This is my archive

bar

The History of the Origins of Representative Government in Europe

Guizot reflects on the principles, goals, and institutions of representative government in Europe from the fifth to the reign of the Tudors in England. In Part 1 he examines such topics as the “true” principles of representative government, the origin and consequences of the sovereignty of the people, and analyzes the architecture of the English Constitutional monarchy.

/ Learn More

The Coal Question

A warning that Britain would face rising costs for coal as other nations industrialized and that this would have a deep impact on the British economy and way of life.

/ Learn More

Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis

“This book must rank as the most devastating analysis of socialism yet penned… . An economic classic in our time.” (Henry Hazlitt). More than thirty years ago F. A. Hayek said of Socialism: “It was a work on political economy in the tradition of the great moral philosophers, a Montesquieu or Adam Smith, containing both acute knowledge and profound wisdom… . To none of us young men who read the book when it appeared was the world ever the same again.” This is a newly annotated edition of the classic first published in German in 1922. It is the definitive refutation of nearly every type of socialism ever devised. Mises presents a wide-ranging analysis of society, comparing the results of socialist planning with those of free-market capitalism in all areas of life. Friedrich Hayek’s foreword (not available onliine for copyright reasons) comments on the continuing relevance of this great work: “Most readers today will find that Socialism has more immediate application to contemporary events than it had when it first appeared.”

/ Learn More

Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States 1787-1788

A collection of anti-federalist pamphlets written between 1787-88 by Elbridge Gerry, Noah Webster, John Jay, Melancthon Smith, Pelatiah Werster, Tench Coxe, James Wilson, John Dickinson, Alexander Contee Hanson, Edmund Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George Mason, and David Ramsay. The essay attributed to Gerry was in fact written by Mercy Otis Warren. The table of contents: GERRY, ELBRIDGE. Observations on the New Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions. By a Columbian Patriot WEBSTER, NOAH. An Examination into the leading principles of the Federal Constitution By a Citizen of America JAY, JOHN. An Address to the People of the State of New York, on the subject of the Constitution. By a Citizen of New York. SMITH, MELANCTHON. Address to the People of the State of New York. By a Plebeian. WEBSTER, PELATIAH. The Weakness of Brutus exposed, or some remarks in vindication of the Constitution. By a Citizen of Philadelphia. COXE, TENCH. An Examination of the Constitution of the United States of America. By an American Citizen WILSON, JAMES. Speech on the Federal Constitution, delivered in Philadelphia. DICKINSON, JOHN. Letters of Fabius on the Federal Constitution. HANSON, ALEXANDER CONTEE. Remarks on the Proposed Plan of a Federal Government By Aristides. RANDOLPH, EDMUND. Letter on the Federal Constitution. LEE, RICHARD HENRY. Observations of the System of Government proposed by the late Convention. By a Federal Farmer. MASON, GEORGE. Objections to the Federal Constitution. IREDELL, JAMES. Observations on George Mason’s Objections to the Federal Constitution By Marcus. RAMSAY, DAVID. An Address to the Freemen of South Carolina on the Federal Constitution. By Civis.

/ Learn More

Fabian Essays in Socialism

This collection of essays by the so-called “Fabian Socialists” (who advocated socialism by means of gradual political and economic reform instead of by revolution as preferred by the Marxists) prompted a vigorous defense of laissez-faire economic policies by leading English classical liberals in the early 1890s. Two volumes of these rebuttals of Fabian socialism were edited by Thomas Mackay. The 3 volumes together make interesting reading.

/ Learn More

An Essay on Crimes and Punishments

An extremely influential Enlightenment treatise on legal reform in which Beccaria advocates the ending of torture and the death penalty. The book also contains a lengthy commentary by Voltaire which is an indication of high highly French enlightened thinkers regarded the work.

/ Learn More

The Constitution of England; Or, an Account of the English Government

The Constitution of England is one of the most distinguished eighteenth-century treatises on English political liberty. In the vein of Charles Louis Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws (1748) and William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769), De Lolme’s account of the English system of government exercised an extensive influence on political debate in Britain, on constitutional design in the United States during the Founding era, and on the growth of liberal political thought throughout the nineteenth century.

/ Learn More