The fact that some Americans supported slavery in the eighteenth century is not at all remarkable. Most of the world agreed with them. What is remarkable is that many of them sought to abolish slavery in the new republic.
GMU economics professor Chris Coyne explains how US militarism abroad ends up violating civil liberties on the home front. They also discuss the contributions of James Buchanan that should interest Austrian economists.
Historical revisionism is the process of unmasking government excuses for the state's many crimes.
Mises in 1944: "The German and the Russian systems of socialism have in common the fact that the government has full control of the means of production."
Historically, Europeans had few qualms about conquering and enslaving other Europeans. This presents some problems for the narrative claiming that injustices committed by Europeans are motivated primarily by racism.
In ancient Athens, “the individual was much more subservient to the supremacy of the social body...than he is in any of the free states of Europe today.”
In a slave economy, slave owners seek technological innovations that make slave labor more productive. But they also place inefficient and artificial limits on innovations that might change the established social order.
The film Black Panther offered an attractive view of an African nation untouched by slavery or colonialism. Unfortunately, the film offers a rather dubious counterfactual.
Mises in 1944: "The German and the Russian systems of socialism have in common the fact that the government has full control of the means of production."
