[Originally published in Inquiry (October 27, 1980), pp. 24–27.] By now it is no news to anyone that public opinion in America has shifted sharply to the right and that an authentic leader of American conservatism may well assume the presidency in 1981. And yet, despite this surge, there is still no adequate treatment of the American Right or of
[ An Objective Theory of Probability • By D.A. Gillies • Methuen, 1973 • 250 pages. This review originally appeared in the Libertarian Review , 1975.] Ludwig von Mises’s brother, Richard, was a distinguished mathematician, philosopher, and aeronautical engineer. While, in contrast to Ludwig, Richard was an ardent positivist, he made a
[Introduction to The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude by Étienne de La Boétie, written 1552–53.] Étienne de La Boétie has been best remembered as the great and close friend of the eminent essayist Michel de Montaigne, in one of history’s most notable friendships. But he would be better remembered, as some historians
“Efron’s article is a farrago of ignorance and malice that is simply and literally not to be believed .” [ Libertarian Review , May 1978] Libertarians from all over the country have been asking me what my response is to Edith Efron’s attack — on the libertarian movement in general and on me personally — in her “Viewpoint” column in the February
[ A Dangerous Place • By Daniel P. Moynihan • Little Brown, 1978 • 297 pages. This review originally appeared as “Bill & Irving & Ken & Patrick” in Inquiry , Vol. 2, No. 4 (February 5, 1979), pp. 21–23.] Once upon a time in America, there was a left and a right and a center, and within these clearly discernible segments of the ideological
Volume 11, Number 2 (1995) Introduction I. The Market vs. Government II. The Structure and Goals of Bureaucracy III. Limiting Terms of Office in the Original American States IV. The Civil Service vs. Rotation in Office V. The United States Civil Service: The Federalist Beginnings VI. The Failed Jeffersonian Revolution VII. Andrew Jackson and the
In the fall of 1965, National Review celebrated its 10th anniversary, and part of the record of its orgy of self-congratulation may be found in its November 30 issue. The magazine has, during its decade, even achieved the ultimate: for the issue contains the major part of a book in the process of publication, the bulk of which is solemnly devoted
A prospectus is going the rounds heralding a new, slick fortnightly magazine, oddly entitled Future the Future referring not, as might be thought, to science-fiction Utopias, but to the Second Coming of Jesus. Judging by its editors and associates, Future will be National Review with the gloves off, stripped of all pretenses to old-fashioned
This issue marks the beginning of the second year of the publishing of Left and Right . If the Nation can celebrate its centennial and National Review its tenth year of existence, we may be permitted a modest celebration of our own first anniversary. In a sense, our own longevity is already more remarkable than theirs. We began as an act of faith,
Why be libertarian, anyway? By this we mean: what’s the point of the whole thing? Why engage in a deep and lifelong commitment to the principle and the goal of individual liberty? For such a commitment, in our largely unfree world, means inevitably a radical disagreement with, and alienation from, the status quo, an alienation which equally
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.