Biographies

Most people think the Industrial Revolution catapulted humanity into modern comfort, but this narrative leaves out the agricultural revolution that had to come first.

Roosevelt needed the war and wanted the war, and the war came.

Washington set out to transform a people's army, uniquely suited for a libertarian revolution, into another orthodox and despotically ruled statist force after the familiar European model.

In Human Action, Mises had shown that economic analysis leads directly to laissez faire conclusions. He demonstrated that government intervention entails consequences that are unwanted even from the point of view of the champions of these interventions.

Rothbard's obituary for Mises: "Words cannot express our great sense of loss: of … this courageous and lifelong fighter for human freedom; … this noble inspiration to us all."

In Nock's view, the usurpation of social power by state power went hand in glove with a rise in war, intra-social conflict, arbitrary authority, indebtedness, and many other injustices.

Hazlitt popularized sound economic thinking, was a critic of Keynes, and contributed to ethical moral philosophy. Not bad for a poor fatherless boy and college dropout.

According to Say, all productive enterprises are created by individuals in society, not by the state. It is the responsibility of productive enterprise to support the continuity of families.

American essayist Albert Jay Nock celebrates the life and work of the great English sociologist and libertarian Herbert Spencer.

In this short biographical entry on Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard recounts a great man's life and work and explains his significance to the world of ideas and the history of his time and ours.