Editor’s Note: Judge Napolitano’s preface below speaks to why the Progressive Era is so key to our understanding of modern America. This is the first of many selections from the book we will be offering at mises.org in the future.
John Prince Smith was the creator of the German free trade movement and its leader from the 1840s until his death in 1874.1 He was born in London in 1809, and, after leaving Eton prematurely, on account of the death of his father, began working at the age of thirteen for a London commercial firm, later turning to journalism.
George Washington took office as president in 1789 with an asset of inestimable value. People viewed him as the hero of the American Revolution who, disdaining power, had like the Roman general Cincinnatus returned home to his farm. When he allowed himself, with great reluctance, to be nominated as chief executive, his prestige was unparalleled. Indeed, his reputation was worldwide. When he died,
The thing we now call “conservatism” in the West largely comes out of a reaction against the French Revolution and other revolutionary movements inspired by it. The Continental conservatives—e.g., Joseph de Maistre, Friedrich von Gentz, Klemens von Metternich, and Juan Donoso Cortés—embraced monarchism, often including its more authoritarian and absolutist varieties, in an effort to avoid the excesses of the French revolution.
(Excerpt from chapter 17 of Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism, pp. 770–73.)
The 2026 FIFA World Cup, this year’s quadrennial event, is being held in North America. The last time that happened was way back in 1994, so it’s no surprise that demand for tickets has been unlike anything seen at previous World Cups.
(Excerpt from chapter 17 of Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism, pp. 765–67.)
Mises’s exposition of economic science differed decisively from all modern authors in that it drew a sharp line between praxeology and psychology. This has remained a defining feature of the works of his disciples.
