History of Liberty

Historians, the State and Liberty 2001

Robert Higgs · 1:10:57 · 12.2 MB · Recorded 2001

The opinion that is dished out in textbooks every year by academic historians is ideologically mostly left-liberalism or left-radicalism. The effect of this is to bias what is written, especially with recent events. The historians see class conflicts as driving forces. They also see anything that is pro labor or against business as reform. Capitalism itself is seen as an unmitigated evil and all free markets are bad. Individualism is a code word for primitive people. A few progressive episodes from our history included the fact that Colonists were not permitted to manufacture hats or iron products under the British mercantile system. Navigation Acts restricted commerce when they could be enforced. Historians have looked at these activities with a cost-benefit view. They usually find neither great benefit nor great cost from colonies remaining part of the British system. Liberty was not considered. Desiring self-government didn’t enter their minds. Historian Charles Beard’s 1913 interpretation of the making of the Constitution was not challenged until the 50’s and 60’s. Anti-Federalists were overlooked. Their fear of political centralization was not noted. Hamilton got an excise tax passed on whiskey. Whiskey was a medium of exchange and a major source of calories. The Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania was to show that the government was serious about collecting taxes. Washington was seen as a military nincompoop. He was also a notorious land grabber, almost single-handedly starting the French and Indian War. He betrayed private trust for his private gain. Land policy became the central government action in US History. It was land policy that led to the War of Secession. It was not a moral question over slavery. Lincoln intended to guarantee slavery. Historians do not recognize the Constitutional shift that took place because of that war. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments put an end to thoughts of secession. Progressivism is the most important event other than the Civil War in our history. It was a bridge to modern times. They intended to make government more active and powerful. They opposed classical liberals. They were going to set people free --- by force. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

Political TheoryWorld History

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Rise of the West 2018

Ralph Raico · 1:05:01 · Q&A 16 min · 11.2 MB · Recorded 16 October 2018

The European Miracle was one in which humans achieved sustained growth for the first time on earth. Why Europe? Because of European decentralization and private enterprise.

Political TheoryWorld History

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Origins of Science in the Age of Faith 2001

Thomas Lessl · 58:13 · 10.0 MB · Recorded 2001

Lessl’s field is rhetoric. The history of the relationship between faith and science shifted when the theological nucleus was removed and science was inserted. Rhetoric was left behind. Faith was erased in the middle of the nineteenth century. Kant was intensely hostile to Catholicism. He wanted to replace it with humanism.

Calculation and KnowledgeWorld History

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The Rise of the Nation-State 2004

Donald W. Livingston · 1:02:36 · Q&A 8 min · 10.7 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

Most of what is said about nation-states is not true. They are neither democracies nor republics nor nations nor states. There is no natural relationship between government and state. Men have been governed by many things that are not states. Throughout most of history man has lived without a state.

Political TheoryWar and Foreign Policy

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Puritan Revolution and Republicanism 2004

Joseph R. Stromberg · 46:31 · 8.0 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

The transforming ideology of the American Revolution consists of four elements: liberalism, republicanism, English law, and Protestantism. Liberalism was developed by the Levellers, saying that natural rights could be evolved from natural law. English law lends itself to the rights of Englishmen as the Colonists understood them. Constitutionalism held that certain laws were above the King. Protestantism created new occasions for state intervention. In New England the church and state largely merged in practice. Republicanism broadened the citizenship base. The Long Parliament in 1641 had a large Presbyterian section. Oliver Cromwell emerges out of all this and becomes a dictator. The new model Army wanted to make policy. Levellers come from this. The notion of self-ownership develops here. The Puritan Revolution is reined in by Cromwell. Republican ideas come into the picture by 1651 just before the restoration. Americans saw George III and his standing armies after 1763 undertaking the bad things they feared. The downside to republican theory was there was a theory of government but not of rights. That can go off into nationalism. They dreamed of an empire which remains republican. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

Political TheoryU.S. History

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Natural Rights 2004

Luigi Marco Bassani · 42:08 · 7.2 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

Natural law does not depend directly on God’s will. Natural law goes back to at least the scholastics and perhaps Thomas Aquinas. Modern Natural Rights theory began in 1625. Modern theory recognizes the institution the state. Natural law is thought to produce inalienable natural rights. They speak to the dignity of the individual and life and property. The close connection between liberty and property is part of this tradition.

Political TheoryLegal SystemWorld History

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Colonial America and the American Revolution 2001

Thomas E. Woods, Jr. · 54:26 · Q&A 2 min · 9.3 MB · Recorded 25 June 2001

Albion’s Seed is a great book about the four migration folkways into the colonies from Great Britain during 1629 through 1775. The groups had many characteristics in common which may be what made future union possible, but the groups were also different. Puritans hated Quakers. Everybody hated Catholics. The competing regional cultures created quite a laissez-faire outcome between the community-based groups and more individualistic groups. The Revolution had been profoundly argued well in advance. It wanted to conserve the good things of their past British lives. In the 1830s disputes centered on the United States being either a compact school of independent states forming a confederation or a nationalist school of a single people in the aggregate. The British thought they were dealing with thirteen independent and sovereign states. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

Philosophy and MethodologyPolitical TheoryU.S. History

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The US Constitution 2001

Donald W. Livingston · 49:10 · 8.4 MB · Recorded 2001

This is a federal constitution. Federalism is the most important idea for liberty. You must maximize your choices and you need meaningful choices, made against a cultural background. Federalism requires such moral correctness that it makes it the most difficult system to maintain. Federalism always fights consolidation.

Political TheoryU.S. History

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Classical Liberal Historians 2004

Ralph Raico · 1:05:36 · 11.3 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

People learn their political views through what they believe about history. Memorials function to push certain interpretations, e.g. about the War Between the States and the greatness of rulers like Lincoln and FDR.

Political TheoryWorld History

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Anti-Federalist Traditions until the Civil War 2004

Luigi Marco Bassani · 57:58 · 10.0 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

Jeffersonian States Rights Doctrine until the Civil War was grounded in three freedom documents: The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, and The Treaty of Paris of 1783. Those documents emphasized independent states, not a single nation or union.

Political TheoryU.S. HistoryWar and Foreign Policy

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Southern Secession and Reconstruction 2004

Donald W. Livingston · 1:00:15 · 10.3 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

You can’t take Southern secession seriously because of slavery. Illinois is worth pondering because Lincoln supported the laws against blacks because he did not think that free blacks could ever mix with whites. A superior position was assigned to the white race. Lincoln meant every word. He voted against every suggested improvement for blacks. He saw universal emancipation as impossible.

Political TheoryU.S. HistoryWar and Foreign Policy

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The Progressive Era 2004

Thomas E. Woods, Jr. · 45:23 · 7.8 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

The Progressive Era covered the turn of the 19th-20th centuries until about WWI. It delivered such delights as the Federal Reserve. Accelerated statism with a philosophical veneer favored experts on boards making economic decisions efficiently. This era birthed the regulatory state.

Philosophy and MethodologyPolitical TheoryWorld History

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The Rise of the American Empire 2004

Joseph R. Stromberg · 55:40 · 9.6 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

One of the problems of the American Empire is that there is a lot of empire denial going around. You cannot want to rule the world and yet say that what you value is laissez-faire economics (like National Review does). How do you distinguish empire from imperialism? In the 18th century an empire was any large state somewhere. Imperialism generally meant somewhere overseas. The court party has overall gained and never suffered a setback. We must force others to enjoy all the benefits we have. We acquired the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Cuba (in a fashion). No former enemies are in the anti-imperialism faction. The Philippines were given all the Bill of Rights but trial by jury and right to bear arms. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

Political TheoryU.S. HistoryWar and Foreign Policy

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Bolshevism and Democratic Socialism 2004

Paul Gottfried · 55:25 · Q&A 35 min · 9.5 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

The 1917 Revolution gave birth to both the reality and the myth of the Bolsheviks and the democratic left. The social democrats rejected the violence which was part of the communist party. They claimed to follow a democratic path to socialism. They turned Marx into a wise man that should not be taken too literally. A coalition against fascists arose. Social democrats made common cause with the communists. There is reason to suspect that Stalin knew what he was doing bringing Hitler to power. Since the 1930s the enemy of the left has been fascism. The social democrats successfully split from the communists. The end of the cold war looks like the end of WWII. The left won the cold war. The right disappeared. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

Political Theory

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Theory and History 2001

Hans-Hermann Hoppe · 41:59 · 7.2 MB · Recorded 27 June 2001

Economic theory is essential for understanding history. It is difficult to interpret data without economic theory. Theory cannot come from data. All states are aggressive. All wars require economic resources. More liberal states will pursue more aggressive policies. The biggest bullies will get away with murder.

Austrian Economics OverviewPhilosophy and MethodologyPolitical TheoryWorld History

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The New Deal 2004

Robert Higgs · 57:17 · Q&A 11 min · 9.8 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

Certain themes that relate to the New Deal between 1933 and 1938 ended in 1938 when FDR moved on to repair all the problems of the world, not just the country. The Congress and the people were receptive to all proposals that they thought would benefit them directly. Agencies that were created in the first 100 days were from a mind-boggling assortment of enactments.

Political TheoryU.S. History

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The History of Taxation 2004

Charles Adams · 50:13 · Q&A 17 min · 8.6 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

Charles Adams is a rare tax historian who leads us back to Greeks and Romans and the history of liberty. The Battle of Marathon was critical for Greek civilization to seize control of Western Civilization. The Greeks had no direct taxation, just indirect. This is what fostered liberty.

Political TheoryLegal SystemTaxes and Spending

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Stalinism, National Socialism and Fascism 2004

Paul Gottfried · 58:44 · Q&A 22 min · 10.1 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

WWI was a kind of turning point. Bolshevism, National Socialism and fascism are related ideologies which surfaced after the war. Fascism was the wave of the future in 1920 with its notion of government central planning.

Calculation and KnowledgePolitical TheoryLegal System

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Origins of War: Civil War and World War I 2004

John V. Denson · 56:38 · 9.7 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

John Denson argues wars are sold with patriotic myths—then used to centralize power—and that honest history is the antidote to the “imperial presidency” and permanent war.

Political TheoryWar and Foreign PolicyWorld History

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Civil Rights and Statism 2004

Thomas E. Woods, Jr. · 55:45 · 9.6 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

Several court cases must be mentioned. Each makes a point. Plessey v. Ferguson : Segregation Separate but equal is ok. Brown v. Board of Education : Separate schools are inherently unequal . Green v. County School Board of New Kent County : Freedom of choice desegregation plan unconstitutional. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education : Busing was appropriate. Griggs v. Duke Power Co .: Not only intentional job discrimination is prohibited by 1964 Civil Rights Act, but also employment practices that will have a disparate impact on applicants unless you can prove they are job-related. Steel Workers of America v. Weber : You don’t find the law in the language of the law, but only in the spirit. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was upheld as constitutional under the Commerce Clause in Heart of Atlanta Motel Inc. v. U.S. Thomas Sowell’s book is Civil Rights . Martin Luther King did not believe that capitalism could meet the needs of poor people and that some form of democratic socialism would be preferable. Feminist economics is irrational about comparable worth. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

Political TheoryU.S. History

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Great Society and the Republican Welfare State 2004

Thomas E. Woods, Jr. · 58:26 · 10.0 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

Thomas Sowell’s book, Civil Rights, lays bare many of the myths of the Great Society. What did ordinary people do before an advanced welfare state? Anti-poverty programs like the 1965 Job Corps did not turn out well. There was less poverty before the programs. Federal aid to education, like Head Start, did not stop any cycle of poverty. There was no difference in performance.

Political TheoryU.S. HistoryWar and Foreign Policy

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The National Security State 2004

Robert Higgs · 58:27 · Q&A 10 min · 10.0 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

The warfare state does not want peace, it wants war. Conducting a permanent war requires three things. There must be an underlying convincing belief that the war is worthwhile. Some interest groups need to stand to gain money or power. And, crises need to provoke reliable and ongoing responses. World peace is not desirable.

Political TheoryLegal SystemWar and Foreign Policy

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Historians and the Welfare-Warfare State 2004

Joseph R. Stromberg · 57:57 · 10.0 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

Murray Rothbard popularized the concept of the welfare-warfare state. He didn’t like either of them. He knew that if the state was doing anything there was plunder involved. Welfare was any handout from the government to anyone. One book that handled warfare and welfare systematically was Crisis and Leviathan by Robert Higgs. Imperialism and social reform cover the same relationships. Many tried to reconcile government with liberty. They called themselves Progressives. They’ve loved warfare and its welfare opportunities. The Cold War was perfect for this agenda until the Soviet collapse took away the enemy. Stromberg mentions many historians and their books on this topic. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

War and Foreign PolicyWorld History

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The Role of the Intellectuals 2004

Ralph Raico · 55:46 · Q&A 32 min · 9.6 MB · Recorded 1 March 2004

The role of the intellectual is a perennial question. Why do they act the way they do? Why are they hostile to the free market? Is the state really virtuous and the market really vicious? Mises thought the anti-capitalist mentality was rooted in envy. He also thought our entire culture was soaked in contempt for money-making.

PraxeologyEducationWorld History

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Intellectual Origins of Natural Rights 2001

Luigi Marco Bassani · 41:05 · 7.1 MB · Recorded 2001

There was a natural law tradition from antiquity and the middle ages. Natural law is the oldest and most frequently used concept of political theory.  Natural law is the principles that are to be established if justice were to prevail. Or, it is the scientific laws of man and his environment.

Philosophy and MethodologyPolitical Theory

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Theory and History 2005

David Gordon · 58:36 · Q&A 4 min · 13.4 MB · Recorded 4 August 2005

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"The Child Labor Amendment Debate of the 1920s"

William Kaufmann