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[This article is excerpted from the introduction to The Rise and Fall of Society , available in hardcover , paperback , PDF , and ePub .]         Collectivism is more than an idea. In itself, an idea is nothing but a toy of speculation, a mental idol. Since, as the myth holds, the suprapersonal Society is replete with possibilities, the profitable

[From chapter 8 of The Rise and Fall of Society by Frank Chodorov .]         As everyone knows, an analogy is neither evidence nor proof. And yet, since Aristotle it has been common practice among political scientists to call upon an analogy to support a theory of the origin of Government; namely, that Government grew out of the organization of

I was born on the lower East Side of New York and brought up on the lower West Side. (I bring in these facts as introduction to some ideas that may be of general interest, not as autobiography.) Of my earliest experiences I remember practically nothing. But, one incident does come to mind. My father, an immigrant who, like many others, took to

The  Encyclopaedia Britannica  defines taxation as “that part of the revenues of a state which is obtained by the compulsory dues and charges upon its subjects.” That is about as concise and accurate as a definition can be; it leaves no room for argument as to what taxation is. In that statement of fact the word “compulsory” looms large, simply

It may be that wary beasts of the forest come around to accepting the hunter’s trap as a necessary concomitant of foraging for food. At any rate, the presumably rational human animal has become so inured to political interventions that he cannot think of the making of a living without them; in all his economic calculations his first consideration

Wherever two boys swap tops for marbles, that is the marketplace. The simple barter, in terms of human happiness, is no different from a trade transaction involving banking operations, insurance, ships, railroads, wholesale and retail establishments; for in any case the effect and purpose of trade is to make up a lack of satisfactions. The boy

[From  One is a Crowd , by Frank Chodorov, 1952.] It all began, as you know, with the Declaration of Independence. The Americans stated their case, both as to the disabilities put upon them by the British Crown and as to the kind of government they considered it fitting for men to live under. The indictment was rejected and the issue was joined in

[Writing about Frank Chodorov, Murray Rothbard wrote , “Frank’s final flowering was his last ideological testament, the brilliantly written The Rise and Fall of Society , published in 1959, at the age of 72.” What follows is the introduction.]        What history will think of our times is something that only history will tell. But it is a good

     “I have led a singularly uneventful life, largely solitary, have had little to do with the great and no part whatever in their affairs, or for that matter, in any other affairs.” So wrote Albert Jay Nock in the preface to his last book, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man . He wasn’t being modest; he meant it. And he did not believe anybody would

“The Judgment of Solomon” Gustave Doré (1832–1883) “In those days,” we are told in Judges 17:6, “there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”      To be able to do that which is right in one’s own eyes is to be free, and freedom was the way of life among the Israelites before the coming of the kings. Yet,