748. Many English and
French editions. 2 vols.
The Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) published his famous _L’Esprit des
Lois_ in 1748. The _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ declares that it “may be
almost certainly ranked as the greatest book of the French Eighteenth
Century.” The political writer George Catlin thinks it “dull and
prolix.” To Montesquieu, however, is due the classical formulation of
the doctrine of checks and balances, and of the division of powers.
Lytton Strachey writes of it in his _Landmarks in French Literature_:
“It is enough to say that here all Montesquieu’s qualities--his power
of generalization, his freedom from prejudices, his rationalism, his
love of liberty and hatred of fanaticism, his pointed, epigrammatic
style--appear in their most characteristic form. Perhaps the chief
fault of the book is that it is too brilliant.... Montesquieu’s
generalizations are always bold, always original, always fine;
unfortunately, they are too often unsound into the bargain.... He
believed he had found in [the English constitution] a signal instance
of his favorite theory of the beneficial effects produced by the
separation of the three powers of government--the judicial, the
legislative, and the executive; but he was wrong. In England, as
a matter of fact, the powers of the legislative and the executive
were intertwined. This particular error has had a curious history.
Montesquieu’s great reputation led to his view of the constitution
of England being widely accepted as the true one; as such it was
adopted by the American leaders after the War of Independence; and its
influence is plainly visible in the present constitution of the United
States. Such is the strange power of good writing over the affairs of
men!”
MONTGOMERY, GEORGE S., JR. _The Return of Adam Smith._ Caldwell,
Idaho: Caxton Printers. 1949. 160 pp.
“This book is intended to serve as a little prayer for the awakening
or--symbolically--for the return of Adam Smith.” And it speculates
upon how Adam Smith would probably feel and think about our present
institutions. Mr. Montgomery discusses the merits and demerits of
government-run business and re-evaluates such terms as “reactionary,”
“laissez faire,” and “robber baron.” He also points out vigorously the
socialist and collectivist implications in many present-day textbooks,
and particularly in some articles in the fifteen-volume _Encyclopaedia
of the Social Sciences_.
MORGAN, CHARLES. _Liberties of the Mind._ Macmillan. 1951. 252 pp.
A collection of essays and addresses, some previously published
elsewhere, several in the London _Times Literary Supplement_. The
theme of the essays is what the author sees as the imminent danger of
the loss of freedom of mind and moral choice, of individuality and
identity, by the majority of mankind. “There can be scarcely a more
important task than that which this book attempts, and perhaps no more
encouraging and hopeful sign than that one of the greatest contemporary
masters of English prose should be impelled to undertake it.... All
that the mere student of these problems can do is to testify to the
importance of the book and to acknowledge that here certainly the
artist sees much to which the expert tends to be blind.”--F. A. Hayek.
MORLEY, FELIX. _The Power in the People._ Van Nostrand. 1949. 293 pp.
In this scholarly, thoughtful and often brilliant book, Mr. Morley
attempts to present a unified study of the origin of the political
ideas on which our nation was founded, and how they have developed.
“This is a remarkable book, nobly written and profoundly thought out.
It is also, at least to this reviewer, sui generis, an account of the
founding and development and significance of the American Republic
which is unique as far as my acquaintance with the literature on the
subject goes.... There is a fire in it which no survey of the past as
the past could kindle. _The Power in the People_ is a Tract for the
Times, concerned with what is of paramount importance for us today, at
this precise moment in our history.”--Edith Hamilton, in _The Saturday
Review of Literature_.
MORLEY, JOHN (VISCOUNT). _The Life of Richard Cobden._ 1881. London:
Unwin. 1903. 985 pp.
The outstanding biography of the great Free Trader and leader of the
Manchester School.
MORLEY, JOHN (VISCOUNT). _The Life of William Ewart Gladstone._
Macmillan. 1911. 3 vols.
A masterly biography of the great nineteenth century liberal statesman.
MORLEY, JOHN (VISCOUNT). _Voltaire._ Macmillan. 1872. 365 pp.
“Morley’s _Voltaire_ fully appreciates the influence of Locke and
English Individualism upon Voltaire.”--PI.
MOSCA, GAETANO. _The Ruling Class._ McGraw-Hill. 1939. 514 pp.
This is an English translation, with some reorganization of the
material, from the 1923 edition of the work of the eminent Italian
political philosopher first published in 1895. The Italian title is
_Elementi di Scienza Politico_. It contains an illuminating chapter
on the political character of collectivism. “This work, already a
classic in Europe, deserves the widest attention in America.”--_Foreign
Affairs._ “The picture Mosca gives of the ruling class, of politics
and of political behavior is one which students in these fields cannot
afford to neglect.”--A. T. Mason, in the _Survey Graphic_.
MUSSATTI, JAMES. _The Constitution of the United States._ Van
Nostrand. 1956. 173 pp.
A short, simple and admirably organized statement of the basic
principles of the American Constitution. Its intent is to explain
to the layman the philosophies, motives, and actions of the framers
of that great document. It is accompanied by full bibliographic
references, and a study guide prepared by Thomas J. Shelly.
MUTHESIUS, VOLKMAR. _Müssen wir arm bleiben?_ Frankfurt a. M.,
Germany. 1952.
A discussion by a courageous and outspoken German liberal, who is
devoted to the principles of the free market, of the postwar problems
of his country.
NEWBURY, FRANK D. _The American Economic System._ McGraw-Hill. 1950.
Designed as a textbook on the basic institutions and principles of the
American economic system. Among those institutions and principles the
author stresses private property; individual freedom of choice and
action; individual responsibility for success or failure; free and
active competition; and the principle of economic rewards proportional
to economic contribution.
NEWCOMB, SIMON. _Principles of Political Economy._ Harper. 1886.
Schumpeter says of Simon Newcomb: “He was an eminent astronomer who
also taught, and wrote on, economics but not enough to acquire the
influence he deserved. His _Principles of Political Economy_ is
the outstanding performance of American general economics in the
pre-Clark-Fisher-Taussig epoch. His presentation was masterly and
highly suggestive, also original in several points.”
His rugged individualism and his vivid illustrations are often
reminiscent of Bastiat. He emphasizes the “let-alone principle” and
the “keep-out principle”: “The one claims that the government should
not stop the citizen from acting; the other that it should keep out of
certain fields of action.”
NICHOLSON, J. S. _The Revival of Marxism._ Dutton. 1921. 145 pp.
“A ruthless criticism and exposure of Marxism. Marx’s writings are
shown to have contributed nothing of tangible value to the world’s
knowledge. Insofar as they are original they are false.”--PI.
NOCK, ALBERT J. _Our Enemy, the State._ 1935. (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton
Printers. 1946.) 209 pp.
The author develops the theme that the State is founded on conquest
and confiscation and tends to devour civilization. He foresaw
“ever-increasing corruption, inefficiency and prodigality” under State
domination which will lead us to impoverishment and “a system of forced
labor.” Some of Nock’s ideas were extreme and tended toward anarchism.
But his style combined urbanity with vigor.
NORTH, SIR DUDLEY. _Discourses upon Trade._ London. 1691.
“He exposes the fallacies of the Mercantile Theory and is an
advocate--one of the earliest--of Free Trade.... ‘A nation in the
world, as to trade, is in all respects like a citizen in a kingdom, or
a family in a city.’ Therefore trade between nations ought to be left
free and not loaded with restrictions, as is the present practice of
rulers. The following sentence might have been written by Fawcett or
any of his fellow economists: ‘There can be no trade unprofitable to
the public, for if any prove so, men leave it off, and whenever traders
thrive, the public, of which they are a part, thrive also.”--PI.
NORTON, THOMAS J. _The Constitution of the United States._ 1922. (New
York: America’s Future. 1951.) 319 pp.
An elementary reference work, designed not for the legal profession
but “to make accessible to the citizen ... such a knowledge of the
Constitution of the United States as will serve in emergency as a
‘first line of defense.’” The text of the Constitution is printed in
bold-face type, followed by a note to every line or clause “that has
a historical story or drama back of it” or that otherwise calls for
interpretation in the light of court decisions. The book has been
kept up-to-date by numerous printings. “I know of no book which so
completely and coherently explains our form of government.”--James M.
Beck, former Solicitor General of the United States.
NORTON, THOMAS J. _Undermining the Constitution._ Devin-Adair. 1950.
351 pp.
“The author, who in the twenties published a standard commentary on
the constitution, calls his new commentary a ‘history of lawless
government’ and cites case after case to support his charge that
‘clever, irresponsible men’ have been doing their best to demolish
the Constitution and popular government along with it. As examples
of how the intent of the writers of the Constitution has been
‘demolished,’ Mr. Norton discusses such matters as the TVA, the
agricultural adjustment act, the national labor relations act, the
child labor law, the assumption by Washington of much police power
originally held by the several states, the influence of the Supreme
Court in creating new laws, and the loss of congressional power to the
executive.”--_Springfield Republican._
NUTTER, G. WARREN. _The Extent of Enterprise Monopoly in the United
States, 1899-1939._ University of Chicago Press. 1951. 169 pp.
A careful and detailed statistical study. Professor Nutter concludes
that there is no basis for the impression that there has been a
significant increase in monopoly in the United States since about 1900.
NYARADI, NICHOLAS. _My Ringside Seat in Moscow._ Crowell. 1952. 307 pp.
“A report on a most melancholy mission to Moscow, written by the last
non-Communist Finance Minister of Hungary. Mr. Nyaradi went to Russia
in 1947 to negotiate with the Kremlin a two-hundred-million-dollar
Russian claim against his government.... He got it reduced, but it
took him seven months to do so, and by that time the Communists had
infested his government and the claim had become academic.”--_New
Yorker._ “From one point of view this book can be read as a rollicking
account of Moscow life, with its strange contrasts between the abysmal
poverty of the many and the sybaritic life of the rulers.... More
important, however, Nyaradi gives us a glimpse of some key figures
in the Politburo and near Politburo levels of Soviet life.”--Harry
Schwartz, in _The New York Times_.
ONEAL, JAMES, AND WERNER, G. A. _American Communism._ Dutton. 1947.
416 pp.
“A revision and extension of Oneal’s same title published in
1927 by the Rand School. To the original thirteen chapters now
slightly revised, Werner adds nine, covering events since original
publication.... The original sections are careful and judicious, the
latter, somewhat less so; but the documented whole adds up to a clear
picture of the development of Communism in the United States which the
authors insist is not a political party in our sense but an agency of
the Russian Dictatorship.”--_Library Journal._
OPPENHEIMER, FRANZ. _The State._ Huebsch. 1922. 302 pp.
“This brilliant political study is simultaneously readable, brief and
profound.”--_Felix Morley._
ORME, ALEXANDREA. _Comes the Comrade._ Morrow. 1950. 376 pp.
Beginning with Dec. 22, 1944, this diary of a Polish woman, “Lida,”
married to a Hungarian aristocrat, covers the days to March 28, 1945.
During that time the Russians were supposed to have “liberated” that
section of Hungary. At first Lida had welcomed the Russians, but as
it became apparent that their ideas of liberation were very crude,
she devoted all her time and intelligence to the task of keeping one
step ahead of them. “If one can imagine a group of Roman patricians
caught by an invading flood of Goths and Vandals one can appreciate the
situation which Mrs. Orme describes with courage, wit and vivacity....
There could hardly be a better close-up view of the Soviet overrunning
of Eastern Europe.”--W. H. Chamberlin, in the _Chicago Sunday Tribune_.
ORTON, WILLIAM AYLOTT. _The Liberal Tradition._ Yale University Press.
1945. 317 pp.
This bears the subtitle: “A Study of the Social and Spiritual
Conditions of Freedom.” “In an era that speaks so glibly and so
hopelessly of the inevitability of collectivization, Professor
Orton casts a favorite-son vote for freedom.”--H. T. Maguire, in
_Commonweal_.
ORTON, WILLIAM AYLOTT. _The Economic Role of the State._ University of
Chicago Press. 1950. 192 pp.
A discussion of the basis and limitations of government action. John
Chamberlain writes: “Orton’s view is that the best society is the
one in which people put their reliance on the voluntary action of
autonomous non-state social groups. He brings us back to the central
lack of modern man, which is philosophy. He himself is evidently in
accord with the Catholic philosophy of economics and government. But he
is so persistently oblique in his phraseology that he often leaves the
reader in doubt as to how he would apply Catholic philosophy in given
instances.”
ORWELL, GEORGE. _Nineteen Eighty-Four._ Harcourt, Brace. 1949. 314 pp.
A satirical novel about a future time when men and women living in a
collectivist society are constantly spied upon through “telescreens,”
and drilled by a Thought Police into thinking that war is peace, that
ignorance is strength, and that freedom is slavery. Orwell was the
foremost satirist of our time. _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ portrays with
classic power and finality the intellectual paralysis and spiritual
depravity that a totalitarian regime imposes. But except for its vivid
picture of the dreadful end-results for consumers, it leaves the
determining _economic_ aspect of such a totalitarian society virtually
blank.
Orwell in an earlier book (_The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and
the English Genius_; Secker & Warburg: 1941) had argued for a special
“English socialism.” With his increasing disillusionment he ceased to
be a communist sympathizer, and, in the end (some time after writing
_Animal Farm_), even to be a socialist. In _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ he
ridiculed his own former ideas by his sarcastic references to “Ingsoc”
(the short name in his collectivist society for English socialism).
But so bitter and complete had been Orwell’s previous hatred of
“capitalism” that he never came to understand the real nature and
effects of free private enterprise. This, I think, is why _Nineteen
Eighty-Four_ could only end on a note of utter despair. Yet the book
presents an unforgettable picture of what collectivism leads to.
ORWELL, GEORGE. _Animal Farm._ Harcourt, Brace. 1946. 118 pp.
The animals on Mr. Jones’s farm stage a successful revolution and
take the place over. The revolution begins to go wrong--yet ingenious
excuses are always forthcoming for each perversion of the original
doctrine. This fable is the vehicle for a brilliant satire on the
actual course of the Russian communist revolution up to the time when
_Animal Farm_ appeared. Unfortunately, much in this satire implies
the familiar socialist view that the Russian revolution was perhaps a
necessary method of putting a great ideal into effect, but that the
revolution was “betrayed” by Stalin through selfishness and abuse
of power and a return to capitalist ideals. These implications spoil
the satire for individualists and believers in free enterprise. In
_Nineteen Eighty-Four_ Orwell was to become far more disillusioned with
socialism than he is here.
PACKE, MICHAEL ST. JOHN. _The Life of John Stuart Mill._ Macmillan.
1954. 567 pp.
An admirable biography of the great nineteenth century liberal
economist and philosopher. It carries the reader along like a
first-rate novel, yet Mr. Packe never invents conversations or inner
thoughts, but supplies documentation for all his statements. Readers
of Mill’s _Autobiography_ will find Mr. Packe’s book an almost
indispensable supplement; it throws entirely new light on Mill’s life
and character, and supplements the material in the _Autobiography_ at a
hundred points, while repeating surprisingly little. “For eighty years
after his death,” writes F. A. Hayek in a preface, “no satisfactory
biography of Mill has been available. In many ways, the unique value
of his own description of his intellectual development has increased
rather than diminished the need for a more comprehensive account of the
setting against which it ought to be seen. Until recently, the material
on which such a picture could be based was not available.... There may
still be details to be filled in here and there; but on the whole I
feel that Mr. Packe has given us the definitive biography of Mill for
which we have so long been waiting.”
PAINE, THOMAS. _Common Sense._ 1776. Many editions. 129 pp. ----. _The
Rights of Man_, 1791. Many editions. 389 pp.
“Paine’s _Common Sense_ helped to inspire the Declaration of
Independence, while _The Rights of Man_ raised a great outcry among
the admirers of the British Constitution. He was a bold champion of
individual as well as of national independence.”--PI.
PAINE, THOMAS. _The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine._ Edited by
Philip S. Foner. New York: The Citadel Press. 1945. 2 vols.
These two volumes contain, among other writings, both _Common
Sense_ and _The Rights of Man_. “At once the fullest, the most
inexpensive, and the most usable edition of Paine that has yet been
published.”--Allan Nevins, in _The New York Times_.
PALGRAVE, R. H. INGLIS (ed.). _Dictionary of Political Economy._
Macmillan. 1918. 3 vols. 2,525 pp.
“An indispensable work of reference. The article on Individualism
should be studied.”--PI.
PALMER, CECIL. _The British Socialist Ill-fare State._ Caldwell,
Idaho: Caxton Printers. 1952. 656 pp.
A study of the shortcomings of the British welfare state, which
examines the State’s challenge to individual liberties, nationalized
medicine, and the nationalization of industries and utilities. The
author was a former British publisher and lecturer, and was the
organizer of the Society of Individualists. He died in January 1952.
PALYI, MELCHIOR. _The Dollar Dilemma._ Regnery. 1954. 208 pp.
In this vigorous, well-informed and penetrating book, the author
argues that American dollar aid to Europe and elsewhere has done
more harm than good. He contends that it has financed socialism,
planned and directed economies, excessive social security and wealth
distribution systems, the destruction of incentives and the promotion
of inefficiency. Dr. Palyi was born in Hungary but since 1933 has lived
in America, where he has been active as a research economist.
PALYI, MELCHIOR. _Compulsory Medical Care and the Welfare State._
Chicago: National Institution of Professional Services. 1949. 156 pp.
An analysis based on a special study of governmentalized medical care
systems on the continent of Europe and in England.
PARKES, HENRY BAMFORD. _Marxism: An Autopsy._ Houghton Mifflin. 1939.
300 pp.
Reviewing this book in _The New York Times_ of April 7, 1940, I wrote:
“Mr. Parkes’s autopsy ... cannot compare in depth, penetration and
rigor of thought with von Mises’ masterly refutation of socialism, to
the extent that the two volumes cover similar ground. But it is an
important volume and one of the ablest direct replies to Marxism ever
to appear in America.... In his attempt to formulate a constructive
program Mr. Parkes is less happy.”
PATERSON, ISABEL. _The God of the Machine._ Putnam. 1943. 292 pp.
The author argues that only free men, in a free economy of private
property, can maintain “the long circuit of energy” that makes
civilization work. Collectivism, she contends, does not and cannot
work. The book is acute, pungent, epigrammatic, full of original
insights and sometimes powerfully eloquent. (The chapter “The
Humanitarian with the Guillotine” is an outstanding example.) But
much of the thinking and style of the work are marred by a persistent
and obsessive effort to write of man’s economic, political and moral
problems on the analogy and in the vocabulary of the flow of electrical
energy.
PATON, WILLIAM A. _Shirtsleeve Economics._ Appleton-Century-Crofts.
1952. 460 pp.
A highly successful effort, by an eminent accountant and professor of
economics at the University of Michigan, to present “a common sense
survey” of economics in easily understandable terms. “The central
proposition of this book,” declares the author, “is very simple: We
can’t consume any more than we produce and only through increased
production is a higher standard of living possible. This has an
important corollary: We must be everlastingly on our guard to check
those influences and developments that tend to limit and discourage
production. Among such is ‘social legislation’ which emphasizes
diversion only, without regard to what happens to output.”
PERCY OF NEWCASTLE, LORD. _The Heresy of Democracy._ Regnery. 1955.
The author, a British statesman and scholar, shows how democracy,
in the sense of a temporary majority sentiment, may be corrupted
and frozen into totalitarian forms. His book deals with such basic
questions as the growth of state power, the relation of the individual
to the state, and the dangers of demagogic mass manipulation. “It
is possible,” he warns, “for multiplied legislation, whether by Act
of Parliament or dictatorial decree, to destroy the very conception
of law.... Under the best laws much governed men are less free than
lightly governed men. For, whenever the law converts (as it often must)
an obligation to a fellow-citizen into an obligation to the state it
substitutes a claim to obedience for the give-and-take of mutual rights
and duties between individuals.”
PETROV, VLADIMIR. _Soviet Gold._ Farrar, Straus & Young. 1949. 426 pp.
“A sixteen-year-old boy writes his political thoughts into a diary.
Three years later a lady friend turns against him and plants
anti-Soviet books in his room. The young fellow is caught in the net of
the vast purges of the mid-1930’s. Terror-stricken ex-friends denounce
him. It all adds up to a fat NKVD dossier, a six-year sentence to heavy
labor, and an odyssey that leads through the prisons of Leningrad to
the labor camps and gold mines of Siberia. That’s what happened to
Vladimir Petrov. That is the story he tells.”--_Saturday Review of
Literature._
PETROV, VLADIMIR. _My Retreat from Russia._ Yale University Press.
1950. 357 pp.
In his earlier book, _Soviet Gold_, the author gave an account of
his six years in the forced labor camps in Siberia. In the present
volume he describes his activities after his release at the time of
the outbreak of the war. He worked his way back to his home in Russia
proper, where he discovered that as an ex-prisoner he was no longer
considered a trusted citizen. Thence he fled through Central Europe
into American-occupied Italy.
PETTENGILL, S. B. _Jefferson, the Forgotten Man._ America’s Future,
Inc. 1938. 249 pp.
“Mr. Pettengill is a member of Congress from Indiana and one of those
Democrats who, enthusiastic in their support of the first New Deal,
looked with misgiving on the second; his attitude toward the third
New Deal is one of dismay. In a vigorous style, with ample reference
to Jefferson’s principles and precepts and to those of other eminent
mentors, including the President himself, he explains this.”--W. M.
Houghton, in _Books_.
PETTY, SIR WILLIAM. _A Treatise on Taxes._ 1662. Many editions. 75 pp.
“This and Petty’s other works are of much historical interest. Like
North, later in the century, Petty anticipated Adam Smith in his
exposition of Free Trade.”--PI.
PHILBRICK, HERBERT A. _I Led Three Lives._ McGraw-Hill. 1952. 323 pp.
“The now-it-can-be-told story of Herbert Philbrick, ‘Citizen,
Communist, Counterspy,’ who testified before Judge Medina against The
Eleven after nine years of conspiracy, uncertainty, and deliberate
penetration into the Communist Party.”--Virginia Kirkus. “The real
significance lies in the clarification it brings to Communist purposes
and achievements through indirect infiltration.”--E. B. Canham, in the
_New York Herald Tribune_.
PICK, FRANZ. _Black Market Yearbook._ 1951, etc. Pick’s World Currency
Report. 160 pp.
Since 1951 Dr. Franz Pick has published a yearbook on world blackmarket
prices and trading in currencies and gold. His book is dedicated “to
the more than 2,000,000,000 victims of inflation, who, for obeying
the law, have been punished by the law.” He declares in his foreword:
“Distrust of every system of planned economy, fictional official values
of gold, currency, and government bonds cannot be wiped out. People
cannot and will not accept arbitrary confiscation through inflation, as
practiced by every government in the world today.” In his 1954 edition
he points out: “At the beginning of 1954, nine-tenths of the world’s
population were legally denied freedom to transfer their assets into
less diseased monies.”
PILAT, OLIVER RAMSEY. _The Atom Spies._ Putnam. 1952. 312 pp.
“An exhaustive account of how the Communist spy network succeeded,
with disturbing ease, in relieving the United States of the biggest
military secret in history. It is a complicated story, dealing not only
with the machinations of the spies but also with their motives.... Mr.
Pilat focusses attention on this ideological aspect of the case, and on
the clear and continuing danger of having among us an amorphous group
of people who can be persuaded at any time to betray their country for
what they are told are super-patriotic reasons.”--_New Yorker._
POIROT, PAUL LEWIS. _The Pension Idea._ Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation
for Economic Education. 1950.
The author points out that there is not nearly enough total capital
or savings in any nation to support in retirement all citizens over
65, and hence there cannot be a fully funded pension plan covering
everybody. The unfunded “social security” promises can only mean either
further inflation, taxes upon private savings, or further attempts to
tax the earnings of future citizens.
POLANYI, MICHAEL. _The Contempt of Freedom._ London: Watts. 1940. 116
pp.
Essays about the Russian experiment and its consequences. It includes:
_The Rights and Duties of Science_ (1939); _Collectivist Planning_
(1940); _Soviet Economics--Fact and Theory_ (1935); _Truth and
Propaganda_ (1936).
POPPER, K. R. _The Open Society and Its Enemies._ Vol. I: _The Spell
of Plato_. Vol. II: _The High Tide of Prophecy: Hegel, Marx and
the Aftermath_. London: Routledge. 1945. 2 vols. 268 pp. 352 pp.
(Princeton University Press. 1950. 744 pp.)
The author, Reader in Logic and Scientific Method in the University of
London, demonstrates that Plato, Hegel, and Marx formulated ideas in
political philosophy inimical to the “Open Society,” i.e., to a society
based on reason and not on myth. The encomiums with which this book was
greeted on its British publication in 1945 were for the most part fully
deserved. Certainly we can agree with Sir Ernest Barker that “There is
an abundance of riches in the book--classical scholarship, scientific
acumen, logical subtlety, philosophic sweep.” Bertrand Russell thought
it: “A work of first class importance ... which ought to be widely read
for its masterly criticism of the ... enemies of democracy, ancient
and modern.... His attack on Plato, while unorthodox, is in my opinion
thoroughly justified.... His analysis of Hegel is deadly.... Marx is
dissected with equal acumen.”
The book is weak, however, on the economic side. Dr. Popper gives
Marx undeserved credit for his alleged services to “social justice.”
He is himself capable of saying that Marx was “right in asserting
that increasing misery tends to be the result of _laissez-faire_
capitalism.” This is because Dr. Popper has in his own mind a mere
caricature called “_laissez-faire_ capitalism,” as Marx had. In spite
of this weakness there are so many merits in the book that we must set
it down as powerful and important.
POSSONY, STEFAN THOMAS. _Century of Conflict._ Regnery. 1953. 439 pp.
“The author, Professor of International Politics at Georgetown
University, traces the Communist techniques in revolution from 1848.
Beginning with Marx, he depicts the story of Communist efforts in
Western Europe, the Russian Revolution, Communist tactics between
the wars, and Communist internal and external aggression since the
war. He outlines the methods, both from without and from within, by
which he believes the Communists hope to win a war with the United
States.”--_Current History._ “An invaluable storehouse of first-hand
information.”--W. H. Chamberlin, in the _Chicago Sunday Tribune_.
POUND, ROSCOE. _The Rise of the Service State and Its Consequences._
New Wilmington, Pa.: The Economic and Business Foundation. 1949. 34 pp.
This is a devastating analysis, by the former dean of the Harvard Law
School and one of the world’s great authorities on jurisprudence, of
“the service state, the state which, instead of preserving peace and
order and employing itself with maintaining the general security, takes
the whole domain of human welfare for its province and would solve all
economic and social ills through its administrative activities.”
Dean Pound’s pamphlet is included in this list, in violation of my
announced general rule against including pamphlets, in the hope that
some publisher may be inspired to publish it in book form, together
with a score of the same author’s other pamphlets and articles on
kindred topics, now scattered in the files of a dozen legal journals.
These would include such articles as _The Disappearance of Law_,
_Dangers in Administrative Absolutism_, and _Administrative Agencies
and the Law_.
POUND, ROSCOE. _Justice According to Law._ Yale University Press.
1951. 98 pp.
This small book consists of three lectures by Roscoe Pound, dean
emeritus of the Harvard Law School, on What Is Justice?, What Is Law?,
and Judicial Justice. The book is a wise, scholarly and compact survey
of the philosophy of law, a plea for the rule of law rather than
for widened administrative discretion, and a defense of the justice
of the courts as against that of administrative or other substitute
agencies. Dean Pound defends the rule of law also as the guardian of
individual liberty. “The real foe of [governmental] absolutism is
law. It presupposes a life measured by reason, a legal order measured
by reason, and a judicial process carried on by applying a reasoned
technique to experience developed by reason and reason tested by
experience.”
POUND, ROSCOE. _Administrative Law._ University of Pittsburgh Press.
1942. 138 pp.
“To the growing attacks on current developments in administrative
justice, Roscoe Pound adds the weight of history and philosophy in
a volume that is one of the more succinct and reasoned analyses
of the shortcomings of administrative justice unrestrained by the
traditions and processes of the common law as administered by regularly
constituted courts. Proceeding from the assumption that the common law
is a taught tradition of the supremacy of law, of individual rights,
and of adjudication instead of administration, Dean Pound denies the
idea that ‘whatever is done officially is law.’ Administrative law,
so-called, is, therefore, but a species of justice without law, lacking
the restraints of judicial procedure and the techniques of decision
inherent in that ‘artificial reason’ of the law.”--_American Political
Science Review._
POUND, ROSCOE. _New Paths of The Law._ University of Nebraska Press.
1950. 69 pp.
Three lectures delivered at the University of Nebraska in 1950, which
marked the opening of a lectureship established in honor of Roscoe
Pound. The lectures discuss, respectively, “The Path of Liberty,” “The
Humanitarian Path,” and “The Authoritarian Path.”
PROTHERO, MICHAEL. _Political Economy._ London: George Bell. 1895. 266
pp.
“This is meant for beginners, who will find it most useful. Two
chapters, ‘Alternative Schemes to Private Property,’ and, especially,
‘Theoretic Ideas about Economic Facts,’ give more serviceable
information than perhaps will be found, in a concise form, in any other
book.”--PI.
QUEENY, EDGAR M. _The Spirit of Enterprise._ Scribner’s. 1943. 267 pp.
It is the spirit of enterprise exercised by individuals and voluntary
groups, according to the author, who is chairman of the board of the
Monsanto Chemical Company, that has made America grow. The kind of
social planning advocated by New Dealers, he contends, can lead only
to a lower standard of living and a loss of liberty. “This book is
a magnificent indication that business is finding its voice. In the
public debate over what kind of social and economic system the U. S.
should have, the professional theorists on the left have done most of
the talking during the past decade. Now comes a businessman with a
fluent pen and a vigorous set of convictions to take up the cudgels for
free enterprise.”--Claude Robinson.
QUESNAY, FRANÇOIS. _Tableau économique._ 1758. 216 pp.
“A man of great importance among French Physiocrats; he was physician
to Louis XV, and a man of noble character; he had much influence on
Turgot, the wise minister of Louis XVI. Accounts of him and his school
are given in all economic histories. His doctrine, which was carefully
studied by Adam Smith, is briefly: Let entire freedom of commerce be
maintained; for the regulation of commerce, both internal and external,
the most sure, the most exact, the most profitable to the nation, and
to the State, consists in entire freedom of competition.”--PI.
RAE, JOHN. _Contemporary Socialism._ 1884. Scribner’s. 1905. 555 pp.
“A very useful and fairly full history of modern Socialism beginning
with Lassalle and Marx. The point of view is strongly Individualistic,
but the writer sees the necessity of constructive action. He remarks:
“Free institutions run continual risk of shipwreck when power is in
the possession of the many, but property--from whatever cause--the
enjoyment of the few. With the advance of democracy a diffusion of
wealth becomes almost a necessity of State.”--PI.
RAND, AYN. _Anthem._ 1938. (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Press. 1946.) 105
pp.
This book, first published in England in 1938, is a striking
predecessor of Orwell’s _Nineteen Eighty-Four_. “_Anthem_ records the
life of a rebel against the totalitarian order, a man named Equality
7-2521, who rejects the collectivist Utopia. He dwells in a society
which, by deliberately destroying independence of mind, has laid
waste all the achievement of earlier civilizations--a world which
has banned as criminal the singular pronoun and all talk of ‘The
Unmentionable Times.’ The Council of Vocations ... proclaims him a
street-sweeper. Secretly working underground in the shafts of former
days, he rediscovers electricity. He defies the world of State-planned
eugenics and State-directed mating and discovers a personal love. Among
a people which exists to serve a soulless State, he discovers that
the pursuit of his own happiness conjointly advances the happiness of
his fellows. He is denounced, imprisoned and tortured, but his spirit
cannot be conquered. _Anthem_ is at once an exaltation of liberty and
an exhortation to the counter-attack.”--Deryck Abel.
RAND, AYN. _The Fountainhead._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1943. 754 pp.
This novel about an uncompromising architect is based on a belief
in “the importance of selfishness.” Its theme is that man’s ego is
the fountainhead of human progress. Many will think the author’s
intransigent type of individualism extreme, but the novel is exciting
and impressive.
RANDALL, CLARENCE B. _A Creed for Free Enterprise._ Little, Brown.
1952. 177 pp.
An admirable book on American business and businessmen by the president
of the Inland Steel Company. “Should do much in counteracting the
untruthful and insidious propaganda of the socialists against free
enterprise.”--The Rev. A. Keller, in _The Freeman_.
RANDALL, CLARENCE B. _A Foreign Economic Policy for the United
States._ University of Chicago Press. 1954. 83 pp.
A plea for the removal of barriers and the liberalization of
international trade by a distinguished businessman who is also a
vigorous thinker and writer.
RAPPARD, WILLIAM E. _The Secret of American Prosperity._ Greenberg.
1955. 124 pp.
This book originally appeared in French as an attempt by an eminent
Swiss economist to explain the secret of American prosperity to other
Europeans. In my foreword to the American edition I wrote: “Among the
qualities that make it remarkable ... are not only the generosity
with which it acknowledges and insists upon the economic superiority
of the United States, but the still rarer generosity with which it
attributes this superiority not merely to good luck--such as great
natural resources or escape from the direct destruction of the two
world wars (the usual European explanation)--but primarily to the
character and the free economic institutions of the American people, to
our greater efficiency and to our greater competitive spirit.” The book
is lucid and admirably organized. It may serve as an indirect reminder
to Americans that their own economic achievement has been the result,
above all, of a free, dynamic, private, competitive economy, and can be
preserved only by preserving this type of economy.
RAPPARD, WILLIAM E. _The Crisis of Democracy._ University of Chicago
Press. 1938. 288 pp.
An analysis of democracy: its definition, sources, and probable
longevity. While he “does not despair of modern democracy, [the
author] rather questions the solidity and the longevity of modern
dictatorships.”--From the Foreword.
RAVINES, EUDOCIO. _The Yenan Way._ Scribner’s. 1951. 319 pp.
“A sort of _mea culpa_ by a man who was until recently one of the top
Communist organizers in South America. Mr. Ravines, a Peruvian, studied
his peculiar art in the same Comintern schools in Moscow that Klement
Gottwald and Mao Tse-tung attended. He was one of the major figures in
the South American Bureau of the Comintern and was very active in the
Spanish Civil War. It was while he was on Comintern duty in Spain that
he began to lose faith in the world revolution and in revolutionists,
and began to see Stalin for what he is, rather than as the workers’
messiah. Altogether, an important, instructive, and astonishingly
specific book.”--_New Yorker._
READ, LEONARD E. _Government--An Ideal Concept._ Irvington, N. Y.:
Foundation for Economic Education. 1954. 149 pp.
Leonard Read argues that the purpose of government is to use “defensive
force” to neutralize “aggressive force”; and that government can have
no legitimate function beyond that. He applies this principle to such
subjects as socialism, taxation, conscription, world government,
efforts to increase trade or prevent depressions, money, public
housing, foreign aid, education and religion.
READ, LEONARD E. _Outlook for Freedom._ Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation
for Economic Education. 1951.
This small volume contains an allegorical report of the ideas and
experiences, failures and successes, of many associates and friends
of the author during the last two decades, and relates it to the
concept of individual liberty. “The substance for a thorough-going,
twentieth century intellectual revolution,” he writes, “is in the
making, and is showing a vitality that can be accounted for only by
the inextinguishable spirit of individualism--the insistence of man to
complete his own creation. That this spirit at present is evident among
only a minority need not necessarily deject the devotee of liberty.
Everything begins with a minority of one, extends to a few, and then to
many.”
RICARDO, DAVID. _Principles of Political Economy and Taxation._ 1817.
Many editions. 538 pp.
The work of this brilliant deductive thinker has been used to draw such
corollaries as extreme _laissez faire_, the single tax, and Marxism! In
1952 _The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo_ were published in
nine volumes under the careful and scholarly editorship of Piero Sraffa
with the collaboration of M. H. Dobb. “Ricardo is more the father of
Victorian Political Economy (hated by Ruskin and Carlyle) than either
Adam Smith or John Stuart Mill.”--PI.
RICHTER, EUGENE. _Pictures of the Socialistic Future._ 1893. London:
Jarrolds. 1925. 134 pp.
“A satirical account of an imaginary Socialist regime by an eminent
German. It is very interesting when read in conjunction with the
earlier works of Robert Blatchford. Sir Ernest Benn writes in the
introduction: ‘The really extraordinary thing about this book is that
it was written and first published more than thirty years ago, in 1893.
It is not, however, published afresh now on account of its interest as
a piece of prophecy, but rather because of the remarkable way in which
it fits in every detail the problem of Socialism as it presents itself
to us in 1925.’”--PI.
RIST, CHARLES. _Défense de l’Or._ Paris: Recueil Sirey. 1953. 120 pp.
A collection of articles appearing over eight years in favor of a
return to the international gold standard in place of present “managed”
paper money systems.
ROBBINS, LIONEL. _The Great Depression._ Macmillan. 1934. 238 pp.
In reviewing this book in _The New York Times_ of Nov. 18, 1934, I
wrote: “If Mr. Robbins’s economic philosophy is ‘discredited’ and
‘outmoded,’ it is not because he is a bleary old man with an ossified
brain. He is, to be sure, a professor, and his acquaintance with the
work of the classical economists has no doubt poisoned his mind, but
he is still only 35, and writes with as much clarity and vigor as J.
M. Keynes or John Strachey. What he himself is sometimes pleased to
call his ‘orthodox’ economics, indeed, will seem very unorthodox to
those who are fairly well acquainted with contemporary British economic
thought.”
ROBBINS, LIONEL. _Economic Planning and International Order._
Macmillan. 1937. 330 pp.
Reviewing this volume in _The New York Times_ of Aug. 1, 1937, I wrote:
“Altogether, Mr. Robbins’s short volume is one of the ablest and most
vigorous statements in recent years of the orthodox liberal position,
as it is one of the most uncompromising and damaging analyses of the
whole philosophy of planning. Professor Robbins is deeply grounded;
he uses the tools of classical economic analysis like a fine surgeon;
he moves deliberately from step to step with relentless logic; and he
writes a lucid and compact prose.”
ROBBINS, LIONEL. _The Theory of Economic Policy in English Classical
Political Economy._ Macmillan. 1952. 217 pp.
Professor Robbins here presents in broad outline the theory of economic
policy held by the leading English classical economists--notably
Hume, Adam Smith, Bentham, Malthus, Ricardo, Senior, Torrens,
McCulloch and the two Mills. It is the author’s conviction that
the views of the classical economists on economic policy have been
gravely misrepresented in contemporary discussion, on the one hand
by presenting them as being callous to or neglectful of humane
considerations, such as the problems of unemployment and poverty, on
the other hand as carrying the doctrine of _laissez faire_ further
than they actually did. But Dr. Robbins does emphasize their general
adherence to “the System of Economic Freedom.” This “was not just a
detached recommendation not to interfere,” but “an urgent demand that
... hampering and anti-social impediments should be removed and that
the immense potential of free pioneering individual initiative should
be released.” Dr. Robbins’s book is written with great lucidity and
charm, out of a rich and accurate scholarship. It contains an excellent
index.
ROBBINS, LIONEL. _The Economic Basis of Class Conflict._ Macmillan.
1939. 277 pp.
A collection of essays united by a common theme--an analysis of the
way in which forms of organization facilitating group exclusiveness
may be the cause of social disharmony. The author contends that the
real modern tendency of the West is not so much “collectivism” as
syndicalism or corporativism. The book also discusses the causes of
increased protectionism, the consequences of agricultural planning, and
the general vices of restrictionism. In reviewing it in _The New York
Times_ of Oct. 22, 1939, I wrote: “Readers of Professor Robbins will
find here, as in his previous volumes, vigor of style, rigor of thought
and an uncompromising liberalism.”
ROBBINS, LIONEL. _The Economic Causes of War._ London: Cape. 1939. 124
pp.
“The chief British exponent of neo-classical economics writes in his
usual lucid and suave way about war. He carries on his long standing
feud with Marxian theory, and rejects any basic connection between war
and capitalist imperialism.”--_The New Republic._ “A masterpiece of
sound analysis and clear exposition by a professor of economics at the
University of London.”--_Foreign Affairs._
ROBBINS, LIONEL. _Wages._ London: Jarrolds. 1925. 94 pp.
“A modest but valuable essay. It is a lucid discussion of the economics
of wage determination. Although written primarily for those who have no
economic training, it is a work which might well be read with profit by
all students of social problems, for although its language is simple,
it is much more than a mere elementary tract. One would like to feel
that a means could be found of persuading all intelligent workmen to
read this book.”--PI.
ROBBINS, LIONEL. _The Economic Problem in Peace and War._ London:
Macmillan. 1947. 86 pp.
Some reflections on objectives and mechanisms. “This authoritative
recapitulation of the case for individualism by an illustrious
economist, with a philosophical background, is most timely.”--London
_Times Literary Supplement_.
ROBERTSON, D. H. _The Control of Industry._ London: Nisbet. 1924. 169
pp.
“A compact study of the physiology of modern industry and the forms
of control to which it can be subjected by the capitalist, the State,
the consumer and the worker. Mr. Robertson writes with toleration
and detachment, although his conclusions do not favor undiluted
Individualism. He believes that for some years to come ‘private
enterprise will be the dominant form of industrial organization,’ but
that ‘by its side there is plenty of room for collectivism in selected
cases,’ Further, that as in the case of an alternative creed, the
‘philosophy of the academic Individualists does not fit all the facts.’
Written in an entertaining style, this book should be read by all
Individualists because it is probably the fairest criticism of extreme
Individualism that exists and deals directly with the difficulties
involved.”--PI.
RÖPKE, WILHELM. _International Economic Disintegration._ Macmillan.
1942. 283 pp.
This book, a diagnosis of the long-run crisis in international economic
relations, was finished in 1942, when World War II was still going
on. It begins with a careful examination of the state of affairs at
the time, and goes on to explain the powerful forces which created
it--the disintegration of the framework of world economy, the military
aspect of economic nationalism, the effort of industrial countries to
“agrarianize,” the effort of agricultural countries to “industrialize,”
the disturbances in the monetary and financial mechanism of the world
economy, and the influence of policies that aim at national economic
“stabilization.” It is the most thorough and penetrating analysis of
international economic disintegration up to the time of its appearance,
and is particularly impressive because it sees the problem in its wider
implications.
RÖPKE, WILHELM. _The Social Crisis of Our Time._ University of Chicago
Press. 1950. 260 pp.
This book, first published in Switzerland under the title _Die
Gesellschaftskrisis der Gegenwart_, is the first volume of a trilogy
(though each of the volumes is self-contained), and it is the most
available to American readers. Röpke is outstanding, not merely for
the acuteness of his analysis, but for the breadth of his learning and
the breadth of his view, which go much beyond the purely economic field.
Some readers are likely to have difficulties because Professor Röpke
repudiates not only “collectivism,” but “capitalism,” and advocates a
course that he has called “The Third Way.” This, however, does not mean
a “middle-of-the-road policy” as commonly understood. When Röpke comes
to specific issues he nearly always advocates the solution of “the
free market economy.” But he makes a sharp distinction between a free
market economy as an ideal, and its actual historical embodiment in
“capitalism.” This seems to me a semantic separation which, in face of
the established usage of the words, is likely to be more confusing than
clarifying. Röpke quite properly contends that while economic liberty
is a _necessary_ condition of “the Good Society” it is not always a
_sufficient_ condition. This in itself is true enough, but it sometimes
leads him into irrelevant or dubious recommendations. Yet every
individualist and true liberal will profit from reading him. Frank H.
Knight has rightly called this “a tremendously impressive book.”
RÖPKE, WILHELM. _Civitas Humana._ London: Hodge. 1948. 235 pp.
This is the second volume of the Röpke trilogy. It seeks to outline
the requirements of “a humane order of society.” It discusses such
questions as moral foundations, the place of science, the criteria of
the healthy and the sick government, counterweights to the power of the
State, the problem of “decongestion” and “deproletarianization,” the
decentralization of industry, and the elimination of business-cycle
fluctuations. It pleads for the maintenance of a “peasant agriculture”
and briefly outlines the requirements of a new international order.
RÖPKE, WILHELM. _Internationale Ordnung._ Erlenbach-Zürich: Eugen
Rentsch Verlag. 1945. 337 pp.
Although this volume has been translated into French under the title
_La Communauté Internationale_ (Geneva: Éditions du Cheval Ailé),
no English translation is available. It is concerned, as its title
implies, with international economic problems. It discusses the decay
of a world economy, the general fear of competition, the fear of a
“passive balance” of payments, and the steps necessary to establish
a new world economy. Among these steps the author puts courageous
emphasis, in view of present fashionable Keynesism, on the need
of restoring an international gold standard. “If the existence of
a neo-liberal movement is known far beyond the narrow circles of
experts, the credit belongs mainly to Röpke, at least so far as the
German-speaking public is concerned.”--F. A. Hayek.
ROGERS, JAMES E. THOROLD. _The Economic Interpretation of History._
London: Unwin. 1888. 548 pp.
“Thorold Rogers was, perhaps, the most broad-minded of the Victorian
economists who followed Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill; he refused to
be tied by the abstractions of Ricardo, and unlike the majority of the
economists, he had a command of pure and vigorous English.... The above
work is most valuable.... The preface will repay careful study. It is
the work of a strong Individualist.... The chapter on _Laissez-faire_
(XVI) should be especially noted.”--PI.
ROGERS, SHERMAN. _Why Kill the Goose?_ Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation
for Economic Education. 1947. 78 pp.
A former socialist, converted to the benefits of the free private
enterprise system, argues that we have in it a goose which lays
golden eggs, and will continue to produce in abundance the economic
necessities of life--if we do not kill it through impatient and
ignorant policies. He presents a long list of popular misconceptions
and fallacies and of the facts which correct them. Elementary, simple
and very readable.
ROOT, E. MERRILL. _Collectivism on the Campus._ Devin-Adair. 1955.
The theme of this book is “the battle for the mind in American
colleges.” Professor Root argues that American college faculties today
are dominated by collectivists--whom he calls “State liberals”--and
that conservatives, libertarians, or true individualists on those
faculties are not only in a minority but have a difficult time.
ROSENBERG, ARTHUR. _A History of Bolshevism._ Oxford University Press.
1934. 250 pp.
This is a translation from the German. Dr. Rosenberg wrote the book as
a disillusioned communist. “Theory dominates Russian politics to an
extent almost incomprehensible to the ordinary, practical Englishman;
and Professor Rosenberg analyzes, with skill and knowledge, the
theoretical foundations of the struggles of the past seventeen years.
They revolve, of course, round the interpretation of Marxism.”--John
Hallett, in _The Spectator_. “One of the most instructive books yet
published on the history of bolshevism.”--W. L. Langer, in _Foreign
Affairs_.
ROSSI, ANGELO. _The Communist Party in Action._ Yale University Press.
1950. 301 pp.
“This analytical study of the French Communist Party is one of the most
important books on political theory and practice that have appeared in
recent years.... Professor Kendall is to be congratulated not only for
his translation but for his thoughtful introduction which challenges
some of the premises of Rossi’s own alternative position as well
as those of its critics.”--Sidney Hook, in _Annals of the American
Academy_.
ROSTOVTZEFF, MICHAEL IVANOVICH. _Social and Economic History of the
Roman Empire._ Oxford University Press. 1926. 696 pp.
Not a history in the ordinary sense, but a study of the social and
economic life of the Roman Empire. “Unquestionably the most solid
and also the most brilliant contribution which has ever been made
toward the interpretation of the Roman Empire.”--R. P. Blake, in the
_American Political Science Review_. “Professor Rostovtzeff’s book will
probably rank among the most notable contributions to the subject since
Gibbon’s.”--A. J. Toynbee, in the _Nation and Athenaeum_.
ROUGIER, LOUIS. _Les Mystiques Économiques._ Paris: Librairie de
Médicis. 1938. 1949. 278 pp.
This is a penetrating study of the steps by which liberal democracies
have been or can be transformed into totalitarian states. By
_“mystiques”_ the author refers to economic doctrines that are mere
rationalizations of prejudice, passion or sentimentality, and rest
neither on reason nor experience. Special chapters are devoted to
an examination of the older liberal _mystique_, the _mystique_ of a
planned economy, of the corporative state, of Marxism, etc. M. Rougier
advocates what he calls _“le libéralisme constructeur,”_ which implies
liberty within a carefully constructed framework of law, constantly
safeguarding competition, and “is not to be confused with the theory
of _laisser faire, laisser passer_, which ends in the suppression of
liberty through the very excess of liberty.”
ROUSSEAU, JEAN JACQUES. _The Social Contract._ 1762. Many editions.
227 pp.
There is a discussion of the great influence of Rousseau in the
introductory essay to this list, “Individualism in Politics and
Economics.” Although Rousseau’s ideas deeply colored subsequent
development of the philosophy of individualism, his peculiar type of
rationalistic individualism, as F. A. Hayek has pointed out, mainly led
to the opposite of true individualism--i.e., socialism or collectivism.
RUEFF, JACQUES. _L’Ordre Social._ Paris: Recueil Sirey. 1945. 2 vols.
747 pp.
A profound and original book, which makes a searching analysis of
fundamental economic, political, legal and moral concepts. It draws a
constant contrast between a regime of economic liberalism with true
rights, and a statist, socialist or authoritarian regime with its
system of “false rights.” It is especially effective in demonstrating
the demoralizing economic and political effects of the cycle of deficit
financing, monetary inflation, exchange control and price control that
has marked the policies of so many “free” countries of the West since
World War II.
RUEFF, JACQUES. _Épître aux Dirigistes._ Paris: Gallimard. 1949. 120
pp.
This is a “letter” addressed in a conciliatory tone to the Economic
Planners, and more particularly to those who think that they can halt
inflation or control an economy largely through the control of prices.
M. Rueff shows the many evils to which attempts at price-fixing lead,
and points on the other hand to the benefits brought about by freedom
of the markets and a policy of economic liberalism.
RUEFF, JACQUES. _The Fallacies of Lord Keynes’ General Theory.
Quarterly Journal of Economics._ May, 1947. 24 pp.
An important analysis.
RUGGIERO, GUIDO DE. _The History of European Liberalism._ Oxford
University Press. 1928. 476 pp.
The author defines liberalism as neither democracy, in the sense of the
rule of the mere majority, nor authoritarianism, in the sense of the
irresponsible rule of those who happen to be in power. “An excellent
exposition of modern liberalism.”--_Boston Transcript._
RUSSELL, DEAN. _The TVA Idea._ Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation for
Economic Education. 1949. 108 pp.
“With surgical skill, Dean Russell dissects not only the Tennessee
Valley Authority in operation, but the philosophy of industry
socialization, which the TVA represents. In a mere 100 pages, packed
with supporting data, Russell thoroughly debunks the blatant claims
made for TVA by its starry-eyed supporters. He then raises a warning
that the TVA is more than just dams and power plants--it’s an idea,
the extension of which involves loss of individual freedom and drastic
political, social and economic consequences.”--John Fisher, in the
_Chicago Tribune_.
SALTER, F. R. _Karl Marx and Modern Socialism._ Macmillan. 1921. 260
pp.
“In some ways this is the most useful account and criticism of
Karl Marx that we have. Prof. J. Shield Nicholson in his _Revival
of Marxism_ can hardly hide his complete contempt for Marx’s
inconsistencies and confusions, and he admits that he finds him
‘hopeless and depressing.’ But _Das Kapital_ has had an immense
influence, and Mr. Salter is more sympathetic. In fact, one might
almost say that he is clearly out to paint as favorable a picture of
Marx as his conscience will allow. In spite of this and his constant
attempts to explain away or minimize errors, he cannot avoid exposing
the false assumptions and the structure of false reasoning on which
Marxian theories are built.”--PI (1927).
SAMUELSON, BERNARD. _Socialism Rejected._ London: Smith, Elder. 1913.
330 pp.
“A satirical examination of Socialism, written in a mock heroic
style.”--PI. The author considers “art” socialism, “Christian”
socialism, political and ethical socialism, utopian socialism,
“natural” socialism, and syndicalist socialism, and rejects them all.
SANBORN, FREDERIC ROCKWELL. _Design for War._ Devin-Adair. 1951. 607
pp.
A study of secret power politics from 1937 to 1941. “The basic
contention of the book is that a President of the United States ought
to consult freely and publicly with the Cabinet and Congress before
making foreign engagements of any consequence. The author expresses the
belief that the U. S. should follow more nearly the pattern of Britain,
where foreign policy decisions generally are made only after a thorough
airing in Commons, and where the Prime Minister is always directly
accountable to the elected representatives of the people. The book is
heavily documented.”--_Springfield Republican._
SAY, JEAN BAPTISTE. _Treatise on Political Economy._ 1803.
(Philadelphia: Grigg & Eliot. 1834.)
Jean Baptiste Say (1767-1832) was the founder of the classical school
in France. Although an ardent disciple of Adam Smith, he made it his
mission to reduce the “vast chaos” of Smith’s ideas to more orderly and
simplified form. Among his original contributions were the introduction
of the famous term _entrepreneur_ into economic terminology, his
emphasis on and explanation of the role of the entrepreneur, and
his theory of markets. Say was the originator of “Say’s Law,” which
points out that ultimately goods and services must be bought and paid
for with other goods and services. This is a truism. But many errors
resulted from ignoring it, as Malthus and others did, in their theory
that depressions are caused by a _general_ overproduction. And many
present-day fallacies result from actually _denying_ Say’s Law, as
the Keynesians do. In short--although this truth must, of course, be
understood with the proper qualifications--supply creates its own
demand.
SCHAPIRO, J. SALWYN. _Liberalism and the Challenge of Fascism._
McGraw-Hill. 1949. 421 pp.
An admirable history of social and intellectual forces in England
and France from 1815 to 1870. The book is unsatisfactory in its
interpretation and understanding of economic developments and the
contribution of the classical economists; but it is excellent in
its shrewd and balanced judgments of the political, philosophical
and literary currents of the period. It is distinguished by a ripe
scholarship and is very well written.
“This book is devoted to a study of the formation of the pattern of
liberalism in England and France, where its ideals and policies became
a model, followed more or less by the other nations of Europe. It
also treats of the origins of fascist ideology in these countries ...
Chapters 13 to 15, dealing with the Heralds of Fascism, aim to throw a
new light on Louis Napoleon, Proudhon, and Carlyle--the light of the
present on the past. The system established in France by the strange
and enigmatic Emperor cannot be understood without its being seen as a
historic preview of the fascist state with its popular, even socialist,
appeals cloaking a ruthless personal dictatorship.”--From the Preface.
SCHATZ, ALBERT. _L’Individualisme économique et social._ Paris: A.
Colin. 1907. 590 pp.
“This great work of 590 pages is one of the most exhaustive studies of
Individualism that exists and probably the most complete history.”--PI.
“An excellent survey of the history of individualist theories....
Deserves to be much more widely known as a contribution not only to the
subject indicated by its title but to the history of economic theory in
general.”--F. A. Hayek.
SCHNABEL, F. _Deutsche Geschichte im 19. Jahrhundert._ Freiburg i.B. 4
vols. 1929-37.
“A remarkable recent work on the modern history of Germany which is not
so well known abroad as it deserves.”--F. A. Hayek.
SCHUMPETER, JOSEPH A. _Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy._ Harper.
1942. 381 pp.
An attempt to compare the relative merits and defects of capitalism
and socialism, explain their respective relations to democracy, and
indicate the type of society probable or possible in the future. I
include this book in the present list with misgivings. Much of it is
deliberately paradoxical. Professor Schumpeter seems to me unduly
pessimistic about the future prospects of capitalism. He airily
grants to socialism a practicability that no complete socialism could
possess; and he never seriously comes to grips with the main economic
argument against it. Yet this is nonetheless a remarkable book, rich in
scholarship, witty, and often penetrating and profound. At least one
college professor of my acquaintance, who himself ardently supports the
principles of free enterprise, tells me that this book more than any
other has shaken some of his students out of previous pro-socialist
leanings. It can probably be recommended, therefore, to advanced
economic students already acquainted with the work of von Mises, and
possessing analytical powers of their own.
SCHUMPETER, JOSEPH A. _History of Economic Analysis._ Oxford
University Press. 1954. 1,260 pp.
“A monumental achievement of scholarship, without equal in its
field.... Readers of this journal will probably be irritated by the
unnecessary condescending, if not contemptuous, manner in which
Schumpeter usually refers to nineteenth-century liberalism and
_laissez-faire_. But they should remember that it comes from an author
who knew as well as anybody ‘that capitalist evolution tends to peter
out because the modern state may crush or paralyze its motive force,’
yet who seems to have had an irrepressible urge _pour épater les
bourgeois_.”--F. A. Hayek, in _The Freeman_.
SCHWARTZ, HARRY. _Russia’s Soviet Economy._ Prentice-Hall. 1950. 592
pp.
A careful description of the historical and ideological background
of Soviet Russia, its economic plan, its industry, agriculture, and
transportation. “The true value of this book lies in its solidly
informative presentation of the Soviet economic machine and its
pernicious effects upon the individual human Russian. A lucid
introductory essay is contributed by William Henry Chamberlin.”--David
Hecht, in the _Saturday Review of Literature_.
SCHWARZ, SOLOMON M. _The Jews in the Soviet Union._ Syracuse
University Press. 1951. 380 pp.
“In the first part of the book Dr. Schwarz exhaustively analyzes
Communist doctrine on minority nationalities in general, and on the
Jewish people in particular; the history of the Soviet treatment of
the Jewish community since the coming to power of the Bolsheviks in
1917; the successive Soviet programs for solving the Jewish problem;
the story of the province of Birobidzhan; and the present situation
of the Jews in the Soviet Union. In the second part of the book, the
author makes a study of the evidences of antisemitism in the USSR from
the first years of Communist rule until today.”--From the Publisher’s
Note. “For the time being, it can be called the definitive study on the
subject.”--Hans Kohn, in _The New Republic_.
SCHWARZSCHILD, LEOPOLD. _The Red Prussian._ Scribner’s. 1947. 422 pp.
“A biography of Karl Marx, mostly based on the enormous Marx-Engels
correspondence, along with a critique of Marx’s _Capital_ and of the
Marxian theory of value. Mr. Schwarzschild does not present a kindly
portrait of his subject; he convicts Marx, by quoting him, of virulent
anti-semitism, and makes him out to be a petty, dishonest, completely
unscrupulous and opportunistic man, a loose thinker, and a very bad
prophet--in other words, the archetype of the totalitarian exponent
of power who has become such a common figure in our times.... In
holding the Marxian economic theory up to a strong light, the author
uncovers some grave flaws in it, which have been noted by other critics
but rarely so sharply illuminated. An important and well-presented
book.”--_New Yorker._
SCOVILLE, JOHN W. _Labor Monopolies or Freedom._ Committee for
Constitutional Government. 1946. 167 pp.
A vigorous criticism of “collective bargaining” as commonly interpreted
in practice. The author contends that competition will ensure fair
wages. His final conclusion is: “Employers and employees should be free
to make voluntary agreements with each other. The employer should be
free. The worker should be free. Neither should be subject to coercion,
intimidation, or compulsion from any source.”
SCOVILLE, JOHN W., AND SARGENT, NOEL. _Fact and Fancy in the T. N. E.
C. Monographs._ National Association of Manufacturers. 1942. 812 pp.
During the administrations of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the
Temporary National Economic Committee was set up, held hearings, and
published forty-three monographs, running to 12,400 pages, which
attempted to prove the existence of great concentration of economic
power. This is a documented answer. The authors declare: “Many, but not
all, of these monographs are impregnated with hostility to corporations
and individuals of wealth. These reviews expose those statements and
conclusions which, in the opinion of the reviewers, are fallacious or
unsupported by evidence.... The monographs vary greatly in quality;
they run the gamut from scholarly and comprehensive exposition to
political claptrap.”
SENNHOLZ, HANS F. _How Can Europe Survive?_ Van Nostrand. 1955. 336 pp.
This is one of the very few books of recent years to give a realistic
analysis of the numerous schemes for European and Western unification,
and to show how virtually all of these schemes have been rendered
futile by internal interventionist and socialist policies that
inevitably intensify and perpetuate nationalism. The author points out
that the only feasible alternative is international cooperation based
on individual liberty and free enterprise.
SENNHOLZ, MARY (ed.). _On Freedom and Free Enterprise._ Van Nostrand.
1956. 333 pp.
Essays in honor of Ludwig von Mises, on subjects ranging from “The Road
to Totalitarianism” to “Progressive Taxation Reconsidered,” by nineteen
authors from the United States, South Africa, Switzerland, Italy,
Mexico, and France: Jacques Rueff, William E. Rappard, Henry Hazlitt,
Bertrand de Jouvenel, Hans F. Sennholz, F. A. Harper, Wilhelm Röpke,
Faustino Ballvé, Carlo Antoni, Louis M. Spadaro, Fritz Machlup, L. M.
Lachmann, Leonard E. Read, W. H. Hutt, William H. Peterson, Murray N.
Rothbard, F. A. Hayek, Percy L. Greaves, Jr., and Louis Baudin.
SERGE, VICTOR. _The Case of Comrade Tulayev._ Doubleday. 1950. 306 pp.
On a cold winter’s night a young clerk, on impulse, shot and killed a
highly placed member of the Communist party in Russia, Comrade Tulayev.
The young man escapes, but, in the far-flung investigations of the
“plot,” three other men, of far greater importance, are pursued to
their death, men who are not guilty of this crime, at least, but men
who have roused the distrust and enmity of the rulers of Russia. The
author, who died in 1947, was an old revolutionary who had lived in
exile, in France and Mexico, after the mid-thirties. “This is a novel
in the great Russian tradition. Its theme is the modern tragedy of the
old Bolsheviks, faced with the insoluble problem of reconciling their
abiding faith in the original Communist ideal with acceptance of the
tyranny, injustice and misery of the Soviet world they made.”--Freda
Utley, in _Human Events_.
SHADWELL, ARTHUR. _The Socialist Movement, 1824-1924._ London: Allan.
1925. 2 vols.
“Dr. Shadwell has been described as ‘the greatest authority on the
Socialist movement,’ and outside the Socialist camp this is probably
true. These volumes constitute the best short history of the movement,
and the only one which brings the account up to 1924.... The work
includes an excellent refutation of Marxism, and the errors and
illusions of Socialism are constantly indicated.”--PI (1927).
SHADWELL, ARTHUR. _The Breakdown of Socialism._ Little, Brown. 1926.
272 pp.
“A valuable study of recent Socialist experiments in Europe.”--PI.
SHUB, DAVID. _Lenin: a Biography._ Doubleday. 1948. 438 pp.
“Mr. Shub’s biography is the book you must read if you want to know
what Communism is.... You will learn that Lenin’s superiority as a
politician lay in the fact that he alone realized that social democracy
is not the ultimate state of liberalism, but its antithesis; and you
will learn by that token--though not directly from Mr. Shub, who sticks
to his job as the biographer of a doctrine--how to deal with Communism
effectively.”--Asher Brynes, in _The Saturday Review of Literature_.
SIDGWICK, HENRY. _The Principles of Political Economy._ Macmillan.
1883. 592 pp.
“In economics Sidgwick tends to follow John Stuart Mill; but his was
an independent type of mind and he is always anxious to unearth new
truths.... In the second ... section ... he begins by referring to the
‘sweeping doctrine,’ mainly derived from the Physiocrats, that ‘the
sole function of an ideal government in relation to industry is simply
to leave it alone.’ While giving this a certain general approval,
he holds that it postulates a large amount of human virtue and
unselfishness, and that there must be cases ‘in which its optimistic
conclusion is inadmissible.’ Monopolies, for instance, are often urgent
matters for Government interference. He gives a list of the familiar
exceptions, e.g., Government must interfere for the purpose of national
defense, the preservation of public health, etc., etc. Much of what he
lays down is too well recognized to need recapitulation.”--PI.
SIDGWICK, HENRY. _The Elements of Politics._ Macmillan. 1891. 665 pp.
“Henry Sidgwick was a thinker of very high ability; possibly his
influence is below his merits, because he possessed a cautious and
noncommittal mind which did not favor vivid and popular treatment of
his subjects; and further, his style is dry. This book from Chapters
III to XII has much to say about the respective provinces of the
Government and the individual. He is too cautious to go much beyond
empiric methods, and is content to allow the questions to be determined
largely by the circumstances of each particular case. However, his
bias is towards Individualism. He points out several dangers in
Government interference--(1) That of overburdening the governmental
machinery with work. (2) That of increasing the power capable of being
used by governing persons oppressively or corruptly. (3) The danger
that the delicate economic functions of government will be hampered
by the desire to gratify certain specially influential sections of
the community. He adds: ‘When, along with these dangers, we take into
account that the work of Government must be done by persons who--even
with the best arrangement for effective supervision and promotion
of merit--can only have a part of the stimulus and enterprise which
the independent worker feels, it will be easily understood that we
are not justified in concluding that governmental interference is
always expedient, even where _laissez-faire_ leads to a manifestly
unsatisfactory result; its expediency has to be decided in any
particular case by a careful estimate of advantages and drawbacks,
requiring data obtained from special experience.’”--PI.
SIMONS, HENRY C. _Economic Policy for a Free Society._ University of
Chicago Press. 1948. 353 pp.
Reviewing this book in _The New York Times_ of Aug. 1, 1948, I
wrote: “As an economic theorist Simons was far from first-rate; his
originality lay in the realm of phrase-making rather than in that of
thought; and while his style was vigorous, epigrammatic and witty, it
was also interrupted, discursive and often pedantic.... [But] no one
could deny Simons’ disinterestedness, or the depth of his desire for
a better and freer society. Though many of his ideas were eccentric
and crotchety, and neither adopted nor expounded with the patient,
step-by-step reasoning which mark the work of Adam Smith, Mill,
Marshall and most of the others to whom he felt himself to belong, he
shared with these great figures their deep concern for freedom and a
suspicion everywhere of concentrated power.”
A more favorable verdict is given by F. A. Hayek: “One need not agree
with the whole of this work and one may even regard some of the
suggestions made in it as incompatible with a free society, and yet
recognize it as one of the most important contributions made in recent
times.”
SIMONSON, GUSTAVE. _A Plain Examination of Socialism._ London: Swan
Sonnenschein. 1900. 155 pp.
“A short and handy criticism, written by an American, of the general
Socialist position. The writer contends that it is based upon absurd
postulates. It rests on the undemonstrable and untenable assumptions
that we can possibly right in the present supposed wrongs of the past;
that each one who is born has a ‘natural right to the free use of the
instruments of production which others may own; that labor is the sole
cause of the value of anything and everything produced; that all values
in property are not founded on demand-and-supply; and that a large
share of these values has been produced by, and wrongly withheld from,
those who have created them--in other words, that most of the present
private property is the accumulated plunder from unrewarded past labor,
and that this plunder must go on forever as long as the instruments of
production are in private ownership.’”--PI.
SMITH, ADAM. _The Wealth of Nations._ 1776. Many editions. (London:
Methuen. Edited by Edwin Cannan. 1904.) (Modern Library. 1937.) 2
vols. 462 pp. 506 pp.
Adam Smith is not merely the founder of political economy, but the
father of economic liberty. In the 180 years since _The Wealth of
Nations_ appeared, the case for free trade, for example, has been
stated thousands of times, but probably never with more direct
simplicity and force than in that volume.
Gide and Rist, in their _History of Economic Doctrines_, have admirably
summarized the qualities that make _The Wealth of Nations_ unique: It
“instantly eclipsed the tentative efforts of [Smith’s] predecessors....
His discussion of ... questions is marked by such mastery of detail
and such balance of judgment that he convinces without effort. His
facts are intermixed with reasoning, his illustrations with argument.
He is instructive as well as persuasive. Withal there is no trace of
pedantry, no monotonous reiteration in the work, and the reader is not
burdened with the presence of a cumbersome logical apparatus. All is
elegantly simple.... In addition to this, Smith has been successful
in borrowing from his predecessors all their more important ideas and
welding them into a more general system. He superseded them because he
rendered their work useless. A true social and economic philosophy was
substituted for their fragmentary studies, and an entirely new value
given to their contributions.”
SMITH, BRADFORD B. _Liberty and Taxes._ Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation
for Economic Education. 1947. 20 pp.
The author argues against the progressive income tax and in favor of
proportional taxation. “The one thing always to dread is the laying
of a tax burden on minorities by majorities which the majority itself
escapes. That is tax despoliation.”
SMITH, WALTER BEDELL. _My Three Years in Moscow._ Lippincott. 1950.
346 pp.
An account of three years of the cold war in Russia as viewed by the
former United States ambassador to Moscow in the period from March 1946
to March 1949. Among the subjects discussed are Soviet industry and
agriculture, the cultural purge, slave labor, anti-Semitism, the Berlin
blockade, the Yugoslav situation, and the possibility of war.
SNYDER, CARL. _Capitalism the Creator._ Macmillan. 1940. 473 pp.
“The thesis here presented,” writes the author, “is that there is one
way, and only one way, that any people, in all history, have ever
risen from barbarism and poverty to affluence and culture; and that
is by that concentrated and highly organized system of production and
exchange which we call capitalistic.”
In reviewing this book in _The New York Times_, I wrote: “It is frankly
and belligerently a defense of capitalism, and as such it is one of the
most original and interesting this reviewer has ever seen. Mr. Snyder
is one of the country’s best known statisticians; he is full of all
sorts of miscellaneous learning.... He uses epithets freely and he has
a habit of deliberately leaving out the verbs in most of his sentences,
so that the reader is bumped and jolted rather than carried along.
“Mr. Snyder has a profound faith in the probative value of
statistics.... Impressive are the statistics and reasoning by which Mr.
Snyder contends that wages are determined primarily by the product per
worker; and that the product per worker is determined in the long run
by the capital investment per worker, which makes possible the use of
new machinery, new processes and new methods of production.”
SOLOVIEV, MIKHAIL. _When the Gods Are Silent._ McKay. 1953. 506 pp.
“The author, a former editor of _Izvestia_, tells a moving story
of the development of the Russian revolutionary movement from its
beginnings before World War I until a period just after World War II.
It depicts, through the eyes of members of a Russian peasant family
deeply involved in the whole movement, the growing blind obedience and
the final realization that Russia must be saved but cannot be by the
Communists.”--_Library Journal._
SOMARY, FELIX. _Democracy at Bay._ Knopf. 1952. 171 pp.
William Henry Chamberlin calls this “a profound and searching little
book” which “deserves a place on the same shelf with Hayek’s _Road
to Serfdom_.” Somary measures the ills of the modern world against
the standards of old-fashioned liberal individualism. He condemns
the contemporary erosion of property rights, the tendency of direct
taxation to reach confiscatory levels, and the general abandonment of
the gold standard for unlimited paper inflation. “The more functions
the state assumes,” he contends, “the less it is possible to control
the administration.”
SOUVARINE, BORIS. _Stalin: A Critical Survey of Bolshevism._ Alliance.
1939. 690 pp.
“This book is one of the most remarkable biographies of our times....
It is the best critical history of Bolshevism from Lenin to Stalin
that has been written to date.... Lesser men would have been borne
down by the weight of M. Souvarine’s vast erudition, but the author
has a keen mind, a delightful sense of humor, and knows how to etch in
acid.”--Sidney Hook, in _Books_.
SPENCER, HERBERT. _The Man Versus the State._ 1884. Many editions.
(Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers. 1940.) 213 pp.
One of the most powerful and influential arguments for limited
government, _laissez faire_ and individualism ever written. The
prophetic insight of such essays as “The Coming Slavery,” pointing
out the then unrecognized threat of socialism to the freedom of the
individual, has led to a strong revival of interest in Spencer after
long neglect.
“Dictatorial measures, rapidly multiplied,” he wrote in the preface to
this volume in 1884, “have tended continually to narrow the liberties
of individuals.... Regulations have been made in yearly-growing
numbers, restraining the citizen in directions where his actions were
previously unchecked, and compelling actions which previously he might
perform or not as he liked; and at the same time heavier public burdens
... have further restricted his freedom, by lessening that portion
of his earnings which he can spend as he pleases, and augmenting the
portion taken from him to be spent as public agents please.”
Spencer contended that the sphere of government should be “confined
to the duty of preventing aggressions of individuals upon each other,
and protecting the nation at large against external enemies.” It
should, in other words, be confined to maintaining security of life and
property, and the freedom of the individual to exercise his faculties.
He warned against all efforts by the State to confer positive benefits
upon citizens. He objected even to sanitary supervision. Even most
individualists today would regard Spencer’s individualism as in many
respects extreme. Yet no one concerned with individual freedom can
afford to ignore his work. Every student of the subject should be
familiar with it.
Hardly less important in its bearing on individualism is Spencer’s
Social Statics, published in 1850. But the theme of individualism
runs through all his writings--through _The Study of Sociology_, _The
Principles of Ethics_, and the _Autobiography_.
SPERBER, MANES. _The Burned Bramble._ Doubleday. 1951. 405 pp.
A novel about the Communist party in Europe in the 1930’s. “An
impassioned and profound picture of Communist experience in the years
before Stalinism had fully shown its face--of the faith and exaltation;
the monstrous erasure of human decency and truth; the incredible
loyalty and self-sacrifice whose eventual reward was a disillusioned
soul, a cheated mind, and a bullet in the neck.”--C. J. Rolo, in _The
Atlantic_.
SPITZBERGEN, HENRY E. (HENRY PLOWDEEPER). _“Liberals” and the
Constitution._ Washington, D. C.: Liberty & Freedom Press. 1950. 301
pp.
A defense of free enterprise, private ownership of property, limited
government, and the doctrine of constitutional “separation of powers.”
SPRADING, CHARLES T. (ed.). _Liberty and the Great Libertarians._ Los
Angeles: The author. 1913. 540 pp.
An anthology on liberty. Among the authors from whom passages have been
selected are: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, John Stuart
Mill, Emerson, Thoreau, Ingersoll, Henry George, Bernard Shaw, Olive
Shreiner, and Maria Montessori.
STAMP, SIR JOSIAH. _Wealth and Taxable Capacity._ London: King. 1922.
195 pp.
“An analysis of the fundamental factors determining the relation of
price, taxation and public debt to the total national income and
capital.... Like Prof. Bowley’s works on national income, this is a
book with which all who are seriously concerned about the problem of
distribution ought to be acquainted.”--PI.
STAMP, SIR JOSIAH. _Inheritance as an Economic Factor. Economic
Journal._ September 1926.
“The best analysis of the economic significance of inheritance that
has yet been made. Of the conclusions, the following is of fundamental
importance in modern controversy. ‘I think it probable that, through
the inequalities due to the system in which inheritance has a part, the
average man has a slightly smaller proportionate share of the aggregate
than he would have had if there had been no inheritance system, but
a substantially larger _absolute_ amount because he shares a larger
aggregate.... Whether under the circumstances he is justified in having
a sense of injustice ... is a matter lying beyond economics.’”--PI.
STANNARD, HAROLD MARTIN. _Two Constitutions._ Van Nostrand. 1949. 210
pp.
A comparative study of the written American constitution and the
unwritten British one. It attempts to show a unity of purpose
underlying the two.
STEINBERG, JULIEN. _Verdict of Three Decades._ Duell, Sloan & Pearce.
1950. 634 pp.
“An integrated and well-edited collection of writings about Soviet
Communism, drawn mostly from the works of men and women who have
revolted against it and believe that Lenin and Stalin cynically
betrayed a revolution that they did not start in the first place.... If
there are any people around who still do not believe the accusations
made against Lenin and Stalin, this book should dispel their
doubts.”--_New Yorker._
STEPHEN, SIR JAMES FITZJAMES. _Liberty, Equality, Fraternity._ London:
Smith, Elder. 1873. 350 pp.
“A considerable portion of the book is devoted to J. S. Mill’s essay
_On Liberty_. Stephen was a utilitarian and an admirer of Mill’s
earlier writings. Mill, he says, ‘is the only modern author who has
handled the subject with whom I agree sufficiently to differ from
him profitably.’ Stephen delights in logical controversy. Here is an
example: ‘To force an unwilling person to contribute to the British
Museum is as distinct a violation of Mr. Mill’s principle as religious
persecution.’ Stephen emphasized the necessity for definitions and the
difficulty of finding a satisfactory definition for liberty. It is an
interesting and useful book by a clever and vigorous writer with a
good legal brain, who leans to the individualistic side and despises
sentimentalism in economics and politics.”--PI. There are chapters
on “Equality,” “Fraternity,” and “The Doctrine of Liberty in Its
Application to Morals.”
STEPHEN, SIR LESLIE. _History of English Thought in the Eighteenth
Century._ 1876. London School of Economics. 1950. 3 vols. 1,233 pp.
“No single work quoted will be more useful to a beginner than this.
Chapter X, ‘Political Theories,’ and Chapter XI, ‘Political Economics,’
are indispensable, but the whole is very valuable, because a knowledge
of the intellectual conditions of the eighteenth century is all
important for an understanding of English Individualism.”--PI.
STEPHEN, SIR LESLIE. _The English Utilitarians._ Putnam. 1900. 3 vols.
326 pp. 382 pp. 525 pp.
“Written when Stephen’s health was failing, these volumes have less
vigor and merit than the previous work. But almost every chapter bears
on our subject, and much useful information and criticism may be
extracted.”--PI.
STEPHEN, SIR LESLIE. _The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Bart._
London: Smith, Elder. 1893. 504 pp.
“Stephen, who in later life became a judge, was long a busy journalist,
writing much for the _Saturday Review_ and _Pall Mall Gazette_. His
brother and biographer says: ‘He had sat at the feet of Bentham and
Austin, and had found the most congenial philosophy in Hobbes.’ He had
two counts against Mill--(1) That he had forsaken the straightforward
principles of utilitarianism and _laissez-faire_. (2) That though he
had diverged into a sort of sentimental Socialism, he would not permit
the State to use the force it had at its disposal, for the purpose of
restraining evil. Stephen was a convinced Individualist. His creed was
to allow as much scope as possible to liberty and the individual,
under the protection of a strong Government for purposes of police and
security.”--PI.
STIGLER, GEORGE J. _Five Lectures on Economic Problems._ Longmans,
Green. 1949. 65 pp.
These lectures, delivered before the London School of Economics by a
professor of economics at Columbia University, are distinguished for
pithy wisdom and shrewd analysis. They discuss “equality,” monopolistic
competition, classical economics, mathematical economics, and the
status of competition in the United States. This last lecture is
particularly notable for the deftness with which it punctures the
popular myth that competition has been declining steadily (and in many
versions, drastically) for a half century or more. Professor Stigler
estimates that competitive industries were producing seven-tenths of
the national income in 1939, and utilizing more than four-fifths of the
labor force. In his lecture on the classical economists he shows how
much more they knew, and how much more humane and realistic they were,
than it has been fashionable for our generation to believe.
STOWE, LELAND. _Conquest by Terror._ Random House. 1952. 300 pp.
A study of the countries behind the Iron Curtain: Rumania,
Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. The author, an American
newspaperman, bases his work on his own knowledge, plus material
gained from journalists in exile, recent refugees, former officers,
specialists of various kinds, and the underground. “Mr. Stowe has
written a book to alarm the West, to make it aware of the important
changes which five to seven years of Soviet control have already
produced, not in the satellites alone but also in the balance between
East and West in Europe. It is a grim story and one which needs to be
widely reflected on.”--Philip Mosely, in the _New York Herald Tribune_.
STRAUSZ-HUPÉ, ROBERT, AND POSSONY, STEFAN T. _International Relations
in the Age of the Conflict Between Democracy and Dictatorship._
McGraw-Hill. 1950. 947 pp.
“The long title of this book suggests its massive character. The
almost unlimited subject of international relations is examined in
almost one thousand pages of text, buttressed with vast erudition and
illuminated by many flashes of perceptive wisdom. The authors are
scholars connected respectively with the University of Pennsylvania
and Georgetown University.... However, the book is far from being a
colorless collection of undisputed facts. It should be, but probably
will not be, required reading for all utopians. For much learning has
made the authors profoundly skeptical about the value of one-idea
panaceas. And they are ruthless with attempts to make platitudes a
substitute for policy.”--W. H. Chamberlin, in _Human Events_.
STRIPLING, ROBERT E. _Red Plot Against America._ Drexel Hill, Pa.:
Bell Publications. 1950. 282 pp.
“The author of this book was the chief investigator for the House
Committee on Un-American Activities from 1938 to 1948. Mr. Bob
Considine has ‘edited’ the story of Mr. Stripling’s adventures first
for a newspaper syndicate, then for publication in the present book.
The final 113 pages are lifted, by permission, from ‘primers’ against
communism published by the committee in 1948 and obtainable from the
Government Printing Office.”--_The New York Times._
STRUNSKY, SIMEON. _Two Came to Town._ Dutton. 1947. 219 pp.
A fantasy, speculating on what Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson,
respectively (introduced under the thin disguises of “Mr. Alexander”
and “Mr. Thomas”), would say and think about New York and the ideology
of present-day America if they could pay us a visit from the grave.
Under a surface of playful humor, the author conveys a wise and
penetrating message on how recent fashionable ideas and phrases could
cause us to surrender our liberties.
STYPULKOWSKI, ZBIGNIEW F. _Invitation to Moscow._ McKay. 1951. 359 pp.
The author, a Polish lawyer and political prisoner, describes his long
session in the notorious Soviet Lubianka prison, and the methods used
to obtain a confession of his non-guilt. “It would be unfortunate if
this volume were catalogued as merely another book on Soviet political
terror. It is much more than that. An important half of the book is
devoted to the author’s experience in the Polish underground, fighting
against the German invaders.... Finally, this book is valuable because
it gives the detailed story of Soviet perfidy toward the Polish
underground in the closing days of World War II.”--Harry Schwartz, in
_The New York Times_.
SULLIVAN, LAWRENCE. _Bureaucracy Runs Amuck._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1944. 318
pp.
A study of the confusion and overlapping in hundreds of the United
States war emergency bureaus and agencies.
SULZBACH, WALTER. _National Consciousness._ Washington, D. C.:
American Council on Public Affairs. 1943. 168 pp.
“Whoever reads it should have a more lively and discerning
understanding of contemporary nationalism.”--Garland Downum, in the
_American Political Science Review_.
SULZBACH, WALTER. “_Capitalistic Warmongers._” University of Chicago
Press. 1942.
Punctures with facts and economic analysis the socialist superstition
that “capitalism creates war.”
SUMNER, WILLIAM GRAHAM. _What Social Classes Owe to Each Other._ 1883.
(Yale University Press. 1927.) 169 pp.
Few men have ever exposed the fallacies of state paternalism with
more gusto and devastating logic than the American sociologist and
economist, William Graham Sumner (1840-1910). The lucidity of his style
and the humor of his illustrations are comparable to those of Bastiat.
This little book contains among others the famous essay on “The
Forgotten Man”--a phrase later perverted by politicians to mean exactly
the opposite of what Sumner meant by it: “The type and formula of most
schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their
heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D.... I call C
the Forgotten Man.... The state cannot get a cent for any man without
taking it from some other man, and this latter must be a man who has
produced and saved it. This latter is the Forgotten Man.”
Sumner also wrote valuable essays on free trade, protectionism and
_laissez faire_. He was more celebrated in his own lifetime for
his sociological work--his _Folkways_ (1907), and his monumental
four-volume study, _The Science of Society_, with A. G. Keller, which
appeared in 1927.
SWANSON, ERNST W., AND SCHMIDT, EMERSON P. _Economic Stagnation or
Progress._ McGraw-Hill. 1946. 212 pp.
A critique of recent doctrines on the mature economy, oversavings, and
deficit spending. It is also a critique of the Keynes-Hansen school
of economic stabilization--which held that the American economy was
stagnant because of “lack of investment opportunities,” and that
therefore deficit spending by government on a more or less continuous
basis was necessary to sustain prosperity. Basically, this is a book
of readings from other economists, but these are linked together
by commentaries and supplemented by the authors’ own summaries and
conclusions. The book covers much of the same ground as George
Terborgh’s _The Bogey of Economic Maturity_ (q.v.).
TALMON, L. J. _The Rise of Totalitarian Democracy._ Beacon Press.
1952. 366 pp.
This study seeks to show how totalitarian ideas grew out of utopianism,
and how the extreme democrats of the French Revolution turned into the
most ruthless dictators. “A book of great wisdom which I recommend
to anyone who not only wants to broaden his basic knowledge of the
French Revolution but also wishes to understand the basic--that is the
intellectual--causes of the modern world crisis. Dr. Talmon’s work
meets the highest academic standards.”--S. T. Possony, in the _Annals
of the American Academy_.
TANSILL, CHARLES CALLAN. _America Goes to War._ Little, Brown. 1938.
731 pp.
A study of the reasons why America went to war in 1917. “The great
value of Professor Tansill’s book is that it shows with incontestable
detail just how independent of Congressional check is the President’s
control of foreign affairs, and how this control can lead to
war.”--John Chamberlain, in _Books_. “Mr. Tansill’s book ... is
critical, searching and judicious.... It is presented in a style that
is always vigorous and sometimes brilliant. It is the most valuable
contribution to the history of the pre-war years in our literature,
and one of the notable achievements of historical scholarship of this
generation.”--H. S. Commager, in _The Yale Review_.
TANSILL, CHARLES CALLAN. _Back Door to War._ Regnery. 1952. 690 pp.
The author is professor of American diplomatic history at Georgetown
University. This volume on the origins of World War II is based on
extensive research, including access to the confidential files of the
State Department. “Prof. Tansill sketches briefly American foreign
policy from Versailles to 1933, then gives many details and biting
comments on the actions and attitudes of F. D. Roosevelt, Hull,
Stimson, Ambassador Dodd, etc.”--_Library Journal._ “When he is at his
best, he is unfolding a diplomatic narrative with considerable skill,
and with an excellent command of his sources.”--Dexter Perkins, in _The
New York Times_.
TAUSSIG, F. W. _Principles of Economics._ Macmillan. 1911, etc. 2
vols. 545 pp. 576 pp.
“Characterized by an exquisite sanity. We do not recall any work
in which these subjects are discussed with an equal degree of
lucidity. Professor Taussig’s book from beginning to end is intensely
readable.”--_The New York Times_, in 1925. “The reviewer is impressed
anew with the maturity and breadth, as well as with the literary style,
which are outstanding characteristics of Taussig’s _Principles_.”--R.
T. Bye, in the _Annals of the American Academy_, 1940. “A fine picture
of classical doctrines.... All in all, Professor Taussig’s _Principles_
remains an important part of economic literature--as it has been for
over a quarter of a century. That is a distinguished record, almost
unique for textbook writers in the field.”--T. F. Haygood, in the
_Southern Economic Journal_, 1940.
TAUSSIG, F. W. _International Trade._ Macmillan. 1927. 425 pp.
The outstanding exposition, after the period of Bastable, of the
“classical” theory of international trade. “What gives this book
its great value--apart from gifts of exposition which recall the
seductive clarity of the best pages of Stuart Mill--is the analysis
and description of a multitude of facts drawn from his practical
experience and which, even if one does not accept his general
theory, have a special flavor and provide rich information of all
sorts.”--Charles Rist. “Clarity of exposition is perhaps the first of
the characteristics that will make the book supersede other treatises
on the subject.”--London _Times Literary Supplement_.
TAYLOR, REGINALD. _The Socialist Illusion._ 1920.
“A study of the illusions and delusions from which Socialists suffer.
Ideas such as ‘surplus value’ and the ‘something for nothing attitude’
are attacked. It is pointed out how much worse off all classes
would be under a Socialist regime than under one which is primarily
individualist.”--PI.
TCHERNAVIN, MME. TAT’YANA. _Escape from the Soviets._ London:
Hamilton. 1934. 320 pp.
“By all odds the most vivid and inspiring--and compassionate--human
document that has come out of the whole Bolshevik Revolution and the
subsequent regime.”--F. H. Britten, in _Books_.
TCHERNAVIN, VLADIMIR. _I Speak for the Silent Prisoners of the
Soviets._ Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint. 1935. 368 pp.
In _Escape from the Soviets_ Mme. Tchernavin told the story of her
escape to Finland with her husband and her young son. In this book
Vladimir Tchernavin recounts what happened before the escape, of his
work as a scientist in a northern fishing center, of his arrest and the
long months during which the GPU tried to wring a “confession” out of
him, of his sentence to five years hard labor, and of the conditions of
the prisons and concentration camps in which he was held. “It is a book
which no lover of human liberty can read without being moved to horror
and indignation.”--J. D. Adams, in _The New York Times_.
TENNIEN, MARK A. _No Secret Is Safe._ Farrar, Straus, 1952. 270 pp.
“No book has yet appeared which compels more belief than does Father
Mark Tennien’s account of the ordeal of contemporary China. Speaking as
both observer and victim, Father Tennien, a Maryknoll priest, provides
us with a model of dispassionate reporting.”--Julien Steinberg, in _The
Saturday Review_.
TERBORGH, GEORGE. _The Bogey of Economic Maturity._ Chicago: Machinery
& Allied Products Institute. 1945. 263 pp.
The doctrine of economic maturity was born in the depression years
of the thirties. It held that the passing of the frontier, the
tapering off of population growth, the improbability of any further
revolutionary inventions, left a dearth of opportunity for private
investment, and that therefore the government must either expand
“public investment” through deficit financing, or tax out of existence
the excess savings poisoning the economy. Reviewing this book in _The
New York Times_ of Aug. 27, 1945, I wrote: “One by one, with closely
reasoned arguments, with historic illustrations, and with a wealth of
statistical documentation, the author kicks all the props from under
the mature economy doctrine.... A first-rate contribution.”
THOMAS, IVOR. _The Socialist Tragedy._ Macmillan. 1951. 254 pp.
“Mr. Ivor Thomas is a former member of the Labor government in Britain
turned Conservative.... He attacks the ‘myth’ that socialism is a
barrier against communism. He recalls the actions of the Socialist
parties in Eastern Europe and France and Italy as examples of how the
socialists were not only powerless against the Communists but allied
with the Communists. Mr. Thomas believes the only difference between
socialism and communism is in degree; adoption of either results in
loss of civil liberties and in reduced standards of living.”--_Current
History._
THOREAU, HENRY D. _Civil Disobedience._ 1849. Many editions. 29 pp.
Thoreau (1817-1862) was an extreme nonconformist and individualist--so
extreme that the doctrine of this essay (inspired by a night spent
in jail for Thoreau’s refusal to pay his poll-tax) comes close to
anarchism. “I heartily accept the motto,” he begins, “‘That government
is best which governs least’; and I should like to see it acted up to
more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to
this, which also I believe--‘That government is best which governs not
at all.’”
He claims the right of personal secession. “The authority of
government,” he declares, “can have no pure right over my person and
property but what I concede to it.” If everyone claimed the right of
withdrawal and noncooperation, and disobedience of whatever laws did
not entirely accord with his own ideas of justice or wisdom, government
would become impossible. (On the other hand, I do not mean to imply by
this objection that the individual is _never_ under _any_ circumstances
justified in refusing obedience to a government or a particular law:
such refusal may sometimes be the only method of reducing injustice or
preventing despotism.)
Thoreau’s case is powerfully argued in a taut and elevated prose.
Although some of the conclusions at which he arrives are too sweeping,
he gives us many pearls of truth along the way.
TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE. _Democracy in America._ 1835. Many editions.
(Knopf. 1945.) 2 vols. 452 pp. 518 pp.
This is by far the best book ever written about America, and the
most penetrating book ever written about democracy. It won instant
acclaim, not only in the writer’s native France, where Royer-Collard
declared: “Nothing equal to it has appeared since Montesquieu,” but in
England, where John Stuart Mill hailed it as “among the most remarkable
productions of our time.” Its central theme is that democracy has
become inevitable; that it is, with certain qualifications, desirable;
but that it has great potentialities for evil as well as good,
depending upon how well it is understood and guided. In the view of
de Tocqueville, the greatest danger that threatens democracy is its
tendency toward the centralization and concentration of power: “If
ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be
attributed to the omnipotence of the majority.”
There is revived interest in Tocqueville today because of what seems
like the uncanny clairvoyance of his prophecies. For example (this by
a Frenchman in 1835): “There are at the present time two great nations
in the world, which started from different points, but seem to tend
towards the same end. I allude to the Russians and the Americans....
The principal instrument of [America] is liberty; of [Russia]
servitude. Their starting point is different and their courses are not
the same; yet each of them seems marked by the will of Heaven to sway
the destinies of half the globe.”
But the special reason for including _Democracy in America_ in this
bibliography is that, as John Bigelow wrote in his Introduction to
the 1904 (Appleton) edition, it is “an intellectual arsenal in which
the friends of freedom will long come to seek weapons.” F. A. Hayek
has written of de Tocqueville and Lord Acton: “These two men seem to
me to have more successfully developed what was best in the political
philosophy of the Scottish philosophers, Burke, and the English Whigs
than any other writers I know.”
TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE. _The Old Régime and the French Revolution._
London: Murray. 1856. 511 pp. (Doubleday Anchor Books. 1955. 300 pp.)
This book appeared some twenty years after _Democracy in America_.
It is marked by the same luminous logic and eloquence. “The peculiar
object of the work I now submit to the public is to explain why this
great [French] Revolution [of 1789], which was in preparation at
the same time over almost the whole continent of Europe, broke out
in France sooner than elsewhere; why it sprang spontaneously from
the society it was about to destroy; and lastly, how the old French
monarchy came to fall so completely and so abruptly....
“Many will perhaps accuse me of showing in this book a very
unseasonable love of freedom--a thing for which it is said that no one
any longer cares in France....
“[Yet] despots themselves do not deny the excellence of Freedom, but
they wish to keep it all to themselves, and maintain that all other
men are utterly unworthy of it. Thus it is not on the opinion which
may be entertained of freedom that this difference subsists, but on
the greater or the less esteem we may have for mankind; and it may be
said with strict accuracy, that the taste a man may show for absolute
government bears an exact ratio to the contempt he may profess for his
countrymen.”--From the Preface.
TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE. _Recollections._ Columbia University Press.
1949. 331 pp.
“No Nineteenth Century student of history and politics ... better
understood the direction in which European society was evolving
than the Count de Tocqueville. He knew that he was living in an age
of continuous revolution and that this process, if accompanied by
further concentration of power, could lead nowhere but into a tyranny
unrestrained by either custom or religion.... The _Recollections_ begin
with the February Revolution of 1848, and are continued until the end
of Tocqueville’s ministry.... The book, however, is less valuable for
its historical content than for the political and philosophic lessons
abstracted by Tocqueville from his experience and observation.... His
great passion was for the dignity of the human person and for the
liberty necessary to its preservation. What he dreaded about democracy
was the destruction of this dignity, not so much by violence as by the
insidious regimen of mediocrity.”--J. M. Lalley, in _Human Events_.
TOLEDANO, RALPH DE. _Spies, Dupes and Diplomats._ Duell, Sloan &
Pearce. 1952. 244 pp.
“The spies are those, American and non-American, who have served the
Soviet Union so assiduously during the past decade and more. The
dupes are a number of highly placed citizens of the United States
who, through misguided liberalism, bad judgment, or just plain
muddle-headedness, also have served to further Russian aims. The
diplomats, for the most part, are in the Departments of State, Defense,
and Justice, and, if we can believe what we read, they also showed
a surprising lack of insight and vigor where Soviet intrigue was
concerned. It is the author’s thesis that, taken together, these three
categories of individuals have aided immeasurably the Russian design
for world conquest. More particularly, he charges them with having made
possible the Communist conquest of China, the present weakened state of
Japan, and the tragic division of Korea.”--_Christian Science Monitor._
TOLEDANO, RALPH DE, AND LASKY, VICTOR. _Seeds of Treason._ Published
for _Newsweek_ by Funk & Wagnalls. 1950. 270 pp.
The story of the Hiss-Chambers case and the Hiss trials, by two
reporters--Ralph de Toledano of _Newsweek_ and Victor Lasky of the
_New York World-Telegram_--who covered the case for their respective
journals. “A fine professional job.... A delightfully readable
presentation of all the evidence required for the forming of a
fair judgment on a most puzzling case.... To many, its outstanding
excellence consists in the clear light it throws on the process by
which an heir of the American tradition is turned into a traitor to his
country.”--_Catholic World._
TREVELYAN, G. M. _Life of John Bright._ Houghton Mifflin. 1913.
A portrait of the life and times of the great exponent of free trade,
by an outstanding British historian.
TUCKER, JOSIAH. _A Brief Essay, etc._ 1750. _Four Tracts._ 1774. (_A
Selection from His Economic and Political Writings._ Ed. by R. L.
Schuyler. Columbia University Press. 191. 576 pp.)
The PI refers to Tucker as “a racy forerunner of the Manchester School,
especially on questions of colonial trade.” He is regarded by F. A.
Hayek as one of the founders of true individualism. In his _Elements
of Commerce_ (1756) he wrote: “The main point is neither to extinguish
nor to enfeeble self-love, but to give it such a direction that it may
promote the public interest by promoting its own.”
UTLEY, FREDA. _Lost Illusion._ Philadelphia: Fireside Press. 1948. 288
pp.
The author has rewritten her book, _The Dream We Lost_, and now
calls it _Lost Illusion_. It is “her account of herself as an
English communist who was converted romantically, she now believes,
to the Russian version of communism, lived for years in Russia, was
progressively disillusioned by the change from original communism to
ruthless industrialism, and got away to the United States.”--_New York
Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review._ “A book like Miss Utley’s is a
powerful educational instrument for democracy because of its honesty,
its humility, its information, and above all for the unescapable moral
issues it places before the intellectuals of the West.”--Sidney Hook,
in _The New York Times_.
UTLEY, FREDA. _Last Chance in China._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1947. 408 pp.
This book proved to be prophetic. Reviewing it on its appearance in
1947, _The New Yorker_ wrote: “A treatise on the situation in China,
based on a trip the author, for many years a strenuous convert to
anti-Communism, took through the East shortly after the war. Miss
Utley views everything with alarm; she believes that the United States
has badly mismanaged its Chinese affairs and, by hamstringing Chiang
Kai-shek, has practically invited the Chinese Communists to overrun the
East.”
UTLEY, FREDA. _The China Story._ Regnery. 1951. 274 pp.
“Immediately after the war the market was flooded with books favorable
to the Chinese Communists. Miss Utley has presented the other side
of the case more thoroughly and more ably than any other American
publicist. Her story throws a good deal of light (if sometimes
controversial light) on one of the most burning and tragic issues of
American foreign policy.”--W. H. Chamberlin, in the _Christian Century_.
VALTIN, JAN. _Out of the Night._ Alliance Book. 1941. 841 pp.
“There is no better picture of the life of a secret agent floating
about the Communist underworld of the twenties, and no more horrible
and convincing account of conditions in Nazi prisons and concentration
camps. But beyond all the things which make it more readable than any
‘thriller’ are the profound political morals of the decline into sordid
intrigue, corruption, and mechanical obedience of the international
Communist movement.”--A. P. W., in the _Manchester Guardian_.
VAN SICKLE, JOHN V., AND ROGGE, BENJAMIN A. _Introduction to
Economics._ Van Nostrand. 1954. 746 pp.
This stands out as one of the few introductory college economic
textbooks today that are frankly and positively liberal in the
traditional meaning of the term. It is notable for the simplicity and
skill of its exposition. While its own conclusions are conservative,
it explains clearly and objectively, for example, what is meant
by “Keynesian economics.” The authors place special stress on the
importance of functionally correct wages to the performance of a
private enterprise system. There is also a discussion of communism,
socialism, and planning as alternatives to capitalism.
VENNARD, EDWIN, AND WINSBOROUGH, ROBB M. _The American Economic
System._ Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson & Co. 1953. 96 pp.
The authors attempt to give a simple explanation of the American
economic system. Their book contains over a hundred illustrations in
one to four colors, and illuminating charts and tables. Their theme is
that the American people are better housed, better clothed, and better
fed than any other major group of people in the world because of their
free, or comparatively free, market economy.
VERRIJN STUART, COENRAAD A. _De Wetenschap der Economic en de
Grondslagen van Het Sociaaleconomisch Leven._ Haarlem, Holland: Erven
F. Bohn. 1947. 319 pp.
A notable book by an eminent liberal Dutch economist.
VIERECK, PETER. _The Shame and Glory of the Intellectuals._ Beacon
Press. 1953. 320 pp.
An eloquent and stimulating, although often confused, book. Its author
preaches a “new conservatism” but wants to “take conservatism away from
the conservatives.” His central argument is that it is our duty to
fight the evil of totalitarianism in all its forms, and that the shame
of the intellectuals lies in their failure to fight the terrorism of
Stalin with the same vigor that they fought that of Hitler.
VLUGT, EBED VAN DER. _Asia Aflame._ Devin-Adair. 1953. 294 pp.
An historical survey, by a native of Holland, and an influential editor
and lawyer, of the growth of Red Russia’s influence in the various
countries and regions of Asia during the last three decades. “If in
addition to the convincing text of this book, there were need of
authoritative recommendation, it might be mentioned that the author’s
views are fully in accord with those of General Albert C. Wedemeyer,
who writes the Foreword.”--Joseph McSorley, in the _Catholic World_.
VOIGT, F. A. _Unto Caesar._ Putnam. 1938. 303 pp.
An analysis of political conditions in Europe--particularly the
fundamentals of fascism and communism and Great Britain’s role
in keeping the peace. The author was a member of the staff of
the _Manchester Guardian_. “A brilliant, circumstantial and
thought-provoking book.”--_The_ [London] _Economist_.
VOLTAIRE. _Works._ Many editions.
Voltaire (1694-1778), particularly after his three-year visit to
England from 1726 to 1729, became one of the great influences of the
eighteenth century for toleration and personal liberty. But if any
one-volume anthology devoted to the libertarian side of his thought
has been selected and compiled from his voluminous works, I do not
know of it. Such a selection should include much from his _Lettres
Philosophiques sur les Anglais_ (1733). (See also LORD MORLEY’S
_Voltaire_.)
WALSH, EDMUND A. _Total Empire._ Milwaukee: Bruce Publishers. 1951.
293 pp.
“Father Walsh, regent of the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown
University, is a lifelong student of geopolitics.... As director of
the papal relief mission to Soviet Russia, Father Walsh witnessed
the Bolshevik Revolution. These first-hand observations plus his own
encyclopedic knowledge enable him to examine the grave question: Why
has Russia’s attempt thus far succeeded where Germany’s failed?”--_The
New York Times._
WARREN, CHARLES. _Making of the Constitution._ Little, Brown. 1928.
832 pp.
“For the first time in a single volume all the contemporary material
relating to the formation of the Constitution has been brought together
and the history of the Constitutional Convention is presented, day by
day. Mr. Warren has assembled the letters of the public men of the
day, the delegates and others, and has printed also the editorials and
articles from the contemporary newspapers, presenting thus not only
the thoughts of the men who were at work upon the Constitution or were
otherwise influential in the country, but the conditions and the public
opinion of that time.... _Making of the Constitution_ measures up to
every demand of authoritative history, alike in its scholarly research,
its liberal humanitarianism and its smoothly flowing style.”--_The New
York Times._
WASSON, R. GORDON. _The Hall Carbine Affair._ New York: Pandick Press.
1941. 1948. 190 pp.
The author, a vice president of J. P. Morgan & Co., seizes on an
oft-told episode in the life of the elder Morgan, founder of the
banking house, in which he is alleged to have sold to the government
during the Civil War some condemned arms at a profit that would have
been exorbitant for first-class weapons. Mr. Wasson delves into the
contemporary records and reveals with very careful documentation
exactly what took place. Then he turns to the spurious version of
this episode, identifies its inventor as Gustavus Myers, tracks down
its successive embellishments at the hands of later anti-capitalistic
“economic historians,” and shows how the myth got itself firmly
embedded into the American credo. The disclosure is important for the
light it throws on how cynical hostility to present big business leads
to the invention and acceptance of historic slanders. Allan Nevins
calls the Wasson book “a capital piece of work.”
WATTS, V. ORVAL. _Away From Freedom: The Revolt of the College
Economists._ Los Angeles: Foundation for Social Research. 1952. 105 pp.
A vigorous answer to Keynesism, from an uncompromising advocate of
free enterprise. Dr. Watts takes off from the criticisms of Keynesism
previously made by such writers as L. Albert Hahn, Ludwig von Mises,
and the late Benjamin M. Anderson. His analysis of the technical
aspects of Keynesism leaves something to be desired, but his discussion
of its moral and political weaknesses is admirable. He points out
in detail how it teaches disregard for property rights, disparages
self-reliance, foresight, thrift and enterprise, puts its faith in
bureaucracy and coercive authority, and is fundamentally hostile to
free trade, free markets and individual liberty.
WATTS, V. ORVAL. _Union Monopoly: Its Cause and Cure._ Los Angeles:
Foundation for Social Research. 1954. 88 pp.
Dr. Watts argues that present labor union monopolies are the product
of a special government license granted to unions to use violence,
coercion and compulsion, and that this state of affairs is further
aggravated by denial to employers of what ought to be their legal
right of choice. Dr. Watts also argues that, in spite of all their
specially granted privileges and immunities, unions have not raised the
over-all share of employees in the product of industry. The book is
well organized and contains an excellent analysis of the defects of the
Wagner Labor Relations Act of 1935, and of the subsequent Taft-Hartley
Act.
WATTS, V. ORVAL. _The United Nations: Planned Tyranny._ Devin-Adair.
1955. 160 pp.
The author argues that the United Nations as presently constituted is
“not liberal but reactionary,” and that it is “a blueprint for tyranny
and perpetual war instead of an instrument of peace.”
WEAVER, HENRY GRADY. _Mainspring._ 1947. Irvington, N. Y.: The
Foundation for Economic Education. 1953. 279 pp.
Contends that only free men can make effective use of their
imaginations and creative abilities and that the purpose of government
is to protect personal liberty. An excellent introduction to the
history of human freedom and the resulting moral, social, and material
benefits. “Down through the ages,” writes Mr. Weaver, “countless
millions, struggling unsuccessfully to keep bare life in wretched
bodies, have died young in misery and squalor.... Then suddenly, on one
spot on this planet, people eat so abundantly that the pangs of hunger
are forgotten.” The reason for this miracle, the author contends, is
not any extraordinary inherent ability in the American people, but
their system of economic freedom.
WEBER, MAX. _General Economic History._ Greenberg. 1927. 401 pp.
A history of the evolution of the capitalistic spirit from a
sociological point of view. The book was prepared by German editors
from notes left by Max Weber and the notebooks of his students.
WEISSBERG, ALEXANDER. _The Accused._ Simon & Schuster. 1951. 518 pp.
“This is not just one more book in the rapidly growing literature on
the _Chystka_, the Great Purge, of 1936-1938. It is a landmark, a
monument, and an inexhaustible source of penetrating insights into
the souls of the men who confess and of those who make them confess;
of a few political heroes and a number of political provocateurs;
of real and fictitious spies; and of thousands of simple human
beings, disoriented, frightened, and often going from prison cell
to execution.... From this source a future Dostoevsky will draw the
elements and inspiration for a new _House of the Dead_.”--D. J. Dallin,
in _The New York Times_.
WEST, REBECCA. _The Meaning of Treason._ Viking. 1947. 307 pp.
A profound study of the motives that have led scientists and
other “intellectuals” of the Western world to betray their own
countries in the service of the communist conspiracy. “Wonderfully
illuminating reports on William Joyce, John Amery, and other British
traitors.”--_The Atlantic._ “A tour de force ... told in memorable
prose.”--_Commonweal._
In the second edition published in 1952 Miss West added new chapters
containing studies of two more traitors--Dr. Alan Nunn May and Dr.
Klaus Emil Fuchs.
WHITE, ANDREW DICKSON. _Fiat Money Inflation in France._ 1896.
(Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation for Economic Education. 1952.)
(Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers.) 69 pp.
Andrew Dickson White was an eminent historian, the first president
of Cornell, and American ambassador to Russia and Germany. This is a
brilliant history of inflation in France in the revolutionary period
from 1789 to 1797. It shows by scrupulous citation of documented data
how irredeemable paper money leads to soaring prices, price fixing,
scarcity, the black market, the spy system, the invasion of privacy,
immorality and tyranny. A little masterpiece.
WHITE, W. L. _Report on the Russians._ Harcourt, Brace. 1945. 309 pp.
The story of a six-weeks’ trip to Russia during the summer of 1944.
Because it was one of the first books to break the conspiracy of
silence about the shortcomings of our then “ally,” its appearance met
a storm of denunciation and protest. “Mr. White makes little attempt
to analyze the social processes at work in Russia or to generalize
about her recent history. He simply tells what he saw, heard, and felt.
But, as a journalist, he was in a position to enjoy certain unique
advantages. He traveled about in a way that no regular correspondent
in the Soviet Union had been permitted to do in years.... His book has
thus a unique value and ought not to be confused with the ordinary
correspondent’s book about Russia. Mr. White not only saw much more
than most visitors, he is a better observer than most, and he tells
you how things look and people behave, and how everything strikes an
American, in a way that few other writers have ever done.”--Edmund
Wilson, in _The New Yorker_.
WICKSELL, KNUT. _Lectures on Political Economy._ London: Routledge.
1934. 2 vols. 299 pp. 238 pp.
Knut Wicksell (1851-1926) was a Swedish economist most celebrated for
his theory concerning the relations between money and natural rates
of interest and movements in the general level of prices. This was
of more than purely theoretical interest, because it pointed to the
errors that governments make in bringing on inflation by trying to
maintain artificially low interest rates. But his total contribution
to economics was of much wider importance than this. Lionel Robbins
writes: “There is no work in the whole range of modern economic
literature which presents a clearer view of the main significance and
interrelations of the central propositions of economic analysis than
these lectures.”
WICKSTEED, PHILIP H. _The Common Sense of Political Economy._ 1910.
(London: Routledge. 1933, etc.) 2 vols. 871 pp.
This brilliant book is as remarkable for the ease and lucidity of its
style as for the penetration and power of its reasoning. Its real
importance has only been recognized in recent years. In his Preface
in 1910, Wicksteed wrote: “The Introduction will make it clear that
the author makes no claim to originality or priority with respect
to anything that it contains.” This modest disavowal was taken too
literally, and for years Wicksteed was regarded mainly as a popularizer
of Jevons. But in his Introduction to the 1933 edition, Lionel Robbins
pointed out that the book is “the most exhaustive non-mathematical
exposition of the technical and philosophical complications
[implications?] of the so-called _marginal_ theory of pure economics,
which has appeared in any language.... The book was the culmination
of Wicksteed’s life work.... Into it he poured all the subtlety and
persuasiveness, all the literary charm, of which he was capable. It is
a masterpiece of systematic exposition.... Wicksteed’s place in the
history of economic thought is beside the place occupied by Jevons and
the Austrians.”
WILCOX, THOMAS. _The Anti-Bolshevik Bibliography._ Distributed by
Thomas Wilcox, 712 W. Second St., Los Angeles 12. 1955. 89 pp.
A bibliography of anti-Marxist literature.
WILLOUGHBY, CHARLES ANDREW. _Shanghai Conspiracy._ Dutton. 1952. 315
pp.
The report of General MacArthur’s intelligence chief on the Soviet
military intelligence operations in Shanghai, as revealed through the
confessions of Richard Sorge. Contains a chapter on “Agnes Smedley and
the War Department.”
WILLOUGHBY, WESTEL W. _The Ethical Basis of Political Authority._
Macmillan. 1930. 460 pp.
The author has been professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins
University, and his work is distinguished for scholarship and clarity.
His aim in this book is to examine political authority as viewed by
the moralist. He believes that political coercion “is justified to the
extent that it provides a more efficient and less oppressive form of
control than would exist without it.”
WILSON, THOMAS. _Modern Capitalism and Economic Progress._ Macmillan.
1950. 274 pp.
“The position occupied by British liberals is defended by Mr. Wilson,
and from it he directs a scathing fire against the Labor Government
of his country. Like American critics of socialism, he fears the
socialistic threat to human liberty, but he thinks of liberty as a
fairly tough plant which can stand considerable doses of government
guidance.... He shows that capitalism has been progressive, that it
can continue so, and that the profit motive has been a safeguard to
liberty.”--_The New York Times._
WILTSE, CHARLES M. _John C. Calhoun: Nationalist (1782-1828)._
Bobbs-Merrill. 1944. 477 pp. _John C. Calhoun: Nullifier (1829-1839)._
Bobbs-Merrill. 1951. 511 pp.
Of the first volume, R. N. Current wrote in the _American Historical
Review_: “This study of Calhoun’s earlier career, much the ablest
and most thorough yet published, must take its place at once as the
standard account.” Felix Morley calls the two books together “a great
biography.” “It was time,” he writes, “for a sympathetic biographer
to rescue Calhoun from the avalanche of tendentious smearing under
which his name has long been buried. In Mr. Wiltse’s own words: ‘He
seemed to me the most original and in many respects the keenest
political thinker this country has produced, but few people had ever
heard of him except as a defender of slavery.... Being of good Yankee
stock, and brought up accordingly, I was a little surprised myself to
discover that he didn’t wear horns.’” (See the entry under Calhoun’s _A
Disquisition on Government_.)
WINDER, GEORGE. _The Free Convertibility of Sterling._ London:
Batchworth Press. 1955. 62 pp.
A lucid, thorough, and uncompromising protest against continuation of
exchange control. It is not merely a polemic, but a sort of elementary
textbook on foreign exchange. The author emphasizes that exchange
control involves not only price-fixing in currencies, but arbitrary
confiscation of the overseas earnings of a country’s own citizens. He
also points out that the postwar overvaluation of sterling relative
to the dollar brought about the so-called “dollar shortage” and
discouraged British exports.
WITHERS, HARTLEY. _Poverty and Waste._ London: Smith, Elder. 1914. 180
pp.
“This book might have been called ‘The Case for the Poor.’ The author
throughout is pleading for those in relative poverty. It is a frank
discussion of some of the admitted faults of the Capitalistic system,
and an examination of the more honest and enlightened criticisms that
are made against the present order. He shows that ‘There is plenty
of excuse for the bitterness on the part of the workers,’ and in his
pleading on their behalf he sometimes seems to overstate their case
and to understate the point of view of the employer and the wealthy
consumer. As, however, he is mainly appealing to the wealthy and
attacking extravagance, this is not necessarily a drawback. One would
not get the impression from this book that Mr. Hartley Withers was an
Individualist, and yet it is really one of the best arguments against
Socialism that we have.”--PI.
WITHERS, HARTLEY. _The Case for Capitalism._ Dutton. 1920. 255 pp.
“As a writer of popular works on economics and finance, Mr. Hartley
Withers stands alone. In this book he makes many undoubted complexities
appear simple and almost obvious. That the Capitalist system is ‘more
truly democratic and in favor of freedom than either of the rival
systems’ has nowhere been more clearly argued. No mere pleading for
the preservation of all aspects of Capitalist society as it exists is
to be found here. There is much keen criticism of certain features of
the Capitalist regime. Although published in 1920 it suffers less than
the majority of books which appeared about that time from the false
optimism that colored most thinking and writing in those days.”--PI.
WOLFE, BERTRAM D. _Three Who Made a Revolution._ Dial Press. 1948. 661
pp.
Studies of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. “This is one of those rare books
which are obviously destined from the moment of publication to become
a source and authority for the guidance of all later writers on the
subject. It is to be hoped that _Three Who Made a Revolution_ will also
be discovered and widely studied by a general public which earnestly
wants to understand why the Soviets behave the way they do.”--Hal
Lehrman, in _The Saturday Review of Literature_.
WOLMAN, LEO. _Industry-Wide Bargaining._ Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation
for Economic Education. 1948. 63 pp.
One of the country’s outstanding authorities on labor points out the
consequences of industry-wide unions. He concludes: “The problem of
labor monopoly cannot be dealt with effectively unless, and until,
the immunity to the anti-trust laws which organized labor has enjoyed
since 1914 is withdrawn.... Its perpetuation ... will in time cause the
break-down of our entire anti-monopoly policy. This is the first step
toward a regulated or planned economy, as it has proved to be in other
countries.”
WOODHOUSE, A. S. P. (ed.). _Puritanism and Liberty._ London: Dent.
1938. 506 pp.
Contains well-selected documentation of the Puritan Revolution in
England.
WOODLOCK, THOMAS F. _Thinking It Over._ Declan X. McMullen Co. 1947.
292 pp.
A compilation of more than a hundred of the author’s articles which
originally appeared in _The Wall Street Journal_. Woodlock was a wise
and farsighted defender of the free enterprise system. The subjects
covered here include: “Society: Isms and Idols,” “Democracy: Definition
and Debate,” and “Economics: Order and Disorder.”
WRIGHT, DAVID MCCORD. _Capitalism._ McGraw-Hill. 1951. 246 pp.
One of the most vigorous and intelligent defenses of capitalism ever
made by an American economist. It views its subject from a political
and social as well as a purely economic standpoint.
WRIGHT, DAVID MCCORD. _Economics of Disturbance._ Macmillan. 1946. 115
pp.
A main thesis of this book is suggested by two sentences in it: “The
socially tolerable rate of expansion likely to be demanded in a
democratic society will probably be much faster than the ‘equilibrium’
rate which would ensure a permanent full employment adjustment” (p.
85). “Much of the insecurity and the instability we now decry is the
result of the scientific achievement and the social democracy which we
admire” (p. 98).
WRIGHT, DAVID MCCORD. _Democracy and Progress._ Macmillan. 1948. 220
pp.
“Professor Wright has written the best defense of private enterprise
we have seen.... It is an argument, brilliant in many respects, for a
flexible capitalism capable of adjustment to changing conditions.”--A.
B. Wolfe, in _The American Economic Review_.
WRIGHT, DAVID MCCORD (ed.). _The Impact of the Union._ Harcourt,
Brace. 1951. 405 pp.
This is a round-table discussion, by eight prominent economists, of the
economic and political consequences of labor unions. The participants
are John Maurice Clark, Gottfried Haberler, Frank H. Knight, Kenneth E.
Boulding, Edward H. Chamberlin, Milton Friedman, David McCord Wright,
and Paul A. Samuelson. Although it is impossible to summarize here
their diverse conclusions, the papers and comments are often highly
critical of labor union policies, and the discussion as a whole is in
striking contrast with the political dogma that the influence of labor
unions has been entirely beneficent, and that the chief aim of law
should be to encourage the growth of their numbers and powers.
WRISTON, HENRY M. _Challenge to Freedom._ Harper. 1943. 240 pp.
The thesis of this book, according to its author, “is simple and may be
stated explicitly: the principal duty of democratic government is the
maintenance and expansion of freedom.” He declares in his conclusion:
“The proposals of this book are all radical; none of them looks toward
any reactionary policy whatever. We have been living in a world where,
by a kind of double talk, the vocabulary of liberalism has been stolen
by the real reactionaries. Only in a world where values have become
topsy-turvy would it be possible for Hitler to describe tyranny as
a ‘new order,’ or for bureaucracy to masquerade in the habiliments
of liberalism, or for the planned economy to make a pretense of
‘economic democracy.’ Government by bureaucracy, control of business by
administrative regulation, manipulation of the economy for political
reasons--these are stark reaction. Not all the cascades of beautiful
words about ‘new social goals,’ ‘bold social engineering,’ ‘security
from the cradle to the grave’ can wash away that ineradicable fact.”
One of the best works in the recent literature of individualism.
ZAMIATIN, EUGENE. _We._ Dutton. 1924. 286 pp.
A sometimes obscure but haunting and powerful novel of life in
a totalitarian society. It is a remarkable anticipation in some
respects of Huxley’s _Brave New World_ (q.v.), or Orwell’s _Nineteen
Eighty-Four_ (q.v.)--and of the realities of Soviet Russia. The last
is not so surprising, as Zamiatin was a Russian writer living in
Soviet Russia. His book, however, was published only in translation,
outside of Russia. At the climax of the novel the authorities order a
brain operation on everyone to remove the Imagination as a danger to
the State. Totalitarian communist governments today perform the moral
equivalent of this operation: it has come to be known as brainwashing.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This was the introduction to _The Philosophy of Individualism:
A Bibliography_ published in 1927 by The Individualist Bookshop of
London. Because it gives so compact, informative and balanced a survey
of the intellectual history of individualism I am reprinting it in
full. Although it was originally anonymous, I have since learned (see
my own introduction) that the author was W. H. Hutt. The footnotes are
also his, except one or two which are signed with my own initials.
[2] _Latet dolus in generalibus_--“Fallacy lurks in general terms”--is
an old and true maxim of the Schoolmen.
[3] “The Hellenic State, like the ancient State in general, because
it was considered all powerful, actually possessed too much
power,”--Blumschli, _The Theory of the State_ (Book I., c. iii).
[4] _Laissez faire_ might be translated “Leave us to act as we please.”
Its literal meaning is, of course, “Let do.”
[5] Much of Locke’s most important work was _written_ in that reign,
though not published till later.
[6] “On the whole, the most important figure in English
philosophy.”--Sorley. _Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit._ Vol. VIII., c. 14.
[7] These assertions, of course, are found in the Declaration of
Independence, but not specifically in the Constitution.--H. H.
[8] This statement was written, it must be remembered, in 1927.--H. H.
Transcriber's Notes:
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
Perceived typographical errors have been changed.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FREE MAN'S LIBRARY ***
Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.
Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
States without permission and without paying copyright
royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™
concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may
do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
license, especially commercial redistribution.
START: FULL LICENSE
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
Project Gutenberg License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg electronic works in your
possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
Project Gutenberg electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person
or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg electronic works if you follow the terms of this
agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg
electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the
Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
of Project Gutenberg electronic works. Nearly all the individual
works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
that you will support the Project Gutenberg mission of promoting
free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg
works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
Project Gutenberg name associated with the work. You can easily
comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg License when
you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
other Project Gutenberg work. The Foundation makes no
representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
country other than the United States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg License must appear
prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg work (any work
on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the
phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed,
performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg™ License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws
of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg electronic work is
derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg
trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
will be linked to the Project Gutenberg License for all works
posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg work in a format
other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official
version posted on the official Project Gutenberg website
(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain
Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the
full Project Gutenberg License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg electronic works
provided that:
• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
to the owner of the Project Gutenberg trademark, but he has
agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation.”
• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™
License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™
works.
• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
receipt of the work.
• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than
are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™
electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
cannot be read by your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right
of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
without further opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in
accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™
electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
or any Project Gutenberg work, (b) alteration, modification, or
additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg work, and (c) any
Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
from people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg’s
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg and future
generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org.
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws.
The Foundation’s business office is located at 41 Watchung Plaza #516,
Montclair NJ 07042, USA, +1 (862) 621-9288. Email contact links and up
to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website
and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread
public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state
visit www.gutenberg.org/donate.
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate.
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg electronic works
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
Gutenberg concept of a library of electronic works that could be
freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
distributed Project Gutenberg eBooks with only a loose network of
volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
edition.
Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
facility: www.gutenberg.org.
This website includes information about Project Gutenberg,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
