One of the most perceptive and felicitous writers of the Old Right was the doughty and fiercely independent Garet Garrett, who, during his long career in journalism, was an editor of the Saturday Evening Post and of the quarterly American Affairs . Unlike so many of his colleagues on the Old Right, Mr. Garrett did not succumb to the lure of
From Garet Garrett’s analysis of The New Deal, known today as The Revolution Was and Ex-America : [T]he perfect welfare state must in the end ration the national income, and, when it does that, money comes to be like coupons in a wartime ration book. At first, however, the government must borrow heavily. In order to transfer wealth from the few to
Introduction Problem 1: To Capture the Seat of Government Problem 2: To Seize Economic Power Problem 3: To Mobilize by Propaganda the Forces of Hatred Problem 4: To Reconcile and Attach to the Revolution the Two Great Classes Whose Adherence Is Indispensable, Namely, the Industrial Wage Earner and the Farmer, Called in Europe Workers and Peasants
[This article is excerpted from a chapter in The Wild Wheel , originally published in 1953.] The Great Depression had revolutionary political and social consequences, some of them irreversible, some of them still acting with unspent force. It began in 1930 and continued like a nightmare of Prometheus in chains until the nation’s energies were
[This article is excerpted from American Affairs , Volume XII, Number 2 (April 1950).] NOW from the housetops may be heard voices of fear and warning, saying to the people, “Beware! You are marching toward Socialism. The declivity is there!” The people scoff or stop their ears, and the march continues. Then the voice of despair may be heard
We have crossed the boundary that lies between Republic and Empire. If you ask when, the answer is that you cannot make a single stroke between day and night. The precise moment does not matter. There was no painted sign to say, “You now are entering Imperium.” Yet it was a very old road and the voice of history was saying: “Whether you know it or
[ American Affairs , 1949. An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Floy Lilley, is available for download .] When John T. Flynn has put the Roosevelt myth through his terrible wringer and thrown aside the empty sack, all that remains of it is — the myth. His book will not be challenged on grounds of fact. He has a special way with facts. He
[Excerpted from chapter 4 of The Driver (1922). An MP3 audio version of this article, excerpted from the audiobook by Jeff Riggenbach, is available as a free download .] You may define a mass delusion; you cannot explain it really. It is a malady of the imagination, incurable by reason, that apparently must run its course. If it does not lead
[The following is a condensation of Garet Garrett’s pamphlet The Rise of Empire , published in 1952, and included in his collection The People’s Pottage (Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1953).] We have crossed the boundary that lies between Republic and Empire. If you ask when, the answer is that you cannot make a single stroke between day and
[Este artículo se publicó originalmente con el título “The Decline of the American Republic” en The Freeman , el 25 de febrero de 1952] Hemos cruzado la frontera que separa la república del imperio. Si preguntáis cuándo, la respuesta es que no se pasa de golpe del día a la noche. No importa el momento exacto. No hay un cartel que diga: “Está
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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.
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