Historians increasingly recognize the important role that considerations of foreign policy played in shaping the Constitution.’ Leading Federalists, many of whom had had experience abroad negotiating treaties or procuring foreign loans, were acutely sensitive to the demands of power politics and were determined to see the states united under a
The doctrine of natural liberty is ultimately grounded on two premises which are necessary to the understanding of why governments are “criminal.” By the self-ownership axiom, every individual has an absolute right to his or her own mind and body and the labor thereof; i.e., each person has the right to control that mind and body free of coercive
On October 29, 1929, the roof fell in on the booming American economy. A nation that since World War I had come to believe material progress was inevitable and unstoppable suddenly witnessed the most surreal of spectacles: panic on Wall Street. The change in economic conditions dashed the expectations of thousands of businessmen; huge investments
The isolationist tradition in America, as it was manifested from 1939 to 1941, was based on two fundamental doctrines: avoidance of war in Europe and unimpaired freedom of action. Isolationism differs from pacifism (a refusal to sanction any given war), and one could call for strong national defense, seek overseas territories, and demand economic
Historian Alice Felt Tyler once used the expression “Freedom’s Ferment” to characterize the antebellum period in American history.’ It was an apt phrase referring to the multitude of reform movements, religious enthusiasms, and social experiments which transformed American culture in fundamentally important ways. The modem abolitionist movement
This paper by Carl Watner discusses the property rights of Native Americans. Volume 7, Number 1 (1983) Watner, Carl. “Libertarians and Indians: Proprietary Justice and Aboriginal Land Rights.” Journal of Libertarian Studies 7, No. 1 (1983):
“We are passing through the most serious moment in the history of the world since the year 410 A.D.-the year of the fall of the Roman Empire and the capture of Rome by the barbarian king, Alaric.” So commented Herbert Hoover on May 25, 1940, to the bar association of Nassau County, New York. German troops had just reached the English Channel. The
In this paper, I will be dealing with various examples of individual or groups of progressive intellectuals, exulting in the triumph of their creed and their own place in it, as a result of America’s entry into World War I. Volume 9, Number 1 (1989) Rothbard, Murray N. “World War I as Fulfillment: Power and the Intellectuals.” Journal of
A process that drew attention at the turn of the century, and even earlier, was the movement from a bourgeois liberal society into a mass-democratic society. Not all of those who observed this process made the same judgments about it. Volume 12, Number 2 (1996) Gottfried, Paul. “Liberalism versus Democracy.” Journal of Libertarian Studies 12,
Volume 12, Number 1 (1996) Prohibition, I venture to say, was the last thing in the world the American people expected to have come upon them. “It can never happen” might be our national slogan. Let us wake up, and face conditions as they are.” Like the Prohibition generation of the 1920s, Americans today seem unaware of their long history of
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.