U.S. History

While the Trump administration claims it is breaking with the policies of Joe Biden, it is continuing US attacks on the Houthis of Yemen supported by the previous president.

This week in Friday Philosophy, David Gordon reviews The Tariff Superstition: Why Protectionism Always Fails and Who Really Pays the Price by Marcel Kedosa, who levies devastating arguments against protective tariffs, sometimes using the same arguments used by Murray Rothbard.

Abraham Lincoln is best known for his role as a wartime president, but his economic policies were a precursor to the New Deal. From railroad subsidies to a national banking system, Lincoln paved the way to the Progressive Era and beyond.

Five years later, the rebranding of the covid pandemic is already happening and, unfortunately, showing some success. This is similar to how the New Deal was rebranded as a resounding success when it was a measurable failure.

Totalitarian bureaucracy necessitates a constant state of crisis and there is no better creator of crises than imperial machinations.

One type of secession active in 2025 is when one or more rural counties seek to secede from the current state to join a neighboring state.

Five years ago, the spread of the Covid-19 virus gave politicians the excuse to go full totalitarian. Their fear-based campaign consisted of authoritarian measures that were based on lies and half-truths.

Most modern Americans cannot conceive of states seceding from the US, but in 1860, the majority of the people believed secession was both legal and moral and saw the Constitution as permitting it. 

In this week‘s Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon reviews Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction by Jim Downs, who exposes the high death rates from disease suffered by newly-freed slaves because of neglect by Union armies.

The fallout of FDR‘s gold adventures was far worse than reneging on US gold bond redemption. FDR declared that the price of gold would henceforth be increased to $35 per ounce from $20.67 per ounce, which immediately devalued the US dollar.