THE FREE MAN’S LIBRARY (continued 3)

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.