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: John Milton, editor: Sir Richard C. Jebb |
Areopagitica (Jebb ed.) |
1664 |
| author: Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, translator: William A. Smart |
Capital and Interest: A Critical History of Economic Theory |
1884 |
| 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 of Montesquieu, 4 vols. |
1777 |
| author: Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu |
Complete Works, vol. 1 (The Spirit of Laws) |
1748 |
| author: Algernon Sidney, editor: Thomas G. West |
Discourses Concerning Government (LF ed.) |
1698 |
| author: Frédéric Bastiat, editor: George B. de Huszar, translator: W. Hayden Boyers, introduction: Dean Russell |
Economic Harmonies (Boyers trans.) |
1850 |
| author: William Godwin |
An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Vol. I. |
1793 |
| author: William Godwin |
An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Vol. II. |
1793 |
| author: Adam Ferguson |
An Essay on the History of Civil Society |
1767 |
| author: David Hume, editor: Eugene F. Miller |
Essays Moral, Political, Literary (LF ed.) |
1777 |
| introduction: George W. Carey, introduction: James McClellan, author: James Madison, author: John Jay, author: Alexander Hamilton |
The Federalist (Gideon ed.) |
1818 |
| 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: John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton, editor: John Neville Figgis, editor: Reginald Vere Laurence |
The History of Freedom and Other Essays |
1907 |
| introduction: William Sharp McKechnie |
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John, with an Historical Introduction |
1215 |
| author: Thomas Hodgskin |
The Natural and Artificial Right of Property Contrasted |
1832 |
| author: John Stuart Mill |
On Liberty and The Subjection of Women (1879 ed.) |
1859 |
| author: Marcus Tullius Cicero, translator: Francis Barham |
The Political Works of Marcus Tullius Cicero, vol. 1 (Treatise on the Commonwealth) |
54 BC |
| author: Immanuel Kant, translator: William Hastie |
Kant’s Principles of Politics, including his essay on Perpetual Peace. A Contribution to Political Science |
1784 |
| 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: Edmund Burke, foreword: Francis Canavan |
Select Works of Edmund Burke, vol. 2 (Reflections on the Revolution in France) |
1790 |
| author: Sir Edward Coke, editor: Steve Shepherd |
Selected Writings of Sir Edward Coke, vol. II |
1606 |
| author: Herbert Spencer |
Social Statics |
1851 |
| author: Ludwig von Mises, foreword: Friedrich August von Hayek, translator: J. Kahane |
Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis |
1922 |
| 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: 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: Wilhelm von Humboldt, translator: Joseph Coulthard |
The Sphere and Duties of Government (The Limits of State Action) (1854 ed.) |
1792 |
| author: Anthony de Jasay |
The State |
1985 |
| author: Jean Baptiste Say, translator: Charles Robert Prinsep, editor: Clement C. Biddle |
A Treatise on Political Economy |
1803 |
| author: John Locke, editor: Thomas Hollis |
The Two Treatises of Civil Government (Hollis ed.) |
1689 |
| author: John C. Calhoun, editor: Ross M. Lence |
Union and Liberty: The Political Philosophy of John C. Calhoun |
1811 |
| author: Mary Wollstonecraft |
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects |
1792 |
| author: Thomas Jefferson, editor: Paul Leicester Ford |
The Works of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 2 (Correspondence 1771-1779, Summary View, Declaration of Independence) |
1905 |
| author: Voltaire, introduction: Oliver Herbrand Gordon Leigh, notes: Tobias Smollett, translator: William F. Fleming |
The Works of Voltaire, Vol. 1 (Candide) |
1759 |
| 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 |
| author: Thomas Paine, editor: Moncure Daniel Conway |
The Writings of Thomas Paine, Vol. II (1779-1792) |
1779 |
Titles (by Subject)