Lecture series · recorded 2003
Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History
Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History is a free lecture series (10 recordings, 15.3 hours) you can stream or download at freecapitalists.org, with Robert Higgs.
Robert Higgs presents 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. Recorded June 23-27, 2003. Bibliography (PDF): Mises.org/CLBib
Cover painting: Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his first inaugural address at the US Capitol, Washington, 4 March 1933. See every painting in the art gallery.
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01
1:24:44 Download MP3
Crisis and Liberty: Lecture 1 2003
The growth of government power in American history has been by creating emergencies that then necessitate a ratcheting up of centralized power and war. Crisis & Leviathan by Higgs is a prime resource for this topic.
Political TheoryU.S. EconomyU.S. History
Read the transcript 10,221 words
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02
1:36:25 Download MP3
Crisis and Liberty: Lecture 2 2003
The role of ideology in the growth of government is required as intellectual cover for what is done regardless of the government form (e.g. monarchy or socialism). For example, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. played such an intellectual role.
Political TheoryU.S. EconomyU.S. History
Read the transcript 11,155 words
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03
1:35:02 Download MP3
Crisis and Liberty: Lecture 3 2003
State and local levels of government were more burdensome to people in the early stages of our country than federal levels. The national government mainly received revenue through tariffs and land sales.
Political TheoryU.S. EconomyU.S. History
Read the transcript 11,221 words
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04
1:28:31 Download MP3
Crisis and Liberty: Lecture 4 2003
Government was different in the 19th Century, but not as starkly different as some people believe. The 20th Century was the Progressive Era. Foreign policy went from staying out of European quarrels to policing the world whether the world desired policing or not. Unchecked government intervention became the rule.
Political TheoryU.S. EconomyU.S. History
Read the transcript 10,408 words
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05
1:36:44 Download MP3
Crisis and Liberty: Lecture 5 2003
WWI was the culmination of progressivism. It was possible to impose prohibition. The creation of the Fed and the passage of an income tax allowed warfare socialism to rage and liberties to be lost. Government reallocated resources by taking money from citizens and then purchasing war goods. Inflation was a stealth tax that fooled people. Most thought inflation was the fault of markets rather than governments. Patriotic hoopla was needed to persuade young men to be cannon fodder. Draft riots did not happen because many simply did not register for the draft and the Army had learned from earlier resistance to take themselves out of the visible draft activity. Recruiters made the system look like community defense efforts. The Brits invented war propaganda to induce Americans to come into the war. Industry was mainly guided by a War Industries Board, using businessmen from various sectors as public servants. They tried to substitute their judgements for what should have been reliance upon the price system. The mess being made would have been obvious had the war continued much longer. Central planners can do something but they can’t know the opportunity lost costs. They can’t satisfy economic rationality. They can’t know how much they wasted. Bibliography (PDF): Mises.org/CLBib Lecture 5 of 10 from Robert Higgs’ Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History .
Political TheoryU.S. EconomyU.S. History
Read the transcript 11,485 words
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06
1:34:37 Download MP3
Crisis and Liberty: Lecture 6 2003
The New Deal was not as widely popular as many stories about FDR might suggest. The Depression began about midway through 1929. Prices fell for four years. Unemployment was as high as it had ever been, and for a long time. Construction work disappeared. Many Americans thought that it was wrong to go on the government dole. But most became willing to change both this moral view and their character. Many were desperate by the time FDR took office and the New Deal was put into practice. They felt the market machine was busted and only the government could now provide for them. The New Deal is not a logical, coherent thing. Many of the programs warred with each other. FDR’s braintruster was a wannabe communist. He wanted central planning of everything. Many strange bedfellows appeared. Bernard Baruch convinced many that WWI had been a successful government project and that the New Deal was another fine project. He felt that raising pricing – or reflation – or restricting supply - was a solution. That policy was guaranteed to fail. Much government activity, that had only been local, was now centralized at the Federal level like welfare and relief. Many farmers became debtors and required mortgage relief. Businessmen clamored for bailouts. The National Industrial Recovery Act imposed 750 codes binding businesses to cut competition. The NIRA was declared unconstitutional in 1935.The vitality of markets had been killed just like industry under Mussolini. A great number of the New Deal programs had to do with finance. Gold was nationalized in 1933. Bank holidays were declared. Other programs had to do with labor and labor unions. The New Deal scared the investor class so badly that net investment was negative for a decade. Bibliography (PDF): Mises.org/CLBib Lecture 6 of 10 from Robert Higgs’ Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History .
Political TheoryU.S. EconomyU.S. History
Read the transcript 11,481 words
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07
1:34:36 Download MP3
Crisis and Liberty: Lecture 7 2003
WWII was the most terrible, most deadly war of all mankind. As early as 1919 WWII was seen as inevitable because of the destructive details of the Versailles Treaty. In 1939, when WWII began, less than ten percent of Americans wanted anything to do with another war.
Political TheoryU.S. EconomyU.S. History
Read the transcript 11,146 words
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08
1:29:24 Download MP3
Crisis and Liberty: Lecture 8 2003
The post-WWII operation of the national security state has been a major avenue for the expansion of government. A tremendous military-industrial-Congressional complex built up during the war. Some 40% of GDP was devoted to military purposes. The US in 1945 was the world’s military superpower. Rather than dismantle those forces, the US created a policy of containment of Stalin’s Soviet Union that required those forces in a cold war against what was seen to be an evil empire, even though Russia had been allied with us. Central and Eastern Europe was under Soviet control. Truman took readily to this cold war, but the paying Americans did not. Red Army threats were built up. Tensions rose. The Soviets closed off land access to Berlin in 1948 and the US decided to airlift cargo into Berliners. War was averted. Congress reorganized the military, creating the Department of Defense, the Army, the Navy, and a new Air Force. The same Act created the National Security Council with its own staff. The Central Intelligence Agency also emerged. Outbreak of war in Korea promoted a huge buildup of military that was then used to justify our permanent Cold War. The Korean action ended in a stalemate that continues today. Like Russia, North Korea made atomic bombs. For fifty-five years these situations continue to smolder. Today’s Cold War is the War on Terrorism - a permanent war that can never be won. Two other events were part of the Cold War that made Americans extremely angry: Vietnam and the 1980 hostage taking in Tehran. Bibliography (PDF): Mises.org/CLBib Lecture 8 of 10 from Robert Higgs’ Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History .
Political TheoryU.S. EconomyU.S. History
Read the transcript 10,510 words
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09
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Crisis and Liberty: Lecture 9 2003
The growth of government since WWII was along non-military lines. These years were crisis years from about 1963 to 1974. Turmoil, conflict and uncertainty were commonplace. Assassinations were numerous. Johnson and Nixon were presidents. The welfare state expanded.
Political TheoryU.S. EconomyU.S. History
Read the transcript 10,385 words
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10
1:29:00 Download MP3
Crisis and Liberty: Lecture 10 2003
The attack on September 11, 2001, showed us what we can expect from any fresh crisis. Military forces were assigned to domestic police activities. Police state surveillance was expanded. But, wiping out terrorism cannot be done. The ultimate result is Big Brother. The USA Patriot Act – more than 400 pages that Congress never read – creates new categories of domestic terrorists. Many ordinary activities are criminalized. Asset forfeiture – theft of property – is liberally encouraged. The US response was to do what they know how to do – drop bombs. Bombs fell on Afghanistan, although the terrorists were mainly from Saudi Arabia. Approval of government had been low, but when the towers fell, people demanded that the government do something. They wanted to feel protected. By 2002, the 500 page Homeland Security Act was passed. It mainly reorganizes agencies, which gives them more budget clout as a big unit. It had 170,000 employees already in 2004. Two distinct forces in the growth of government are structural, like urbanization, and ideological, like socialism imported from Germany. Bibliography (PDF): Mises.org/CLBib Lecture 10 of 10 from Robert Higgs’ Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History .
Political TheoryU.S. EconomyU.S. History
Read the transcript 10,780 words
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Recording dates, summaries and topics for 10 of these 10 lectures come from the Mises Institute's page for Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History, checked 2026-09-27.
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- Is Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History free to listen to?
- Yes. All 10 mirrored recordings stream in the browser or download as audio, at no cost and with no signup.
- How long is Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History?
- 10 recordings, 15.3 hours in total.
- Who lectures in Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History?
- Robert Higgs.
- When was Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History recorded?
- 2003, per the recording dates recovered for this series.
- Is there a transcript of Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History?
- Yes. Every lecture in the series has one, 108,792 words in total, free to read on each lecture's page and searchable in the browser.
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