The following texts have been selected for being among the most important and influential books in the development of the idea of individual liberty, limited government, and the free market. Each author is represented by only one title in order to have as broad a range of authors as possible. Clicking on the author’s name will take you to that author’s bio page where additional works by that author are listed.
| authors and editors |
title |
pub. date ↑ |
| author: Marcus Tullius Cicero, translator: Francis Barham |
The Political Works of Marcus Tullius Cicero, vol. 1 (Treatise on the Commonwealth) |
54 BC |
| author: Misc (Magna Carta), introduction: William Sharp McKechnie |
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John, with an Historical Introduction |
1215 |
| author: Sir Edward Coke, editor: Steve Shepherd |
Selected Writings of Sir Edward Coke, vol. II |
1606 |
| author: Hugo Grotius, editor: Richard Tuck, editor: Jean Barbeyrac |
The Rights of War and Peace (2005 ed.) 3 vols. |
1625 |
| author: Hugo Grotius, editor: Richard Tuck, editor: Jean Barbeyrac |
The Rights of War and Peace (2005 ed.) vol. 1 (Book I) |
1625 |
| author: Hugo Grotius, editor: Richard Tuck, editor: Jean Barbeyrac |
The Rights of War and Peace (2005 ed.) vol. 3 (Book III) |
1625 |
| author: John Milton, editor: Sir Richard C. Jebb |
Areopagitica (Jebb ed.) |
1664 |
| author: John Locke, editor: Thomas Hollis |
The Two Treatises of Civil Government (Hollis ed.) |
1689 |
| author: Algernon Sidney, editor: Thomas G. West |
Discourses Concerning Government (LF ed.) |
1698 |
| author: John Trenchard, author: Thomas Gordon |
Cato’s Letters, 4 vols. in 2 (LF ed.) |
1724 |
| author: Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu |
Complete Works, vol. 1 (The Spirit of Laws) |
1748 |
| author: Voltaire, introduction: Oliver Herbrand Gordon Leigh, notes: Tobias Smollett, translator: William F. Fleming |
The Works of Voltaire, Vol. I (Candide) |
1759 |
| author: Adam Ferguson |
An Essay on the History of Civil Society |
1767 |
| author: Adam Smith, editor: Roy Harold Campbell, editor: Andrew S. Skinner |
Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 2a An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 1 |
1776 |
| author: Adam Smith, editor: Andrew S. Skinner, editor: Roy Harold Campbell |
Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 2b An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 2 |
1776 |
| author: Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu |
Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols. |
1777 |
| author: David Hume, editor: Eugene F. Miller |
Essays Moral, Political, Literary (LF ed.) |
1777 |
| author: Thomas Paine, editor: Moncure Daniel Conway |
The Writings of Thomas Paine, Vol. II (1779-1792) |
1779 |
| author: Immanuel Kant, translator: William Hastie |
Kant’s Principles of Politics, including his essay on Perpetual Peace. A Contribution to Political Science |
1784 |
| author: Edmund Burke, foreword: Francis Canavan |
Select Works of Edmund Burke, vol. 2 (Reflections on the Revolution in France) |
1790 |
| author: Wilhelm von Humboldt, translator: Joseph Coulthard |
The Sphere and Duties of Government (The Limits of State Action) (1854 ed.) |
1792 |
| author: Mary Wollstonecraft |
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects |
1792 |
| author: William Godwin |
An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Vol. I. |
1793 |
| author: William Godwin |
An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Vol. II. |
1793 |
| author: Jean Baptiste Say, translator: Charles Robert Prinsep, editor: Clement C. Biddle |
A Treatise on Political Economy |
1803 |
| author: John C. Calhoun, editor: Ross M. Lence |
Union and Liberty: The Political Philosophy of John C. Calhoun |
1811 |
| author: David Ricardo, editor: Piero Sraffa, editor: Maurice Herbert Dobb |
The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 1 Principles of Political Economy and Taxation |
1817 |
| introduction: George W. Carey, introduction: James McClellan, author: James Madison, author: John Jay, author: Alexander Hamilton |
The Federalist (Gideon ed.) |
1818 |
| author: Thomas Hodgskin |
The Natural and Artificial Right of Property Contrasted |
1832 |
| author: Frédéric Bastiat, editor: George B. de Huszar, translator: W. Hayden Boyers, introduction: Dean Russell |
Economic Harmonies (Boyers trans.) |
1850 |
| author: Herbert Spencer |
Social Statics |
1851 |
| author: John Stuart Mill |
On Liberty and The Subjection of Women (1879 ed.) |
1859 |
| author: Richard Cobden, editor: John Bright, editor: James E. Thorold Rogers, introduction: Goldwin Smith |
Speeches on Questions of Public Policy. Vol. 2 (War, Peace, and Reform) |
1870 |
| author: Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, translator: William A. Smart |
Capital and Interest: A Critical History of Economic Theory |
1884 |
| author: Gustave de Molinari, translator: P. H. Lee Warner, editor: Frédéric Passy, editor: Hodgson Pratt |
The Society of Tomorrow: A Forecast of its Political and Economic Organization |
1899 |
| author: Thomas Jefferson, editor: Paul Leicester Ford |
The Works of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 2 (Correspondence 1771-1779, Summary View, Declaration of Independence) |
1905 |
| author: John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton, editor: John Neville Figgis, editor: Reginald Vere Laurence |
The History of Freedom and Other Essays |
1907 |
| author: Ludwig von Mises, foreword: Friedrich August von Hayek, translator: J. Kahane |
Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis |
1922 |
| author: Anthony de Jasay |
The State |
1985 |
Titles (by Subject)