Socialism

About this Collection

The modern form of socialism emerged in Britain, France and Germany in the 1830s and 1840s and has continued to evolve ever since. Various strands make up the socialist school of thought including voluntary socialists who wished to set up communities where socialism could be put into practice among the members (such as Robert Owen), revolutionary socialism or Marxism which advocated the seizure of political and economic power by force in order to impose nation-wide socialism, and Fabian socialism or parliamentary socialism (or labourism in the British context) where socialist legislation would be gradually passed by means of the parliamentary system (George Bernard Shaw).

Key People

Titles & Essays

Group by Category

THE READING ROOM

Francis Spufford’s Red Plenty and the Question of Historical Fiction

By: Garth Bond

Francis Spufford’s Light Perpetualwas released last May to considerable praise, unsurprising given the multiple awards received by its predecessor, Golden Hill. This new book is regularly referred to—by the author himself, as well…

THE READING ROOM

OLL’s May Birthday–Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883)

By: Peter Carl Mentzel

May’s featured OLL Birthday is the Journalist, classical economist, historian, and political activist Karl Marx. Marx’s many contributions in these areas are so profound that it is scarcely possible to understand the history of the…

LIBERTY MATTERS

Perspectives on Mises' Socialism After 100 Years (August 2022)

Virgil Henry Storr (contributor)

In 1922 Ludwig von Mises published his third book,Die Gemeinwirtschaft:Untersuchungen über den Sozialismus, translated into English in 1936 under the titleSocialism. The LibertyClassics edition was published in 1981....

LIBERTY MATTERS

Perspectives on Mises' Socialism After 100 Years (August 2022)

By: Virgil Henry Storr, Alberto Mingardi, Yana Chernyak, and Clemens Schneider

In 1922 Ludwig von Mises published his third book, Die Gemeinwirtschaft: Untersuchungen über den Sozialismus, translated into English in 1936 under the title Socialism. The LibertyClassics edition was published in 1981. It seems…
Loading...

Quotes

Socialism & Interventionism

Alexis de Tocqueville stood up in the Constituent Assembly to criticize socialism as a violation of human nature, property rights, and individual liberty (1848)

Alexis de Tocqueville

Odds & Ends

Edward Robertson points out the bureaucratic blundering and inefficiency of the Postal Monopoly during the Christmas rush period (1891)

Edward Stanley Robertson

Socialism & Interventionism

Frédéric Bastiat argues that socialism hides its true plunderous nature under a facade of nice sounding words like “fraternity” and “equality” (1850)

Frédéric Bastiat

Odds & Ends

Frederick Millar is upset that especially at Christmas time the bad effects of the letter-carrying monopoly of the Post Office are felt by the public (1891)

Frederick Millar

Socialism & Interventionism

John Strachey on why Socialism harms the poor instead of helping them (1894)

John St Loe Strachey

Socialism & Interventionism

Karl Marx on the necessary task the “bourgeoisie” was doing in putting an end to “feudal and patriarchal relations” (1848)

Karl Marx

Socialism & Interventionism

Ludwig von Mises on the impossibility of rational economic planning under Socialism (1922)

Ludwig von Mises

Socialism & Interventionism

Mill on the dangers of the state turning men into “docile instruments” of its will (1859)

John Stuart Mill

Socialism & Interventionism

Mises on “interventionism” as a third way between the free market and socialism (1930)

Ludwig von Mises

Socialism & Interventionism

Mises on how price controls lead to socialism (1944)

Ludwig von Mises

Socialism & Interventionism

Mises states that it is the division of labor which makes man truly “social” or “communal” (1922)

Ludwig von Mises

Socialism & Interventionism

Molinari appeals to socialists to join him in marching down “the broad, well-trodden highway of liberty” (1848)

Gustave de Molinari

Property Rights

Molinari defends the right to property against the socialists who want to overthrow it, and the conservatives who defend it poorly (1849)

Gustave de Molinari

Rhetoric of Liberty

Molinari on mankind’s never-ending struggle for liberty (1849)

Gustave de Molinari

Politics & Liberty

The Australian radical liberal Bruce Smith lays down some very strict rules which should govern the actions of any legislator (1887)

Bruce Smith

Property Rights

Thomas Hodgskin argues for a Lockean notion of the right to property (“natural”) and against the Benthamite notion that property rights are created by the state (“artificial”) (1832)

Thomas Hodgskin

Presidents, Kings, Tyrants, & Despots

Thomas Hodgskin wonders how despotism comes to a country and concludes that the “first step” taken towards despotism gives it the power to take a second and a third - hence it must be stopped in its tracks at the very first sign (1813)

Thomas Hodgskin

Law

Tiedeman states that the police powers under the constitution are strictly limited to enforcing the maxim: “use your own property in such a manner as not to injure that of another” (1886)

Thomas Kingsmill Abbott

Free Trade

Yves Guyot accuses all those who seek Protection from foreign competition of being “Socialists” (1893)

Yves Guyot

Socialism & Interventionism

Yves Guyot on the violence and lawlessness inherent in socialism (1910)

Yves Guyot

Class

Yves Guyot warns that a new ruling class of managers and officials will emerge in the supposedly “classless” socialist society of the future (1908)

Yves Guyot

Notes About This Collection

For more information see: