The essays in Secession, State & Liberty argue that the political impulse to secede--to attempt to separate from central government control--is a vital part of the Lockean classical-liberal tradition, one that emerges when national governments become too big and too ambitious.
Unlike revolution, secession seeks only separation from rule, preferably through non-violent means. It is based on the moral idea, articulated by Ludwig von Mises in 1919, that "no people and no part of a people shall be held against its will in a political association that it does not want."
These important essays--which cover philosophy, history, economics, and law--argue that the threat of secession should be revived as a bulwark against government encroachment on individual liberty and private property rights, as a guarantor of international free trade, and as protection against attempts to curb the freedom of association.
This volume is composed of these eleven essays:
- The Secession Tradition in America (Donald W. Livingston)
- When is Political Divorce Justified? (Steven Yates)
- The Ethics of Secession (Scott Boykin)
- Nations By Consent: Decomposing the Nation-State (Murray N. Rothbard)
- Secession: The Last, Best Bulwark of Our Liberties (Clyde N. Wilson)
- Republicanism, Federalism, and Secession in the South, 1790 to 1865 (Joseph R. Stromberg)
- Yankee Confederates: New England Secession Movements Prior to the War Between the States (Thomas DiLorenzo)
- Was the Union Army's Invasion of the Confederate States a Lawful Act? An Analysis of President Lincoln's Legal Arguments Against Secession (James Ostrowski)
- The Economic and Political Rationale for European Secessionism (Hans-Hermann Hoppe)
- A Secessionist's View of Quebec's Options (Pierre Desrochers and Eric Duhaime)
- How to Secede in Business Without Really Leaving: Evidence of the Substitution of Arbitration for Litigation (Bruce L. Benson)
Included as appendices are the text of:
- The Declaration of Independence
- The Articles of Confederation
- The Constitution of the United States
- The Constitution of the Confederate States
ISBN 0765809435
344 pp. (pb)