The Mises Institute dedicates this volume to all of its generous
donors and wishes to thank these Patrons in particular:

RALPH RAICO (1936–2016) was professor emeritus in European history at Buffalo State College and a senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He was a specialist on the history of liberty, the liberal tradition in Europe, and the relationship between war and the rise of the state. He is the author of The Place of Religion in the Liberal Philosophy of Constant, Tocqueville, and Lord Acton, Great Wars and Great Leaders: A Libertarian Rebuttal, Classical Liberalism and the Austrian School, The World at War.

Foreword

This book, which reproduces Ralph Raico’s lectures on the history of liberalism at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, is many things. First and foremost, it is a delightful tribute to a brilliant historian—and fine human being. Raico’s lifework encompassed a surprising range of scholarly activities: editor, lecturer, essayist, historian, and university professor. His massive knowledge and impressive mind were obvious to anyone who listened to his lectures, read his books and articles, or simply listened to his jokes and stories over dinner.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

It is appropriate, unfortunately, that Ralph Raico (1936–2016) begins this series of lectures with an anecdote about Lord Acton. Acton, as Raico notes, was an exceptionally erudite historian and a proponent of radical laissez-faire liberalism—also known as libertarianism. For all his extensive work as a historian, however—and although he had intended to do so—Acton did not leave behind a panoramic text detailing the history of the fight for freedom.

Lecture 1

The European Miracle

This week, my subject is going to be history as a struggle for liberty. This conception of history, what history is, goes back to Lord Acton, a famous nineteenth-century historian who spent all his life accumulating notes and materials for what would be thought a great history of liberty—the greatest book never written, people say. Nonetheless, Acton wrote many essays on the subject and he’s a historian well worth consulting.

Lecture 2

Classical Liberalism

This lecture will concern classical liberalism itself.

Now, I think that you’ve been given—free of charge, in the usual generous tradition of the Mises Institute—or somewhere along the line gotten hold of a copy of Mises’s book called Liberalism. In the original German it’s called just Liberalism, and in the current English version, Liberalism in the Classical Tradition. At the very beginning of the book, Mises talks about liberalism and says,

Lecture 3

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill played a crucial role in the transition from the older liberalism—the laissez-faire liberalism—to the new liberalism, a type of democratic socialism.