Recently, the United States military captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. President Trump called him a “narco-terrorist” and initiated the action. Whatever a “narco-terrorist” is, Maduro is certainly another in a long line of “socialist” leaders that did not hesitate to murder and impoverish their own citizens, all the while lining the pockets of his family and his cronies. The standard of living plummeted and millions fled Venezuela in the years that followed his rise to power.

When it comes to any historical study, we always necessarily operate with a limited record. Thus, first-hand primary source documents are key resources. One such key document is The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano (1789)—an African man, captured as a slave in his youth, who was carried across the Atlantic in the Middle Passage. (If interested, see this 2005 documentary).

The history of human progress is not written by government decrees, but by freedom of choice and the protection of property. The success of the most prosperous societies, from the founding of the United States to Argentina’s economic recovery in 2026, for example, results from principles discovered centuries ago. These ideas are part of the Austrian School of economics, in which it is explained how order arises from the individual and why any attempt at central planning results in failure.

New developments in Austrian economics appear regularly in the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. The QJAE is one of the top international outlets for scholarly research within the Austrian School of economics, publishing high-quality papers on a range of topics within the Austrian School. The QJAE is available online without a paywall and is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) for expanded reach and impact.

With the recent news of massive layoffs at the venerable Washington Post, we are hearing from many corners that democracy itself is under siege, the earthquake being the Donald Trump presidency.