These 17 hours of lectures are a comprehensive course on the changing role of government in the economic life of the American people during the past 250 years, taught by a modern master in the field. Professor Robert Higgs (senior fellow at the Independent Institute), lecturing at the Mises Institute, covers economic, political, and ideological changes from the Colonial Period to our own, that have redefined our conception of what it means to be free.
Higgs is the leading historian of rise of power and its connection to real and manufactured crisis. His book Crisis and Leviathan broke new ground in American historiography, while his more than 100 other scholarly works take a close look at many episodes in American history and their impact on economic liberty. Editor of the Independent Review and an adjunct scholar of the Mises Institute, Professor Higgs is also an engaging teacher who combines vast knowledge with clear explanation—-the very model of the professor of history you always wanted.
In these lectures, Higgs discusses:
* the growth of the size, scope, and power of government
* the centralization of government
* the political economy of government's growth
Here you learn the economics and politics of who did what, when, why, and how to bring about the vast growth of government involvement in economic and social life. The course thoroughly explores the changing ideological underpinnings of the political economy, especially the decline of classical liberalism and the rise of various strains of collectivist ideology.
The lectures present a far more irreverent interpretation of political and government actors and of government actions than one finds in the standard textbooks. The treatment of the state is far more realistic, and less idolatrous of the civic religion, than you will get in a conventional classroom. Nearly all U.S. presidents, for example, are revealed to have been fools or charlatans, or worse.
The course is intended to strip away what amounts to the apologies for government's crimes that infect the bulk of the history written and taught. These lectures offer a completely different view of history, one for free men and women, not for subjects of the all-powerful state.
The lectures are delivered in a systematic but informal style, peppered with laughter and asides. No specialized background is necessary to understand them, yet students at various levels of historical and economic knowledge will find something of interest in them. The lectures combine the presentation of useful analytical frameworks and the presentation of quantitative, anecdotal, and other factual evidence. The audience includes everyone from advanced high-school students to professors--there's something here for everybody.
Ten audio cassette tapes in a fitted, bookshelf case with two comprehensive bibliographies by Robert Higgs and Joseph Stromberg. Total running time: 15 hours.