Shop

Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws (1748) is one of the most important political texts of the eighteenth century, exercising an enormous influence in both Europe and North America. Famously it was here that Montesquieu outlined his distinction between moderate and despotic governments and praised the virtues of England’s monarchical constitution. In A Commentary and Review of Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws, Antoine Louis…

Commentary on Filangieri’s Work addresses the principal political and social questions that Benjamin Constant, one of the most important liberal thinkers of the nineteenth century, ever discussed. This translation will help give the work its deserved importance in political theory. Commentary is founded on the view that government should maintain a strictly limited role in society; “The functions of government…

This collection of thirty-seven readings (from thirty-three writers) brings together some of the most significant pre–Adam Smith writings on the political and cultural dimensions of capitalism. To modern readers, these seventeenth- and eighteenth-century discussions of commerce and economic life in general are surprising because they are so closely integrated with current moral and cultural issues. Part of the value of…

Competition and Entrepreneurship defines Israel M. Kirzner’s unique contribution to the economics profession. Pointing out the shortcomings of the traditional microeconomic model, Kirzner offers an alternative and complementary view, which illuminates and enriches the way economists think of the market process. Kirzner develops a theory of the market process that focuses on the role of the pure entrepreneurial element in…

As always during its long history, English common law, upon which American law is based, has had to defend itself against the challenge of civil law’s clarity and traditions. That challenge to our common-law heritage remains today. To that end, Liberty Fund now makes available a clear and candid discussion of common law. A Concise History of the Common Law…

Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolution was a winner in the Scholarly/Reference category at the Chicago Book Clinic’s 2009 Book & Media Show. Germaine de Staël’s voice, which Napoleon Bonaparte tried to silence by censorship and banishment, is a unique and important contribution to revolutionary historiography. Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolution, considered Madame…