THE FREE MAN’S LIBRARY (continued 4)

Hardly less important in its bearing on individualism is Spencer’s Social Statics, published in 1850. But the theme of individualism runs through all his writings—through The Study of Sociology, The Principles of Ethics, and the Autobiography.

Sperber, Manes. The Burned Bramble. Doubleday. 1951. 405 pp.

A novel about the Communist party in Europe in the 1930’s. “An impassioned and profound picture of Communist experience in the years before Stalinism had fully shown its face—of the faith and exaltation; the monstrous erasure of human decency and truth; the incredible loyalty and self-sacrifice whose eventual reward was a disillusioned soul, a cheated mind, and a bullet in the neck.”—C. J. Rolo, in The Atlantic.

Spitzbergen, Henry E. (Henry Plowdeeper). “Liberals” and the Constitution. Washington, D. C.: Liberty & Freedom Press. 1950. 301 pp.

A defense of free enterprise, private ownership of property, limited government, and the doctrine of constitutional “separation of powers.”

Sprading, Charles T. (ed.). Liberty and the Great Libertarians. Los Angeles: The author. 1913. 540 pp.

An anthology on liberty. Among the authors from whom passages have been selected are: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, John Stuart Mill, Emerson, Thoreau, Ingersoll, Henry George, Bernard Shaw, Olive Shreiner, and Maria Montessori.

Stamp, Sir Josiah. Wealth and Taxable Capacity. London: King. 1922. 195 pp.

“An analysis of the fundamental factors determining the relation of price, taxation and public debt to the total national income and capital.... Like Prof. Bowley’s works on national income, this is a book with which all who are seriously concerned about the problem of distribution ought to be acquainted.”—PI.

Stamp, Sir Josiah. Inheritance as an Economic Factor. Economic Journal. September 1926.

“The best analysis of the economic significance of inheritance that has yet been made. Of the conclusions, the following is of fundamental importance in modern controversy. ‘I think it probable that, through the inequalities due to the system in which inheritance has a part, the average man has a slightly smaller proportionate share of the aggregate than he would have had if there had been no inheritance system, but a substantially larger absolute amount because he shares a larger aggregate.... Whether under the circumstances he is justified in having a sense of injustice ... is a matter lying beyond economics.’”—PI.

Stannard, Harold Martin. Two Constitutions. Van Nostrand. 1949. 210 pp.

A comparative study of the written American constitution and the unwritten British one. It attempts to show a unity of purpose underlying the two.

Steinberg, Julien. Verdict of Three Decades. Duell, Sloan & Pearce. 1950. 634 pp.

“An integrated and well-edited collection of writings about Soviet Communism, drawn mostly from the works of men and women who have revolted against it and believe that Lenin and Stalin cynically betrayed a revolution that they did not start in the first place.... If there are any people around who still do not believe the accusations made against Lenin and Stalin, this book should dispel their doubts.”—New Yorker.

Stephen, Sir James Fitzjames. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. London: Smith, Elder. 1873. 350 pp.

“A considerable portion of the book is devoted to J. S. Mill’s essay On Liberty. Stephen was a utilitarian and an admirer of Mill’s earlier writings. Mill, he says, ‘is the only modern author who has handled the subject with whom I agree sufficiently to differ from him profitably.’ Stephen delights in logical controversy. Here is an example: ‘To force an unwilling person to contribute to the British Museum is as distinct a violation of Mr. Mill’s principle as religious persecution.’ Stephen emphasized the necessity for definitions and the difficulty of finding a satisfactory definition for liberty. It is an interesting and useful book by a clever and vigorous writer with a good legal brain, who leans to the individualistic side and despises sentimentalism in economics and politics.”—PI. There are chapters on “Equality,” “Fraternity,” and “The Doctrine of Liberty in Its Application to Morals.”

Stephen, Sir Leslie. History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century. 1876. London School of Economics. 1950. 3 vols. 1,233 pp.

“No single work quoted will be more useful to a beginner than this. Chapter X, ‘Political Theories,’ and Chapter XI, ‘Political Economics,’ are indispensable, but the whole is very valuable, because a knowledge of the intellectual conditions of the eighteenth century is all important for an understanding of English Individualism.”—PI.

Stephen, Sir Leslie. The English Utilitarians. Putnam. 1900. 3 vols. 326 pp. 382 pp. 525 pp.

“Written when Stephen’s health was failing, these volumes have less vigor and merit than the previous work. But almost every chapter bears on our subject, and much useful information and criticism may be extracted.”—PI.

Stephen, Sir Leslie. The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Bart. London: Smith, Elder. 1893. 504 pp.

“Stephen, who in later life became a judge, was long a busy journalist, writing much for the Saturday Review and Pall Mall Gazette. His brother and biographer says: ‘He had sat at the feet of Bentham and Austin, and had found the most congenial philosophy in Hobbes.’ He had two counts against Mill—(1) That he had forsaken the straightforward principles of utilitarianism and laissez-faire. (2) That though he had diverged into a sort of sentimental Socialism, he would not permit the State to use the force it had at its disposal, for the purpose of restraining evil. Stephen was a convinced Individualist. His creed was to allow as much scope as possible to liberty and the individual, under the protection of a strong Government for purposes of police and security.”—PI.

Stigler, George J. Five Lectures on Economic Problems. Longmans, Green. 1949. 65 pp.

These lectures, delivered before the London School of Economics by a professor of economics at Columbia University, are distinguished for pithy wisdom and shrewd analysis. They discuss “equality,” monopolistic competition, classical economics, mathematical economics, and the status of competition in the United States. This last lecture is particularly notable for the deftness with which it punctures the popular myth that competition has been declining steadily (and in many versions, drastically) for a half century or more. Professor Stigler estimates that competitive industries were producing seven-tenths of the national income in 1939, and utilizing more than four-fifths of the labor force. In his lecture on the classical economists he shows how much more they knew, and how much more humane and realistic they were, than it has been fashionable for our generation to believe.

Stowe, Leland. Conquest by Terror. Random House. 1952. 300 pp.

A study of the countries behind the Iron Curtain: Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. The author, an American newspaperman, bases his work on his own knowledge, plus material gained from journalists in exile, recent refugees, former officers, specialists of various kinds, and the underground. “Mr. Stowe has written a book to alarm the West, to make it aware of the important changes which five to seven years of Soviet control have already produced, not in the satellites alone but also in the balance between East and West in Europe. It is a grim story and one which needs to be widely reflected on.”—Philip Mosely, in the New York Herald Tribune.

Strausz-Hupé, Robert, and Possony, Stefan T. International Relations in the Age of the Conflict Between Democracy and Dictatorship. McGraw-Hill. 1950. 947 pp.

“The long title of this book suggests its massive character. The almost unlimited subject of international relations is examined in almost one thousand pages of text, buttressed with vast erudition and illuminated by many flashes of perceptive wisdom. The authors are scholars connected respectively with the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University.... However, the book is far from being a colorless collection of undisputed facts. It should be, but probably will not be, required reading for all utopians. For much learning has made the authors profoundly skeptical about the value of one-idea panaceas. And they are ruthless with attempts to make platitudes a substitute for policy.”—W. H. Chamberlin, in Human Events.

Stripling, Robert E. Red Plot Against America. Drexel Hill, Pa.: Bell Publications. 1950. 282 pp.

“The author of this book was the chief investigator for the House Committee on Un-American Activities from 1938 to 1948. Mr. Bob Considine has ‘edited’ the story of Mr. Stripling’s adventures first for a newspaper syndicate, then for publication in the present book. The final 113 pages are lifted, by permission, from ‘primers’ against communism published by the committee in 1948 and obtainable from the Government Printing Office.”—The New York Times.

Strunsky, Simeon. Two Came to Town. Dutton. 1947. 219 pp.

A fantasy, speculating on what Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, respectively (introduced under the thin disguises of “Mr. Alexander” and “Mr. Thomas”), would say and think about New York and the ideology of present-day America if they could pay us a visit from the grave. Under a surface of playful humor, the author conveys a wise and penetrating message on how recent fashionable ideas and phrases could cause us to surrender our liberties.

Stypulkowski, Zbigniew F. Invitation to Moscow. McKay. 1951. 359 pp.

The author, a Polish lawyer and political prisoner, describes his long session in the notorious Soviet Lubianka prison, and the methods used to obtain a confession of his non-guilt. “It would be unfortunate if this volume were catalogued as merely another book on Soviet political terror. It is much more than that. An important half of the book is devoted to the author’s experience in the Polish underground, fighting against the German invaders.... Finally, this book is valuable because it gives the detailed story of Soviet perfidy toward the Polish underground in the closing days of World War II.”—Harry Schwartz, in The New York Times.

Sullivan, Lawrence. Bureaucracy Runs Amuck. Bobbs-Merrill. 1944. 318 pp.

A study of the confusion and overlapping in hundreds of the United States war emergency bureaus and agencies.

Sulzbach, Walter. National Consciousness. Washington, D. C.: American Council on Public Affairs. 1943. 168 pp.

“Whoever reads it should have a more lively and discerning understanding of contemporary nationalism.”—Garland Downum, in the American Political Science Review.

Sulzbach, Walter. “Capitalistic Warmongers.” University of Chicago Press. 1942.

Punctures with facts and economic analysis the socialist superstition that “capitalism creates war.”

Sumner, William Graham. What Social Classes Owe to Each Other. 1883. (Yale University Press. 1927.) 169 pp.

Few men have ever exposed the fallacies of state paternalism with more gusto and devastating logic than the American sociologist and economist, William Graham Sumner (1840-1910). The lucidity of his style and the humor of his illustrations are comparable to those of Bastiat. This little book contains among others the famous essay on “The Forgotten Man”—a phrase later perverted by politicians to mean exactly the opposite of what Sumner meant by it: “The type and formula of most schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D.... I call C the Forgotten Man.... The state cannot get a cent for any man without taking it from some other man, and this latter must be a man who has produced and saved it. This latter is the Forgotten Man.”

Sumner also wrote valuable essays on free trade, protectionism and laissez faire. He was more celebrated in his own lifetime for his sociological work—his Folkways (1907), and his monumental four-volume study, The Science of Society, with A. G. Keller, which appeared in 1927.

Swanson, Ernst W., and Schmidt, Emerson P. Economic Stagnation or Progress. McGraw-Hill. 1946. 212 pp.

A critique of recent doctrines on the mature economy, oversavings, and deficit spending. It is also a critique of the Keynes-Hansen school of economic stabilization—which held that the American economy was stagnant because of “lack of investment opportunities,” and that therefore deficit spending by government on a more or less continuous basis was necessary to sustain prosperity. Basically, this is a book of readings from other economists, but these are linked together by commentaries and supplemented by the authors’ own summaries and conclusions. The book covers much of the same ground as George Terborgh’s The Bogey of Economic Maturity (q.v.).

Talmon, L. J. The Rise of Totalitarian Democracy. Beacon Press. 1952. 366 pp.

This study seeks to show how totalitarian ideas grew out of utopianism, and how the extreme democrats of the French Revolution turned into the most ruthless dictators. “A book of great wisdom which I recommend to anyone who not only wants to broaden his basic knowledge of the French Revolution but also wishes to understand the basic—that is the intellectual—causes of the modern world crisis. Dr. Talmon’s work meets the highest academic standards.”—S. T. Possony, in the Annals of the American Academy.

Tansill, Charles Callan. America Goes to War. Little, Brown. 1938. 731 pp.

A study of the reasons why America went to war in 1917. “The great value of Professor Tansill’s book is that it shows with incontestable detail just how independent of Congressional check is the President’s control of foreign affairs, and how this control can lead to war.”—John Chamberlain, in Books. “Mr. Tansill’s book ... is critical, searching and judicious.... It is presented in a style that is always vigorous and sometimes brilliant. It is the most valuable contribution to the history of the pre-war years in our literature, and one of the notable achievements of historical scholarship of this generation.”—H. S. Commager, in The Yale Review.

Tansill, Charles Callan. Back Door to War. Regnery. 1952. 690 pp.

The author is professor of American diplomatic history at Georgetown University. This volume on the origins of World War II is based on extensive research, including access to the confidential files of the State Department. “Prof. Tansill sketches briefly American foreign policy from Versailles to 1933, then gives many details and biting comments on the actions and attitudes of F. D. Roosevelt, Hull, Stimson, Ambassador Dodd, etc.”—Library Journal. “When he is at his best, he is unfolding a diplomatic narrative with considerable skill, and with an excellent command of his sources.”—Dexter Perkins, in The New York Times.

Taussig, F. W. Principles of Economics. Macmillan. 1911, etc. 2 vols. 545 pp. 576 pp.

“Characterized by an exquisite sanity. We do not recall any work in which these subjects are discussed with an equal degree of lucidity. Professor Taussig’s book from beginning to end is intensely readable.”—The New York Times, in 1925. “The reviewer is impressed anew with the maturity and breadth, as well as with the literary style, which are outstanding characteristics of Taussig’s Principles.”—R. T. Bye, in the Annals of the American Academy, 1940. “A fine picture of classical doctrines.... All in all, Professor Taussig’s Principles remains an important part of economic literature—as it has been for over a quarter of a century. That is a distinguished record, almost unique for textbook writers in the field.”—T. F. Haygood, in the Southern Economic Journal, 1940.

Taussig, F. W. International Trade. Macmillan. 1927. 425 pp.

The outstanding exposition, after the period of Bastable, of the “classical” theory of international trade. “What gives this book its great value—apart from gifts of exposition which recall the seductive clarity of the best pages of Stuart Mill—is the analysis and description of a multitude of facts drawn from his practical experience and which, even if one does not accept his general theory, have a special flavor and provide rich information of all sorts.”—Charles Rist. “Clarity of exposition is perhaps the first of the characteristics that will make the book supersede other treatises on the subject.”—London Times Literary Supplement.

Taylor, Reginald. The Socialist Illusion. 1920.

“A study of the illusions and delusions from which Socialists suffer. Ideas such as ‘surplus value’ and the ‘something for nothing attitude’ are attacked. It is pointed out how much worse off all classes would be under a Socialist regime than under one which is primarily individualist.”—PI.

Tchernavin, Mme. Tat’yana. Escape from the Soviets. London: Hamilton. 1934. 320 pp.

“By all odds the most vivid and inspiring—and compassionate—human document that has come out of the whole Bolshevik Revolution and the subsequent regime.”—F. H. Britten, in Books.

Tchernavin, Vladimir. I Speak for the Silent Prisoners of the Soviets. Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint. 1935. 368 pp.

In Escape from the Soviets Mme. Tchernavin told the story of her escape to Finland with her husband and her young son. In this book Vladimir Tchernavin recounts what happened before the escape, of his work as a scientist in a northern fishing center, of his arrest and the long months during which the GPU tried to wring a “confession” out of him, of his sentence to five years hard labor, and of the conditions of the prisons and concentration camps in which he was held. “It is a book which no lover of human liberty can read without being moved to horror and indignation.”—J. D. Adams, in The New York Times.

Tennien, Mark A. No Secret Is Safe. Farrar, Straus, 1952. 270 pp.

“No book has yet appeared which compels more belief than does Father Mark Tennien’s account of the ordeal of contemporary China. Speaking as both observer and victim, Father Tennien, a Maryknoll priest, provides us with a model of dispassionate reporting.”—Julien Steinberg, in The Saturday Review.

Terborgh, George. The Bogey of Economic Maturity. Chicago: Machinery & Allied Products Institute. 1945. 263 pp.

The doctrine of economic maturity was born in the depression years of the thirties. It held that the passing of the frontier, the tapering off of population growth, the improbability of any further revolutionary inventions, left a dearth of opportunity for private investment, and that therefore the government must either expand “public investment” through deficit financing, or tax out of existence the excess savings poisoning the economy. Reviewing this book in The New York Times of Aug. 27, 1945, I wrote: “One by one, with closely reasoned arguments, with historic illustrations, and with a wealth of statistical documentation, the author kicks all the props from under the mature economy doctrine.... A first-rate contribution.”

Thomas, Ivor. The Socialist Tragedy. Macmillan. 1951. 254 pp.

“Mr. Ivor Thomas is a former member of the Labor government in Britain turned Conservative.... He attacks the ‘myth’ that socialism is a barrier against communism. He recalls the actions of the Socialist parties in Eastern Europe and France and Italy as examples of how the socialists were not only powerless against the Communists but allied with the Communists. Mr. Thomas believes the only difference between socialism and communism is in degree; adoption of either results in loss of civil liberties and in reduced standards of living.”—Current History.

Thoreau, Henry D. Civil Disobedience. 1849. Many editions. 29 pp.

Thoreau (1817-1862) was an extreme nonconformist and individualist—so extreme that the doctrine of this essay (inspired by a night spent in jail for Thoreau’s refusal to pay his poll-tax) comes close to anarchism. “I heartily accept the motto,” he begins, “‘That government is best which governs least’; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe—‘That government is best which governs not at all.’”

He claims the right of personal secession. “The authority of government,” he declares, “can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it.” If everyone claimed the right of withdrawal and noncooperation, and disobedience of whatever laws did not entirely accord with his own ideas of justice or wisdom, government would become impossible. (On the other hand, I do not mean to imply by this objection that the individual is never under any circumstances justified in refusing obedience to a government or a particular law: such refusal may sometimes be the only method of reducing injustice or preventing despotism.)

Thoreau’s case is powerfully argued in a taut and elevated prose. Although some of the conclusions at which he arrives are too sweeping, he gives us many pearls of truth along the way.

Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. 1835. Many editions. (Knopf. 1945.) 2 vols. 452 pp. 518 pp.

This is by far the best book ever written about America, and the most penetrating book ever written about democracy. It won instant acclaim, not only in the writer’s native France, where Royer-Collard declared: “Nothing equal to it has appeared since Montesquieu,” but in England, where John Stuart Mill hailed it as “among the most remarkable productions of our time.” Its central theme is that democracy has become inevitable; that it is, with certain qualifications, desirable; but that it has great potentialities for evil as well as good, depending upon how well it is understood and guided. In the view of de Tocqueville, the greatest danger that threatens democracy is its tendency toward the centralization and concentration of power: “If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be attributed to the omnipotence of the majority.”

There is revived interest in Tocqueville today because of what seems like the uncanny clairvoyance of his prophecies. For example (this by a Frenchman in 1835): “There are at the present time two great nations in the world, which started from different points, but seem to tend towards the same end. I allude to the Russians and the Americans.... The principal instrument of [America] is liberty; of [Russia] servitude. Their starting point is different and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems marked by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe.”

But the special reason for including Democracy in America in this bibliography is that, as John Bigelow wrote in his Introduction to the 1904 (Appleton) edition, it is “an intellectual arsenal in which the friends of freedom will long come to seek weapons.” F. A. Hayek has written of de Tocqueville and Lord Acton: “These two men seem to me to have more successfully developed what was best in the political philosophy of the Scottish philosophers, Burke, and the English Whigs than any other writers I know.”

Tocqueville, Alexis de. The Old Régime and the French Revolution. London: Murray. 1856. 511 pp. (Doubleday Anchor Books. 1955. 300 pp.)

This book appeared some twenty years after Democracy in America. It is marked by the same luminous logic and eloquence. “The peculiar object of the work I now submit to the public is to explain why this great [French] Revolution [of 1789], which was in preparation at the same time over almost the whole continent of Europe, broke out in France sooner than elsewhere; why it sprang spontaneously from the society it was about to destroy; and lastly, how the old French monarchy came to fall so completely and so abruptly....

“Many will perhaps accuse me of showing in this book a very unseasonable love of freedom—a thing for which it is said that no one any longer cares in France....

“[Yet] despots themselves do not deny the excellence of Freedom, but they wish to keep it all to themselves, and maintain that all other men are utterly unworthy of it. Thus it is not on the opinion which may be entertained of freedom that this difference subsists, but on the greater or the less esteem we may have for mankind; and it may be said with strict accuracy, that the taste a man may show for absolute government bears an exact ratio to the contempt he may profess for his countrymen.”—From the Preface.

Tocqueville, Alexis de. Recollections. Columbia University Press. 1949. 331 pp.

“No Nineteenth Century student of history and politics ... better understood the direction in which European society was evolving than the Count de Tocqueville. He knew that he was living in an age of continuous revolution and that this process, if accompanied by further concentration of power, could lead nowhere but into a tyranny unrestrained by either custom or religion.... The Recollections begin with the February Revolution of 1848, and are continued until the end of Tocqueville’s ministry.... The book, however, is less valuable for its historical content than for the political and philosophic lessons abstracted by Tocqueville from his experience and observation.... His great passion was for the dignity of the human person and for the liberty necessary to its preservation. What he dreaded about democracy was the destruction of this dignity, not so much by violence as by the insidious regimen of mediocrity.”—J. M. Lalley, in Human Events.

Toledano, Ralph de. Spies, Dupes and Diplomats. Duell, Sloan & Pearce. 1952. 244 pp.

“The spies are those, American and non-American, who have served the Soviet Union so assiduously during the past decade and more. The dupes are a number of highly placed citizens of the United States who, through misguided liberalism, bad judgment, or just plain muddle-headedness, also have served to further Russian aims. The diplomats, for the most part, are in the Departments of State, Defense, and Justice, and, if we can believe what we read, they also showed a surprising lack of insight and vigor where Soviet intrigue was concerned. It is the author’s thesis that, taken together, these three categories of individuals have aided immeasurably the Russian design for world conquest. More particularly, he charges them with having made possible the Communist conquest of China, the present weakened state of Japan, and the tragic division of Korea.”—Christian Science Monitor.

Toledano, Ralph de, and Lasky, Victor. Seeds of Treason. Published for Newsweek by Funk & Wagnalls. 1950. 270 pp.

The story of the Hiss-Chambers case and the Hiss trials, by two reporters—Ralph de Toledano of Newsweek and Victor Lasky of the New York World-Telegram—who covered the case for their respective journals. “A fine professional job.... A delightfully readable presentation of all the evidence required for the forming of a fair judgment on a most puzzling case.... To many, its outstanding excellence consists in the clear light it throws on the process by which an heir of the American tradition is turned into a traitor to his country.”—Catholic World.

Trevelyan, G. M. Life of John Bright. Houghton Mifflin. 1913.

A portrait of the life and times of the great exponent of free trade, by an outstanding British historian.

Tucker, Josiah. A Brief Essay, etc. 1750. Four Tracts. 1774. (A Selection from His Economic and Political Writings. Ed. by R. L. Schuyler. Columbia University Press. 191. 576 pp.)

The PI refers to Tucker as “a racy forerunner of the Manchester School, especially on questions of colonial trade.” He is regarded by F. A. Hayek as one of the founders of true individualism. In his Elements of Commerce (1756) he wrote: “The main point is neither to extinguish nor to enfeeble self-love, but to give it such a direction that it may promote the public interest by promoting its own.”

Utley, Freda. Lost Illusion. Philadelphia: Fireside Press. 1948. 288 pp.

The author has rewritten her book, The Dream We Lost, and now calls it Lost Illusion. It is “her account of herself as an English communist who was converted romantically, she now believes, to the Russian version of communism, lived for years in Russia, was progressively disillusioned by the change from original communism to ruthless industrialism, and got away to the United States.”—New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review. “A book like Miss Utley’s is a powerful educational instrument for democracy because of its honesty, its humility, its information, and above all for the unescapable moral issues it places before the intellectuals of the West.”—Sidney Hook, in The New York Times.

Utley, Freda. Last Chance in China. Bobbs-Merrill. 1947. 408 pp.

This book proved to be prophetic. Reviewing it on its appearance in 1947, The New Yorker wrote: “A treatise on the situation in China, based on a trip the author, for many years a strenuous convert to anti-Communism, took through the East shortly after the war. Miss Utley views everything with alarm; she believes that the United States has badly mismanaged its Chinese affairs and, by hamstringing Chiang Kai-shek, has practically invited the Chinese Communists to overrun the East.”

Utley, Freda. The China Story. Regnery. 1951. 274 pp.

“Immediately after the war the market was flooded with books favorable to the Chinese Communists. Miss Utley has presented the other side of the case more thoroughly and more ably than any other American publicist. Her story throws a good deal of light (if sometimes controversial light) on one of the most burning and tragic issues of American foreign policy.”—W. H. Chamberlin, in the Christian Century.

Valtin, Jan. Out of the Night. Alliance Book. 1941. 841 pp.

“There is no better picture of the life of a secret agent floating about the Communist underworld of the twenties, and no more horrible and convincing account of conditions in Nazi prisons and concentration camps. But beyond all the things which make it more readable than any ‘thriller’ are the profound political morals of the decline into sordid intrigue, corruption, and mechanical obedience of the international Communist movement.”—A. P. W., in the Manchester Guardian.

Van Sickle, John V., and Rogge, Benjamin A. Introduction to Economics. Van Nostrand. 1954. 746 pp.

This stands out as one of the few introductory college economic textbooks today that are frankly and positively liberal in the traditional meaning of the term. It is notable for the simplicity and skill of its exposition. While its own conclusions are conservative, it explains clearly and objectively, for example, what is meant by “Keynesian economics.” The authors place special stress on the importance of functionally correct wages to the performance of a private enterprise system. There is also a discussion of communism, socialism, and planning as alternatives to capitalism.

Vennard, Edwin, and Winsborough, Robb M. The American Economic System. Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson & Co. 1953. 96 pp.

The authors attempt to give a simple explanation of the American economic system. Their book contains over a hundred illustrations in one to four colors, and illuminating charts and tables. Their theme is that the American people are better housed, better clothed, and better fed than any other major group of people in the world because of their free, or comparatively free, market economy.

Verrijn Stuart, Coenraad A. De Wetenschap der Economic en de Grondslagen van Het Sociaaleconomisch Leven. Haarlem, Holland: Erven F. Bohn. 1947. 319 pp.

A notable book by an eminent liberal Dutch economist.

Viereck, Peter. The Shame and Glory of the Intellectuals. Beacon Press. 1953. 320 pp.

An eloquent and stimulating, although often confused, book. Its author preaches a “new conservatism” but wants to “take conservatism away from the conservatives.” His central argument is that it is our duty to fight the evil of totalitarianism in all its forms, and that the shame of the intellectuals lies in their failure to fight the terrorism of Stalin with the same vigor that they fought that of Hitler.

Vlugt, Ebed van der. Asia Aflame. Devin-Adair. 1953. 294 pp.

An historical survey, by a native of Holland, and an influential editor and lawyer, of the growth of Red Russia’s influence in the various countries and regions of Asia during the last three decades. “If in addition to the convincing text of this book, there were need of authoritative recommendation, it might be mentioned that the author’s views are fully in accord with those of General Albert C. Wedemeyer, who writes the Foreword.”—Joseph McSorley, in the Catholic World.

Voigt, F. A. Unto Caesar. Putnam. 1938. 303 pp.

An analysis of political conditions in Europe—particularly the fundamentals of fascism and communism and Great Britain’s role in keeping the peace. The author was a member of the staff of the Manchester Guardian. “A brilliant, circumstantial and thought-provoking book.”—The [London] Economist.

Voltaire. Works. Many editions.

Voltaire (1694-1778), particularly after his three-year visit to England from 1726 to 1729, became one of the great influences of the eighteenth century for toleration and personal liberty. But if any one-volume anthology devoted to the libertarian side of his thought has been selected and compiled from his voluminous works, I do not know of it. Such a selection should include much from his Lettres Philosophiques sur les Anglais (1733). (See also Lord Morley’s Voltaire.)

Walsh, Edmund A. Total Empire. Milwaukee: Bruce Publishers. 1951. 293 pp.

“Father Walsh, regent of the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University, is a lifelong student of geopolitics.... As director of the papal relief mission to Soviet Russia, Father Walsh witnessed the Bolshevik Revolution. These first-hand observations plus his own encyclopedic knowledge enable him to examine the grave question: Why has Russia’s attempt thus far succeeded where Germany’s failed?”—The New York Times.

Warren, Charles. Making of the Constitution. Little, Brown. 1928. 832 pp.

“For the first time in a single volume all the contemporary material relating to the formation of the Constitution has been brought together and the history of the Constitutional Convention is presented, day by day. Mr. Warren has assembled the letters of the public men of the day, the delegates and others, and has printed also the editorials and articles from the contemporary newspapers, presenting thus not only the thoughts of the men who were at work upon the Constitution or were otherwise influential in the country, but the conditions and the public opinion of that time.... Making of the Constitution measures up to every demand of authoritative history, alike in its scholarly research, its liberal humanitarianism and its smoothly flowing style.”—The New York Times.

Wasson, R. Gordon. The Hall Carbine Affair. New York: Pandick Press. 1941. 1948. 190 pp.

The author, a vice president of J. P. Morgan & Co., seizes on an oft-told episode in the life of the elder Morgan, founder of the banking house, in which he is alleged to have sold to the government during the Civil War some condemned arms at a profit that would have been exorbitant for first-class weapons. Mr. Wasson delves into the contemporary records and reveals with very careful documentation exactly what took place. Then he turns to the spurious version of this episode, identifies its inventor as Gustavus Myers, tracks down its successive embellishments at the hands of later anti-capitalistic “economic historians,” and shows how the myth got itself firmly embedded into the American credo. The disclosure is important for the light it throws on how cynical hostility to present big business leads to the invention and acceptance of historic slanders. Allan Nevins calls the Wasson book “a capital piece of work.”

Watts, V. Orval. Away From Freedom: The Revolt of the College Economists. Los Angeles: Foundation for Social Research. 1952. 105 pp.

A vigorous answer to Keynesism, from an uncompromising advocate of free enterprise. Dr. Watts takes off from the criticisms of Keynesism previously made by such writers as L. Albert Hahn, Ludwig von Mises, and the late Benjamin M. Anderson. His analysis of the technical aspects of Keynesism leaves something to be desired, but his discussion of its moral and political weaknesses is admirable. He points out in detail how it teaches disregard for property rights, disparages self-reliance, foresight, thrift and enterprise, puts its faith in bureaucracy and coercive authority, and is fundamentally hostile to free trade, free markets and individual liberty.

Watts, V. Orval. Union Monopoly: Its Cause and Cure. Los Angeles: Foundation for Social Research. 1954. 88 pp.

Dr. Watts argues that present labor union monopolies are the product of a special government license granted to unions to use violence, coercion and compulsion, and that this state of affairs is further aggravated by denial to employers of what ought to be their legal right of choice. Dr. Watts also argues that, in spite of all their specially granted privileges and immunities, unions have not raised the over-all share of employees in the product of industry. The book is well organized and contains an excellent analysis of the defects of the Wagner Labor Relations Act of 1935, and of the subsequent Taft-Hartley Act.

Watts, V. Orval. The United Nations: Planned Tyranny. Devin-Adair. 1955. 160 pp.

The author argues that the United Nations as presently constituted is “not liberal but reactionary,” and that it is “a blueprint for tyranny and perpetual war instead of an instrument of peace.”

Weaver, Henry Grady. Mainspring. 1947. Irvington, N. Y.: The Foundation for Economic Education. 1953. 279 pp.

Contends that only free men can make effective use of their imaginations and creative abilities and that the purpose of government is to protect personal liberty. An excellent introduction to the history of human freedom and the resulting moral, social, and material benefits. “Down through the ages,” writes Mr. Weaver, “countless millions, struggling unsuccessfully to keep bare life in wretched bodies, have died young in misery and squalor.... Then suddenly, on one spot on this planet, people eat so abundantly that the pangs of hunger are forgotten.” The reason for this miracle, the author contends, is not any extraordinary inherent ability in the American people, but their system of economic freedom.

Weber, Max. General Economic History. Greenberg. 1927. 401 pp.

A history of the evolution of the capitalistic spirit from a sociological point of view. The book was prepared by German editors from notes left by Max Weber and the notebooks of his students.

Weissberg, Alexander. The Accused. Simon & Schuster. 1951. 518 pp.

“This is not just one more book in the rapidly growing literature on the Chystka, the Great Purge, of 1936-1938. It is a landmark, a monument, and an inexhaustible source of penetrating insights into the souls of the men who confess and of those who make them confess; of a few political heroes and a number of political provocateurs; of real and fictitious spies; and of thousands of simple human beings, disoriented, frightened, and often going from prison cell to execution.... From this source a future Dostoevsky will draw the elements and inspiration for a new House of the Dead.”—D. J. Dallin, in The New York Times.

West, Rebecca. The Meaning of Treason. Viking. 1947. 307 pp.

A profound study of the motives that have led scientists and other “intellectuals” of the Western world to betray their own countries in the service of the communist conspiracy. “Wonderfully illuminating reports on William Joyce, John Amery, and other British traitors.”—The Atlantic. “A tour de force ... told in memorable prose.”—Commonweal.

In the second edition published in 1952 Miss West added new chapters containing studies of two more traitors—Dr. Alan Nunn May and Dr. Klaus Emil Fuchs.

White, Andrew Dickson. Fiat Money Inflation in France. 1896. (Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation for Economic Education. 1952.) (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers.) 69 pp.

Andrew Dickson White was an eminent historian, the first president of Cornell, and American ambassador to Russia and Germany. This is a brilliant history of inflation in France in the revolutionary period from 1789 to 1797. It shows by scrupulous citation of documented data how irredeemable paper money leads to soaring prices, price fixing, scarcity, the black market, the spy system, the invasion of privacy, immorality and tyranny. A little masterpiece.

White, W. L. Report on the Russians. Harcourt, Brace. 1945. 309 pp.

The story of a six-weeks’ trip to Russia during the summer of 1944. Because it was one of the first books to break the conspiracy of silence about the shortcomings of our then “ally,” its appearance met a storm of denunciation and protest. “Mr. White makes little attempt to analyze the social processes at work in Russia or to generalize about her recent history. He simply tells what he saw, heard, and felt. But, as a journalist, he was in a position to enjoy certain unique advantages. He traveled about in a way that no regular correspondent in the Soviet Union had been permitted to do in years.... His book has thus a unique value and ought not to be confused with the ordinary correspondent’s book about Russia. Mr. White not only saw much more than most visitors, he is a better observer than most, and he tells you how things look and people behave, and how everything strikes an American, in a way that few other writers have ever done.”—Edmund Wilson, in The New Yorker.

Wicksell, Knut. Lectures on Political Economy. London: Routledge. 1934. 2 vols. 299 pp. 238 pp.

Knut Wicksell (1851-1926) was a Swedish economist most celebrated for his theory concerning the relations between money and natural rates of interest and movements in the general level of prices. This was of more than purely theoretical interest, because it pointed to the errors that governments make in bringing on inflation by trying to maintain artificially low interest rates. But his total contribution to economics was of much wider importance than this. Lionel Robbins writes: “There is no work in the whole range of modern economic literature which presents a clearer view of the main significance and interrelations of the central propositions of economic analysis than these lectures.”

Wicksteed, Philip H. The Common Sense of Political Economy. 1910. (London: Routledge. 1933, etc.) 2 vols. 871 pp.

This brilliant book is as remarkable for the ease and lucidity of its style as for the penetration and power of its reasoning. Its real importance has only been recognized in recent years. In his Preface in 1910, Wicksteed wrote: “The Introduction will make it clear that the author makes no claim to originality or priority with respect to anything that it contains.” This modest disavowal was taken too literally, and for years Wicksteed was regarded mainly as a popularizer of Jevons. But in his Introduction to the 1933 edition, Lionel Robbins pointed out that the book is “the most exhaustive non-mathematical exposition of the technical and philosophical complications [implications?] of the so-called marginal theory of pure economics, which has appeared in any language.... The book was the culmination of Wicksteed’s life work.... Into it he poured all the subtlety and persuasiveness, all the literary charm, of which he was capable. It is a masterpiece of systematic exposition.... Wicksteed’s place in the history of economic thought is beside the place occupied by Jevons and the Austrians.”

Wilcox, Thomas. The Anti-Bolshevik Bibliography. Distributed by Thomas Wilcox, 712 W. Second St., Los Angeles 12. 1955. 89 pp.

A bibliography of anti-Marxist literature.

Willoughby, Charles Andrew. Shanghai Conspiracy. Dutton. 1952. 315 pp.

The report of General MacArthur’s intelligence chief on the Soviet military intelligence operations in Shanghai, as revealed through the confessions of Richard Sorge. Contains a chapter on “Agnes Smedley and the War Department.”

Willoughby, Westel W. The Ethical Basis of Political Authority. Macmillan. 1930. 460 pp.

The author has been professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins University, and his work is distinguished for scholarship and clarity. His aim in this book is to examine political authority as viewed by the moralist. He believes that political coercion “is justified to the extent that it provides a more efficient and less oppressive form of control than would exist without it.”

Wilson, Thomas. Modern Capitalism and Economic Progress. Macmillan. 1950. 274 pp.

“The position occupied by British liberals is defended by Mr. Wilson, and from it he directs a scathing fire against the Labor Government of his country. Like American critics of socialism, he fears the socialistic threat to human liberty, but he thinks of liberty as a fairly tough plant which can stand considerable doses of government guidance.... He shows that capitalism has been progressive, that it can continue so, and that the profit motive has been a safeguard to liberty.”—The New York Times.

Wiltse, Charles M. John C. Calhoun: Nationalist (1782-1828). Bobbs-Merrill. 1944. 477 pp. John C. Calhoun: Nullifier (1829-1839). Bobbs-Merrill. 1951. 511 pp.

Of the first volume, R. N. Current wrote in the American Historical Review: “This study of Calhoun’s earlier career, much the ablest and most thorough yet published, must take its place at once as the standard account.” Felix Morley calls the two books together “a great biography.” “It was time,” he writes, “for a sympathetic biographer to rescue Calhoun from the avalanche of tendentious smearing under which his name has long been buried. In Mr. Wiltse’s own words: ‘He seemed to me the most original and in many respects the keenest political thinker this country has produced, but few people had ever heard of him except as a defender of slavery.... Being of good Yankee stock, and brought up accordingly, I was a little surprised myself to discover that he didn’t wear horns.’” (See the entry under Calhoun’s A Disquisition on Government.)

Winder, George. The Free Convertibility of Sterling. London: Batchworth Press. 1955. 62 pp.

A lucid, thorough, and uncompromising protest against continuation of exchange control. It is not merely a polemic, but a sort of elementary textbook on foreign exchange. The author emphasizes that exchange control involves not only price-fixing in currencies, but arbitrary confiscation of the overseas earnings of a country’s own citizens. He also points out that the postwar overvaluation of sterling relative to the dollar brought about the so-called “dollar shortage” and discouraged British exports.

Withers, Hartley. Poverty and Waste. London: Smith, Elder. 1914. 180 pp.

“This book might have been called ‘The Case for the Poor.’ The author throughout is pleading for those in relative poverty. It is a frank discussion of some of the admitted faults of the Capitalistic system, and an examination of the more honest and enlightened criticisms that are made against the present order. He shows that ‘There is plenty of excuse for the bitterness on the part of the workers,’ and in his pleading on their behalf he sometimes seems to overstate their case and to understate the point of view of the employer and the wealthy consumer. As, however, he is mainly appealing to the wealthy and attacking extravagance, this is not necessarily a drawback. One would not get the impression from this book that Mr. Hartley Withers was an Individualist, and yet it is really one of the best arguments against Socialism that we have.”—PI.

Withers, Hartley. The Case for Capitalism. Dutton. 1920. 255 pp.

“As a writer of popular works on economics and finance, Mr. Hartley Withers stands alone. In this book he makes many undoubted complexities appear simple and almost obvious. That the Capitalist system is ‘more truly democratic and in favor of freedom than either of the rival systems’ has nowhere been more clearly argued. No mere pleading for the preservation of all aspects of Capitalist society as it exists is to be found here. There is much keen criticism of certain features of the Capitalist regime. Although published in 1920 it suffers less than the majority of books which appeared about that time from the false optimism that colored most thinking and writing in those days.”—PI.

Wolfe, Bertram D. Three Who Made a Revolution. Dial Press. 1948. 661 pp.

Studies of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. “This is one of those rare books which are obviously destined from the moment of publication to become a source and authority for the guidance of all later writers on the subject. It is to be hoped that Three Who Made a Revolution will also be discovered and widely studied by a general public which earnestly wants to understand why the Soviets behave the way they do.”—Hal Lehrman, in The Saturday Review of Literature.

Wolman, Leo. Industry-Wide Bargaining. Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation for Economic Education. 1948. 63 pp.

One of the country’s outstanding authorities on labor points out the consequences of industry-wide unions. He concludes: “The problem of labor monopoly cannot be dealt with effectively unless, and until, the immunity to the anti-trust laws which organized labor has enjoyed since 1914 is withdrawn.... Its perpetuation ... will in time cause the break-down of our entire anti-monopoly policy. This is the first step toward a regulated or planned economy, as it has proved to be in other countries.”

Woodhouse, A. S. P. (ed.). Puritanism and Liberty. London: Dent. 1938. 506 pp.

Contains well-selected documentation of the Puritan Revolution in England.

Woodlock, Thomas F. Thinking It Over. Declan X. McMullen Co. 1947. 292 pp.

A compilation of more than a hundred of the author’s articles which originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal. Woodlock was a wise and farsighted defender of the free enterprise system. The subjects covered here include: “Society: Isms and Idols,” “Democracy: Definition and Debate,” and “Economics: Order and Disorder.”

Wright, David McCord. Capitalism. McGraw-Hill. 1951. 246 pp.

One of the most vigorous and intelligent defenses of capitalism ever made by an American economist. It views its subject from a political and social as well as a purely economic standpoint.

Wright, David McCord. Economics of Disturbance. Macmillan. 1946. 115 pp.

A main thesis of this book is suggested by two sentences in it: “The socially tolerable rate of expansion likely to be demanded in a democratic society will probably be much faster than the ‘equilibrium’ rate which would ensure a permanent full employment adjustment” (p. 85). “Much of the insecurity and the instability we now decry is the result of the scientific achievement and the social democracy which we admire” (p. 98).

Wright, David McCord. Democracy and Progress. Macmillan. 1948. 220 pp.

“Professor Wright has written the best defense of private enterprise we have seen.... It is an argument, brilliant in many respects, for a flexible capitalism capable of adjustment to changing conditions.”—A. B. Wolfe, in The American Economic Review.

Wright, David McCord (ed.). The Impact of the Union. Harcourt, Brace. 1951. 405 pp.

This is a round-table discussion, by eight prominent economists, of the economic and political consequences of labor unions. The participants are John Maurice Clark, Gottfried Haberler, Frank H. Knight, Kenneth E. Boulding, Edward H. Chamberlin, Milton Friedman, David McCord Wright, and Paul A. Samuelson. Although it is impossible to summarize here their diverse conclusions, the papers and comments are often highly critical of labor union policies, and the discussion as a whole is in striking contrast with the political dogma that the influence of labor unions has been entirely beneficent, and that the chief aim of law should be to encourage the growth of their numbers and powers.

Wriston, Henry M. Challenge to Freedom. Harper. 1943. 240 pp.

The thesis of this book, according to its author, “is simple and may be stated explicitly: the principal duty of democratic government is the maintenance and expansion of freedom.” He declares in his conclusion: “The proposals of this book are all radical; none of them looks toward any reactionary policy whatever. We have been living in a world where, by a kind of double talk, the vocabulary of liberalism has been stolen by the real reactionaries. Only in a world where values have become topsy-turvy would it be possible for Hitler to describe tyranny as a ‘new order,’ or for bureaucracy to masquerade in the habiliments of liberalism, or for the planned economy to make a pretense of ‘economic democracy.’ Government by bureaucracy, control of business by administrative regulation, manipulation of the economy for political reasons—these are stark reaction. Not all the cascades of beautiful words about ‘new social goals,’ ‘bold social engineering,’ ‘security from the cradle to the grave’ can wash away that ineradicable fact.” One of the best works in the recent literature of individualism.

Zamiatin, Eugene. We. Dutton. 1924. 286 pp.

A sometimes obscure but haunting and powerful novel of life in a totalitarian society. It is a remarkable anticipation in some respects of Huxley’s Brave New World (q.v.), or Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (q.v.)—and of the realities of Soviet Russia. The last is not so surprising, as Zamiatin was a Russian writer living in Soviet Russia. His book, however, was published only in translation, outside of Russia. At the climax of the novel the authorities order a brain operation on everyone to remove the Imagination as a danger to the State. Totalitarian communist governments today perform the moral equivalent of this operation: it has come to be known as brainwashing.

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