Lew Rockwell's new manifesto is a clarion call—creative and thought-provoking on every page—for a principled liberty in our time. There are very few books in which you can open up any page and immediately find a quotable and inspiring passage that will make you think hard, laugh out loud, or see things a completely new way. This is certainly one of them.
He covers every topic related to economics and politics, from the business cycle, to trade, to the drug war, to environmentalism. His central thesis is that the threat to liberty comes from both the left and the right, and that neither really offers a consistent way out. The real problem is much deeper than either the right or the left recognizes. It is the institution of the state itself, which everyone seems to want to use to his own philosophical advantage.
The problem, he writes, is that not that we have chosen the wrong flavor of public policy but that we have public policy at all. All forms of policy—decisions made by state institutions that affect the uses of private property according to political priorities—amount to invasions of liberty. Relentlessly moving from left-wing to right-wing and back to left-wing policy is not progress; it means continued movement down the road to serfdom.
Beautifully edited and pristinely argued, this is a work in applied Austro-libertarian theory, tracking issues and headlines as they occur and bringing the light of logic and evidence to bear on the question at hand. The articles collected can be read in a matter of five minutes each, and they are organized along topical lines.
He is especially good in dealing with issues of national crisis, such as weather disasters, terrorist attacks, and economic downturns. He shows that liberty is more important in these times than any other. And while others back away during these times, he has consistently been out front, calling for peace when the masses are screaming for war, calling for freedom when the politicians demand a crackdown, and urging a free market when everyone else seems to be clamoring for state solutions.
If you have read Lew Rockwell's articles and speeches over the years, and wished for a single collection, it has finally arrived in a beautifully bound hardback that is a real treasure to own and study. It makes a lasting impact.
Rockwell is the founder and president of the Mises Institute, and the editor of his own site LewRockwell.com. He has played an important role in the shaping of libertarian theory for a quarter of a century. This book shows how and why. Subtle, radical, and compelling, Rockwell's book is a great addition to the legendary literature of political dissidents.
Part I: The State
Times Change, Principles Don't
Freedom Is Not "Public Policy"
Legalize Drunk Driving
Society Needs No Managers
Declaration Confusion
Anatomy of an Iraqi State
Why the State Is Different
Which Way the Young?
Absorbed by the State
Working Around Leviathan
Why Politics Fail
President Who?
Know Your Government
Private life?
Despotism and the Census
Take Not Insults From Campaigns
Liberty Yet Lives
Part II: The Left
Section 1: Socialism
The New Communism
The New Fabians
The Violence of Central Planning
National Treasures
Section 2: Regulation
Regulatory-Industrial Complex
The Incredible Stuff Machine
Wal-Mart Warms to the State
The Trouble With Licensure
Illusions of Power
Section 3: The Environment
Government Garbage
Gross Domestic Bunk
My Vice: Hating the Environment
Section 4: Free Trade & Globalization
Bastiat Was Right
Does World Trade Need World Government?
Should the Magi Have Bought Bethlehem?
Why They Hate Us
Section 5: Culture
Capitalism and Culture
Who's the American Taliban?
Mises On The Family
Why Professors Hate the Market
Section 6: Civil Rights
How Government Protects Potential Workplace Killers
The Trial of Lott
The Economics of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Part III: The Right
Section 1: Fascism & The Police State
The Reality of Red-State Fascism
Which Way for Liberty?
Slouching Towards Statism
Economic Ignorance
Drug War Death Toll
Section 2: War
False Glory
My Speech at the Anti-War Rally
Anything for a Buck
Was Lenin Right?
War and the Economy
Iraq and the Democratic Empire
Even Conservatives Need the Anti-War Movement
Section 3: 9-11
What Not To Do
Forgotten Victims of 9-11
Counterterrorism (by Government) is Impossible
An Inevitable Bog
The Meaning of Security
A Tribute to Trade
Part IV: The Market
Section 1: Capitalism (and Mercantilism)
The Millennium's Great Idea
The Legitimacy of Capitalism
Art, Faith, and the Marketplace
Capitalism and the Burger Wars
In Praise of Failure
The Blessings of Deflation
Are Markets Boring?
Do Food Makers Want to Kill You?
In Praise of Shoddy Products
The Super-Rich Tax Themselves
The Steel Ripoff
The Bridge of Asses
Can the Market Deliver Letters?
Bethlehem's Economic Lessons
The Faith of Entrepreneurs
Section 2: Economics & Economists
What Economics Is Not
Economics: The Weather-Vane Profession
Keynes Rules From the Grave
Myths of the Mixed Economy
A Marxoid "Oops"
Still the State's Greatest Living Enemy
Section 3: Banking & The Business Cycle
The Case for the Barbarous Relic
Those Bad Old Buttoned-Up Days
The Political Business Cycle
Y2K and the Banks
Bank Privacy Hypocrisy
Unplug the Money Machine
The Dot-Com Future
Blaming Business
Define It Away
What Made the Next Depression Worse
Section 4: Natural Disasters
War on Gougers?
Weapon of Mass Creation
The State and the Flood
Part V: What To Do
The Mal-Intents
What We Mean by Decentralization
Secede?
What Should Freedom Lovers Do?
Strategies for the Battle Ahead
The United Front Against Liberty
The Definition and Defense of Freedom
评价“The Left, The Right and The State”