While Franklin Delano Roosevelt narrowly missed being Time Magazine’s “Man of the Century,” there is no doubt that the man who prolonged the Great Depression and helped lay the groundwork for World War II looms large in the consciousness of statist journalists and historians. Although FDR’s role in the Second World War is of utmost importance to
John F. Kennedy has many enduring legacies. Aside from his personal corruption, he embroiled the United States in the Vietnam War, something that still has repercussions more than three decades later. And he presided over the beginnings of unprecedented expansion of the powers of the national government under the guise of the “New Frontier.”
If one has had any doubts, let them be put to rest: the rule of law is now dead in the United States. A Miami, Florida, jury ordered the tobacco companies to pay damages to smokers a sum in excess many times of the companies’ net worth, this as “punishment” for producing what attorneys called a “killer product.” In truth, the very state apparatus
As the political season stumbles to a close, we need to remember that the historical relationship between economic policy, economic performance, and political rhetoric can be wildly unpredictable. For example, all these years later, it is worth reconsidering the presidency of Jimmy Carter, from 1977 to 1981. Many of the reforms that took place
Mt. Rushmore is famous because 60 years ago, someone carved the faces of four dead presidents into its lofty Harney Peak granite cliffs. The mountain itself is located in the Black Hills, a somewhat obscure mountain range in western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming that resembles the Southern Appalachians, which are located a couple of miles from
I. Introduction: Why Praise Unfamous Men? My title raises the question of why we take an interest in individuals of whom few have ever heard. One reason is that the victors write the history--both of domestic politics and foreign policy. Their Court historians seldom dwell on those who opposed intervention and war, if only because such
Professor Michael Bellesiles has made a big splash with his claim that the Second Amendment was never more than a sop to deluded republican theorists, who in the face of overwhelming “evidence” thought that an armed people was the proper basis for the defense of a free society. But, alas, for those poor romantics, there were virtually no guns in
A Review of Forrest McDonald, States Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio, 1776-1876 (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2000) It is not at all surprising to have another outstanding book from the pen of Forrest McDonald, a distinguished historian of the Early Republic presently teaching at the University of Alabama. Nor is the
Dropped the Right to Vote It has been instructive these last few weeks to watch the usual suspects, commentators, and other partisans deal with the problems raised by the entertaining breakdown of what they refer to as “democracy.” A particularly interesting rhetorical figure--trotted out by Al Gore’s lawyers and their allies in the judiciary and
THE FREE MARKET, Volume 5, Number 8, August 1987 Alan Greenspan: A Minority Report By Murray N. Rothbard The press is resounding with acclaim for the accession to Power of Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Fed; economists from right, left, and center weigh in with hosannas for Alan’s greatness, acumen, and unparalleled insights into the “numbers.”
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.