Richard M. Ebeling, Liberty Matters: Assessing Böhm-Bawerk’s Contribution to Economics after a Hundred Years (April 2015) (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2015).

The Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) was one of the most widely read authors before the American Revolution and had a profound impact on the formation of the American Republic. In this discussion of his economic thought, in particular his ideas about the need for sumptuary laws in republics, Henry Clark of Dartmouth College investigates this little appreciated aspect of Montesquieu’s thinking and concludes that, before the theory of natural rights became better estanblished, “Sumptuary law is scarcely more than a blip on our historical radar screens, but it manages to remind us of what a mottled, murky landscape the history of liberty really is”. Henry Clark is joined in the discussion by David Carrithers at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, Paul A. Rahe at Hillsdale College, Michigan, and Stuart D. Warner of Roosevelt University, Chicago.

The Anglo-Hungarian economist Anthony de Jasay turns 90 in 2015. To celebrate this event we have organized a Liberty Matters discussion of his work as an economic and political theorist which came to public attention with the publication of the seminal work The State in 1985. Since then he has written several other books and has had a monthly column for the Econlib website since 2002. We have invited the editor of his collected works, Hartmut Kliemt, who is a professor of philosophy and economics at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management to lead the discussion. He will be joined by Christopher Coyne who is an Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Michael C. Munger who is a professor of political science, and economics and public policy at Duke University, and Edward Stringham who is a professor of Economic Organizations and Innovation at Trinity College, Hartford.

In this month’s Liberty Matters online discussion we reassess the economic ideas of John Stuart Mill as found in his classic work Principles of Political Economy (1st ed. 1848, 7th ed. 1871) and other writings. In the Lead Essay by Steven Kates of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology it is argued that in the light of the evident failures of Keynesian economics to solve the problems of the boom and bust cycle, and that of ongoing high unemployment and economic stagnation, that we should go back to Mill’s “Four Propositions on Capital” for enlightenment. The commentators are Nick Capaldi, the Legendre-Soulé Distinguished Chair in Business Ethics at Loyola University New Orleans; Richard M. Ebeling, the BB&T Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Free Enterprise Leadership at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina; and Sandra J. Peart, who is dean of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond.

In June 2015 we celebrate the 800th anniversary of the signing of one of the key legal documents in English political history, the “Great Charter” (Magna Carta). In this Liberty Matters discussion we have invited four leading historians to explain what Magna Carta was, why it has appealed to so many people over the years, the impact it has had on the development of Anglo-American legal and political institutions, and its relevance for us today. The Lead Essay is by Justin Champion, Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London; with comments by Richard Helmholz, the Ruth Wyatt Rosenson Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago; Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia; and David Womersley, the Thomas Warton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford.

This online discussion is part of the series “Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Matters pertaining to Liberty.” In this discussion the contributors evaluate the contributions of Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1914) who was one of the founders of the Austrian school of economic theory with his theoretical work at the University of Vienna, a leading critic of Marxism, and a the Minister of Finance in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Lead Essay is by Richard M. Ebeling who is the BB&T Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Free Enterprise Leadership at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, with additional essays by Roger Garrison, professor of economics at Auburn University and adjunct scholar of the Mises Institute; Joseph Salerno, academic vice president of the Mises Institute, professor of economics at Pace University, and editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics; and Peter Lewin, Clinical Professor in the Jindal School of Management, University of Texas, Dallas.

A Treatise on Political Economy. Translated by Thomas Jefferson. Edited and with an Introduction by Jeremy Jennings (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2011).

Destutt de tracy’s Treatise on Political Economy is a foundational text of nineteenth-century, free-market economic thought and remains one of the classics of nineteenth-century French economic liberalism. Destutt de Tracy was one of the founders of the classical liberal republican group known as the Idéologues, which included Jean-Baptiste Say, Marquis de Condorcet, and Pierre Cabanis. In this volume, Destutt de Tracy provides one of the clearest statements of the economic principles of the Idéologues. Placing the entrepreneur at the center of his view of economic activity, he argues against the luxurious consumption of the idle rich and recommends a market economy with low taxation and minimum state intervention. Destutt de Tracy sent the text of A Treatise on Political Economy to Thomas Jefferson in hopes of securing its translation in the United States. It was met with enthusiastic approval. Jefferson wrote to the publisher, “The merit of this work will, I hope, place it in the hands of every reader in our country.”

The Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) was one of the most widely read authors before the American Revolution and had a profound impact on the formation of the American Republic. In this discussion of his economic thought, in particular his ideas about the need for sumptuary laws in republics, Henry Clark of Dartmouth College investigates this little appreciated aspect of Montesquieu’s thinking and concludes that, before the theory of natural rights became better established, “Sumptuary law is scarcely more than a blip on our historical radar screens, but it manages to remind us of what a mottled, murky landscape the history of liberty really is”. Henry Clark is joined in the discussion by David Carrithers at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, Paul A. Rahe at Hillsdale College, Michigan, and Stuart D. Warner of Roosevelt University, Chicago. See the Archive of “Liberty Matters”.

The Collected Political Writings of James Otis. Edited and with an Introduction by Richard Samuelson (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2015).