Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History. A Seminar with Robert Higgs

Crisis and Liberty Seminar
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Robert Higgs, editor of The Independent Review, is the author of the book Crisis and Leviathan, a survey of the episodic growth of the federal government in periods of war and economic crisis. His “ratchet” theory of the expansion of power provides a model for understanding the current policy environment in which the government is using war and the threat of terrorism to justify its assaults on the personal and economic liberties of Americans.

During his stay at the Mises Institute, Professor Higgs will present a series of ten formal lectures on topics of American history that examine the role of crisis, emergency management, and the military in the emergence of the Leviathan state and diminution of liberty.

Readings

Crisis and Leviathan (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987)

Robert Higgs, “Eighteen Problematic Propositions in the Analysis of the Growth of Government,” Review of Austrian Economics 5 (1991): 3-40.

Robert Higgs, “The Cold War Economy: Opportunity Costs, Ideology, and the Politics of Crisis,” Explorations in Economic History 31 (July 1994): 283-312.

Robert Higgs, “The Myth of ‘Failed’ Policies,” The Free Market 13 (June 1995): 1, 7-8.

Schedule

Monday June 23

  • 9:30am shuttle from Commons Dorm/AU Hotel to Mises
  • 10:00-11:30 Higgs 1
  • noon - 1:00 Stromberg: “The War Power: Death of Liberty”
  • 1:00-2:00 lunch
  • 2:00 - 3:30 Higgs 2
  • 7:00: Movie

Tuesday June 24

  • 10:00-11:30 Higgs 3
  • noon - 1:00 lunch
  • 2:00 - 3:30 Higgs 4
  • 4:00 - 5:15 Denson: “Roosevelt’s WWII Policies of Unconditional Surrender and the Morgenthau Plan”

Wednesday June 25

  • 10:00 - 11:30 Higgs 5
  • noon - 1:00 Stromberg: “Sovereignty: For and (Mostly) Against”
  • 1:00 - 2:00 lunch
  • 2:00 - 3:30 Higgs 6
  • 7:00: Movie

Thursday June 26

  • 10:00 - 11:30 Higgs 7
  • noon - 1:00 lunch
  • 2:00 - 3:30 Higgs 8
  • 4:00-5:00 Murphy: “Austrian Theories of Interest”

Friday June 27

  • 10:00 - 11:30 Higgs 9
  • noon - 1:00 lunch
  • 2:00-3:30 Higgs 10
  • 5:00 pizza party
  • 7:00: Movie

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