Culture & the Libertarian Heritage

Have We Abandoned Our Principles?

by Robert Chamberlain July 1, 1995

America was founded upon commonly held principles of right and wrong. Our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution recognize these principles and enumerate several of them. Among these principles is the acknowledgment that we, as individuals, have certain unalienable rights — namely the rights to life, liberty, and the ...

The Future of Freedom Retrospect and Prospects, Part 3

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 1995

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Jacob Hornberger and I first met in Dallas, Texas, in 1984. I had recently taken a position as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Dallas. He was practicing law. Acting on the advice of one of my colleagues in the economics department, Jacob asked me if I ...

The Future of Freedom-Retrospect and Prospects, Part 2

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In spite of the demise of totalitarian collectivism, the world is still enveloped by the ideology of socialism. When Ludwig von Mises began his treatise Socialism in 1922 with the observation: "Socialism is the watchword of the day. The socialist ...

The Future of Freedom-Retrospect and Prospects, Part 1

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 With the approaching end of 1994, The Future of Freedom Foundation is celebrating its fifth anniversary. For a half-decade, Jacob Hornberger and I, and the other authors who have contributed essays for Freedom Daily, have attempted to make the ethical and economic case for individual liberty and the ...

Social Conflict, Self-Determination, and the Boundaries of the State

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 1994

For the advocate of classical or market liberalism, the depoliticization of economic life is considered the primary avenue for the diminishment of social and cultural tensions in society. The removal of the state from all involvement in market activities, other than as protector of life and property and legal ...

Nationalism: Its Nature and Consequences

by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 1994

In the 19th century, many classical liberals believed that the ideas of "national identity" and "nationalism" were false scents that were likely to lead the world away from liberty and towards a continuation of political tyranny and international conflict. For example, William E. H. Lecky, in his study Democracy and Liberty (1896), argued that "the idea and ...

The Standard of Liberty

by Rodney D. Lewis March 1, 1994

The concept of a standard is as old as man himself. It has been expressed in man's earliest writings. Moses understood its principles; so did the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the ancient dynasties of China and Japan — in every society, there have been those who have understood its principles. Standards are so powerful that adherence to their principles ...

The Importance of Tools

by Karl Hess April 1, 1993

It is the pompous delusion of politicians that they significantly improve the way the world works. Nonsense. Through taxation, rules, regulations, and war, politicians historically have destroyed people's lives and obstructed their economic progress. The real work of the world — the way we live our daily lives — ...

The Great Multiplier

by Henry Grady Weaver April 1, 1993

Through foresight, imagination, and individual initiative, man develops tools and facilities which expand his efforts and enable him to produce things which would not otherwise be possible. This is an outstanding difference between man and animal, just as it is an outstanding difference between civilization and barbarism. Progress toward better living would never have been possible, except through the development ...

Individual Liberty and Civil Society

by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 1993

In 1819, the French classical liberal, Benjamin Constant, delivered a lecture in Paris entitled, "The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Modems." He drew his audience's attention to the fact that in the world of ancient Greece, "the aim of the ancients was the sharing of power among the citizens of the fatherland: this is ...

The Rise, Fall, and Renaissance of Classical Liberalism, Part 3: The 20th Century

by Ralph Raico December 1, 1992

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The First World War was the watershed of the twentieth century. Itself the product of antiliberal ideas and policies, such as militarism and protectionism, the Great War fostered statism in every form. In Europe and America, the trend towards state intervention accelerated, as governments conscripted, censored, inflated, ran up mountains ...

The Rise, Fall, and Renaissance of Classical Liberalism, Part 2: Triumphs and Challenges

by Ralph Raico October 1, 1992

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 As the nineteenth century began, classical liberalism — or just liberalism as the philosophy of freedom was then known — was the specter haunting Europe — and the world. In every advanced country the liberal movement was active. Drawn mainly from the middle classes, it included people from widely contrasting religious ...