Classics of Liberty

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.

• Areopagitica (1644) (Jebb ed.) (John Milton)
• Capital and Interest: A Critical History of Economic Theory (William A. Smart)
• Cato’s Letters, 4 vols. in 2 (LF ed.) (Thomas Gordon)
• Complete Works, 4 vols. (1777) (Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu)
• Discourses Concerning Government (Algernon Sidney)
• Economic Harmonies (FEE ed.) (Frédéric Bastiat)
• An Essay on the History of Civil Society (Adam Ferguson)
• Essays Moral, Political, Literary (LF ed.) (David Hume)
• The Federalist (Gideon ed.) (Alexander Hamilton)
• The History of Freedom and Other Essays (John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton)
• Magna Carta: A Commentary (John Lackland (King John))
• The Natural and Artificial Right of Property Contrasted (Thomas Hodgskin)
• On Liberty and The Subjection of Women (1879 ed.) (John Stuart Mill)
• Kant’s Principles of Politics, including his essay on Perpetual Peace (William Hastie)
• The Rights of War and Peace (2005 ed.) 3 vols (Hugo Grotius)
• Social Statics (1851) (Herbert Spencer)
• Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (Ludwig von Mises)
• The Society of Tomorrow (Gustave de Molinari)
• The Sphere and Duties of Government (1792, 1854) (Joseph Coulthard)
• The State (Anthony de Jasay)
• A Treatise on Political Economy (Jean Baptiste Say)
• The Two Treatises of Civil Government (Hollis ed.) (Thomas Hollis)
• Union and Liberty: The Political Philosophy of John C. Calhoun (John C. Calhoun)
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Mary Wollstonecraft)