240px-Harriet_Martineau_by_Richard_Evans.jpg30.69 KBWas Henry Hazlitt right in his defense of capitalism as "the system of freedom, of justice, of productivity," a system in which people are "free to choose. . . free to get and to keep the fruits of their labor" because they "recognize that their reward depends on their own efforts and output?"[1] Or is wealth inequality fundamentally unjust?
Can you ever know another person? There is an optimistic dogma that even though we struggle to understand each other, it is possible, with effort, to bridge the gap.
Homer’s Iliad relates gruesome details of the horrific war between the Achaians and the Trojans over the beautiful Helen of Sparta. The question in every reader’s mind: How could the beauty of one woman inspire such devastation? How…
Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David’s hilarious and highly admired follow-up to Seinfeld, has wrapped up its twelfth and final season. Throughout this last season of what has perhaps been the greatest American comedy series since…
In Anarchy, State and Utopia, Robert Nozick recounted ‘The Tale of The Slave’ the theme of which is that income taxation is slavery. For a long time, I thought this was Nozick’s own idea; but upon visiting the footnotes it turns out…
James Baldwin was one of the greatest American writers, a civil rights activist, and someone who stood up for Black liberty. He was not a libertarian, but those interested in liberty should take heed of his words and the way he…
Mitch Daniels sings nothing but high praise of Charles Murray, for the social scientist says what no one else will. In this Future of Liberty episode, Daniels and Murray discuss some of Murray’s boldest claims about social welfare,…
While self-help books have been around for millennia, the popularity of the genre owes a great deal to Samuel Smiles's Self-Help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct.
I buy books. Lots of them. Lots of books. For years, if I remember correctly, I haven't spent a week without adding - at least - a new book to my library.
The Faust legend has held the imagination of Western culture for many years. Variants of the story have appeared as stage works, poems, novels, and even instrumental music. The man who makes a deal with the Devil sometimes achieves…
Our friends at the University of Louisville's McConnell Center launched an interesting program this year in which they are asking authors and experts to tell us why WE should read the books that helped shape them or those that have…
