Foreign Policy as Pseudo-Science

Mises Review 4, No. 3 (Fall 1998)

FROM WEALTH TO POWER
Fareed Zakaria
Princeton University Press, 1998, x + 199 pgs.

Mr. Zakaria finds a paradox at the heart of American foreign policy in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The United States at that period was rapidly becoming an economic giant. Yet its role in the international system did not exceed that of far weaker nations. Why did economic strength in this instance go together with diplomatic weakness?

The Politics of Custom

Mises Review 4, No. 3 (Fall 1998)

PHILOSOPHICAL MELANCHOLY AND DELIRIUM
Donald W. Livingston
University of Chicago Press, 1998, xix + 433 pgs.

Socialism of the Heart

Mises Review 4, No. 3 (Fall 1998)

LETTERS OF SIDNEY HOOK
Edward S. Shapiro, Ed.
M.E. Sharpe, 1995, xviii + 397 pgs.

To neoconservatives and even to some libertarians, Sidney Hook is a hero. As a young man, he achieved fame as the leading American expert on the philosophy of Karl Marx. But he soon broke with the Communists and devoted the remainder of his life to warning of the menace posed by their brand of totalitarianism.

Only If It’s Peaceful

Mises Review 4, No. 3 (Fall 1998)

“IMMIGRATION SYMPOSIUM”
Ralph Raico, Ed.
Journal of Libertarian Studies 13, no. 2 (Summer 1998)

Most libertarians have in recent years favored “open borders,” but this indispensable collection of articles throws that view into serious question. Some of the contributors, e.g., Walter Block, defend free immigration, to one extent or another; but the opponents of this position are well represented and raise vital points.

The Socialist Asylum

Mises Review 5, No. 2 (Summer 1999)

MARKET SOCIALISM: THE DEBATE AMONG SOCIALISTS
Bertell Ollman, Ed.
Routledge, 1998, vii + 200 pgs.

One question about socialists has for many years puzzled me: how can they exist? The Soviet Experiment, the Chinese Great Leap Forward, etc. are now “one with Nineveh and Tyre”; but how can they have deceived a rational person for more than a moment?

Rise Of The Thought Police

Mises Review 5, No. 2 (Summer 1999)

POLITICAL TOLERANCE: BALANCING COMMUNITY AND DIVERSITY
Robert Weissberg
Sage Publications, 1998, x + 275 pgs.

War As Secular Salvation

Mises Review 5, No. 2 (Summer 1999)

AMERICA’S IMPERIAL BURDEN: IS THE PAST PROLOGUE?
Ernest W. Lefever
Westview Press, 1999, xi + 196 pgs.

This book rests on a false antithesis. The author, with beguiling charm, declares himself a hardheaded realist and excoriates assorted Wilsonians and do-gooders. Yet the foreign policy he advocates betrays our traditional doctrine of nonintervention and is antipodal to true realism.

Myth Of The Voluntary State

Mises Review 5, No. 2 (Summer 1999)

POST-SOCIALIST POLITICAL ECONOMY: SELECTED ESSAYS
James M. Buchanan
Edward Elgar, 1997, ix + 285 pgs.

Society Without A State

Mises Review 5, No. 2 (Summer 1999)

AGAINST POLITICS: ON GOVERNMENT, ANARCHY, AND ORDER
Anthony de Jasay
London: Routledge, 1998, 256 pgs.

Anthony de Jasay is one of the few genuinely original thinkers in contemporary political philosophy. Like James Buchanan, he begins from the public-choice approach. Unlike his eminent colleague, he endorses full laissez-faire.

Love Thy Neighbor, Or Else

Mises Review 5, No. 2 (Summer 1999)

A LIFE OF ONE’S OWN: INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND THE WELFARE STATE
David Kelley
Cato Institute/National Book Network, 1998, vii + 176 pgs.