World History

"He loved liberty as other men love power," was the judgment passed on Benjamin Constant by a contemporary. His lifelong concern, both as a writer and politician, was the growth of human freedom. 

The Versailles treaty was in many ways an extension of the imperialistic impulses that caused the Great War in the first place. Even worse, it paved the way for World War II.

Modern Monetary Theory is the new thing among progressives. But it's been tried by many others, including the Roman dictators who ruined the Roman economy and had Rome falling apart before the barbarian invasions.

In the Soviet Union, any significant goods had two price tags: one real and another virtual. One was the actual black-market price. The other was the "official" government price.

Jason Morgan reviews John Sagers' book on Shibusawa Eiichi, often called the "father of Japanese capitalism." Was Shibusawa truly a capitalist, or just a "crony capitalist"?

What is particularly scary is that the whole argument for the new law was not really about saving lives or reducing gun violence, but is really about Brussels ordering Switzerland to modify gun laws to comply with EU gun control standards.

These books and authors criticize the decision of the United States in 1917 to enter WWI, the bad results of the treaties that ended the war, and the propaganda designed to induce the public to accept the war against the Central Powers.

The Bolsheviks were shocked to discover the destruction of money failed to bring about the rational economic order that the Communists believed to be inevitable.

Not all the public is deluded or sunk into habitual submission. In contrast to "the brutish mass," there is always an elite who will understand the reality of the situation.

John Locke was ridiculed for suggesting that people "consent" to their government by not emigrating. Hume suggested this theory could be used to claim consent for even the most outrageous tyrants.