A version of this review appears in the Winter issue of The Mises Review , the literary review publication of the Mises Institute archived here . Also, you can subscribe here . War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. By Chris Hedges. Anchor Books, 2002. 211 pgs. What Every Person Should Know About War. By Chris Hedges. Free Press, 2003. Xvi + 175
Hayek’s Challenge: An Intellectual Biography of F.A. Hayek. By Bruce Caldwell. University of Chicago Press, 2004. Xi + 489 pgs. Review appearing in the Spring 2004 issue of The Mises Review ( subscribe for $10). Bruce Caldwell has adopted a sensible strategy to cope with the formidable task he has set himself. Friedrich Hayek was not only one of
In the days following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, many Americans reacted with panic. Were the attacks the beginning of a war that would imperil the lives of millions in our country? It soon transpired that no such outcome was in the offing. The terrorists proved unable to follow up their assault; and
Review of In Defense of Globalization by Jagdish Bhagwati (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Free Trade Today by Jagdish Bhagwati (Princeton University Press, 2002). Neoclassical economists often make matters more complicated than necessary; but, fortunately, the best of them manage to stumble close to the truth. Jagdish Bhagwati is by no means
The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History . By Thomas E. Woods, Jr. Regnery Publishing, 2004. Xv + 270 pgs. Thomas Woods’s superb new book has already achieved fame as the first Austrian-inspired book to be on the New York Times bestseller list in many years. It also delivers much more than it promises. Woods offers his book as a guide
In Praise of Empires: Globalization and Order , by Deepak Lal (Palgrave, 2004) Deepak Lal writes as a convinced advocate of American Empire. But in the course of the book, he undermines his own reasons for defending imperialism and offers a devastating criticism of democratic imperialism and of Woodrow Wilson’s Utopianism. Lal’s basic argument for
For the editors of The Changing Face of Economics (Colander, Holt, and Rosser, University of Michigan Press, 2004) “cutting edge” is more than a phrase. They have an elaborate theory of how change takes place in economic theory. Brilliant young economists, who have secured teaching positions in the “best” departments, develop new ideas. These new
You can only read so many books in a lifetime. How tragic it would be if among these that the subject of liberty itself would be neglected. Thus am I currently at work on a fascinating project: the 100 most important books on liberty. It will not only be a list but eventually a book that will include summaries, discussions, and study questions.
John Lukacs, in his own estimation, is much more than an ordinary historian. In what he considers his most important book, Historical Consciousness (Transaction, 1994), he elaborates “not a philosophy of history but its opposite: a multifaceted statement and exposition of a historical philosophy. . . it wishes to demonstrate the profound, yet
Public Philosophy: Essays on Morality in Politics. By Michael J. Sandel. Harvard University Press, 2005. 292 pgs. Michael Sandel attained fame, and perhaps fortune as well, early in his academic career. Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (Cambridge University Press, 1982), his criticism of John Rawls’s Theory of Justice , established him as a
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.