This book, a diagnosis of the long-run crisis in international economic

relations, was finished in 1942, when World War II was still going

on. It begins with a careful examination of the state of affairs at

the time, and goes on to explain the powerful forces which created

it--the disintegration of the framework of world economy, the military

aspect of economic nationalism, the effort of industrial countries to

“agrarianize,” the effort of agricultural countries to “industrialize,”

the disturbances in the monetary and financial mechanism of the world

economy, and the influence of policies that aim at national economic

“stabilization.” It is the most thorough and penetrating analysis of

international economic disintegration up to the time of its appearance,

and is particularly impressive because it sees the problem in its wider

implications.

RÖPKE, WILHELM. _The Social Crisis of Our Time._ University of Chicago

Press. 1950. 260 pp.

This book, first published in Switzerland under the title _Die

Gesellschaftskrisis der Gegenwart_, is the first volume of a trilogy

(though each of the volumes is self-contained), and it is the most

available to American readers. Röpke is outstanding, not merely for

the acuteness of his analysis, but for the breadth of his learning and

the breadth of his view, which go much beyond the purely economic field.

Some readers are likely to have difficulties because Professor Röpke

repudiates not only “collectivism,” but “capitalism,” and advocates a

course that he has called “The Third Way.” This, however, does not mean

a “middle-of-the-road policy” as commonly understood. When Röpke comes

to specific issues he nearly always advocates the solution of “the

free market economy.” But he makes a sharp distinction between a free

market economy as an ideal, and its actual historical embodiment in

“capitalism.” This seems to me a semantic separation which, in face of

the established usage of the words, is likely to be more confusing than

clarifying. Röpke quite properly contends that while economic liberty

is a _necessary_ condition of “the Good Society” it is not always a

_sufficient_ condition. This in itself is true enough, but it sometimes

leads him into irrelevant or dubious recommendations. Yet every

individualist and true liberal will profit from reading him. Frank H.

Knight has rightly called this “a tremendously impressive book.”

RÖPKE, WILHELM. _Civitas Humana._ London: Hodge. 1948. 235 pp.

This is the second volume of the Röpke trilogy. It seeks to outline

the requirements of “a humane order of society.” It discusses such

questions as moral foundations, the place of science, the criteria of

the healthy and the sick government, counterweights to the power of the

State, the problem of “decongestion” and “deproletarianization,” the

decentralization of industry, and the elimination of business-cycle

fluctuations. It pleads for the maintenance of a “peasant agriculture”

and briefly outlines the requirements of a new international order.

RÖPKE, WILHELM. _Internationale Ordnung._ Erlenbach-Zürich: Eugen

Rentsch Verlag. 1945. 337 pp.

Although this volume has been translated into French under the title

_La Communauté Internationale_ (Geneva: Éditions du Cheval Ailé),

no English translation is available. It is concerned, as its title

implies, with international economic problems. It discusses the decay

of a world economy, the general fear of competition, the fear of a

“passive balance” of payments, and the steps necessary to establish

a new world economy. Among these steps the author puts courageous

emphasis, in view of present fashionable Keynesism, on the need

of restoring an international gold standard. “If the existence of

a neo-liberal movement is known far beyond the narrow circles of

experts, the credit belongs mainly to Röpke, at least so far as the

German-speaking public is concerned.”--F. A. Hayek.

ROGERS, JAMES E. THOROLD. _The Economic Interpretation of History._

London: Unwin. 1888. 548 pp.

“Thorold Rogers was, perhaps, the most broad-minded of the Victorian

economists who followed Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill; he refused to

be tied by the abstractions of Ricardo, and unlike the majority of the

economists, he had a command of pure and vigorous English.... The above

work is most valuable.... The preface will repay careful study. It is

the work of a strong Individualist.... The chapter on _Laissez-faire_

(XVI) should be especially noted.”--PI.

ROGERS, SHERMAN. _Why Kill the Goose?_ Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation

for Economic Education. 1947. 78 pp.

A former socialist, converted to the benefits of the free private

enterprise system, argues that we have in it a goose which lays

golden eggs, and will continue to produce in abundance the economic

necessities of life--if we do not kill it through impatient and

ignorant policies. He presents a long list of popular misconceptions

and fallacies and of the facts which correct them. Elementary, simple

and very readable.

ROOT, E. MERRILL. _Collectivism on the Campus._ Devin-Adair. 1955.

The theme of this book is “the battle for the mind in American

colleges.” Professor Root argues that American college faculties today

are dominated by collectivists--whom he calls “State liberals”--and

that conservatives, libertarians, or true individualists on those

faculties are not only in a minority but have a difficult time.

ROSENBERG, ARTHUR. _A History of Bolshevism._ Oxford University Press.

1934. 250 pp.

This is a translation from the German. Dr. Rosenberg wrote the book as

a disillusioned communist. “Theory dominates Russian politics to an

extent almost incomprehensible to the ordinary, practical Englishman;

and Professor Rosenberg analyzes, with skill and knowledge, the

theoretical foundations of the struggles of the past seventeen years.

They revolve, of course, round the interpretation of Marxism.”--John

Hallett, in _The Spectator_. “One of the most instructive books yet

published on the history of bolshevism.”--W. L. Langer, in _Foreign

Affairs_.

ROSSI, ANGELO. _The Communist Party in Action._ Yale University Press.

1950. 301 pp.

“This analytical study of the French Communist Party is one of the most

important books on political theory and practice that have appeared in

recent years.... Professor Kendall is to be congratulated not only for

his translation but for his thoughtful introduction which challenges

some of the premises of Rossi’s own alternative position as well

as those of its critics.”--Sidney Hook, in _Annals of the American

Academy_.

ROSTOVTZEFF, MICHAEL IVANOVICH. _Social and Economic History of the

Roman Empire._ Oxford University Press. 1926. 696 pp.

Not a history in the ordinary sense, but a study of the social and

economic life of the Roman Empire. “Unquestionably the most solid

and also the most brilliant contribution which has ever been made

toward the interpretation of the Roman Empire.”--R. P. Blake, in the

_American Political Science Review_. “Professor Rostovtzeff’s book will

probably rank among the most notable contributions to the subject since

Gibbon’s.”--A. J. Toynbee, in the _Nation and Athenaeum_.

ROUGIER, LOUIS. _Les Mystiques Économiques._ Paris: Librairie de

Médicis. 1938. 1949. 278 pp.

This is a penetrating study of the steps by which liberal democracies

have been or can be transformed into totalitarian states. By

_“mystiques”_ the author refers to economic doctrines that are mere

rationalizations of prejudice, passion or sentimentality, and rest

neither on reason nor experience. Special chapters are devoted to

an examination of the older liberal _mystique_, the _mystique_ of a

planned economy, of the corporative state, of Marxism, etc. M. Rougier

advocates what he calls _“le libéralisme constructeur,”_ which implies

liberty within a carefully constructed framework of law, constantly

safeguarding competition, and “is not to be confused with the theory

of _laisser faire, laisser passer_, which ends in the suppression of

liberty through the very excess of liberty.”

ROUSSEAU, JEAN JACQUES. _The Social Contract._ 1762. Many editions.

227 pp.

There is a discussion of the great influence of Rousseau in the

introductory essay to this list, “Individualism in Politics and

Economics.” Although Rousseau’s ideas deeply colored subsequent

development of the philosophy of individualism, his peculiar type of

rationalistic individualism, as F. A. Hayek has pointed out, mainly led

to the opposite of true individualism--i.e., socialism or collectivism.

RUEFF, JACQUES. _L’Ordre Social._ Paris: Recueil Sirey. 1945. 2 vols.

747 pp.

A profound and original book, which makes a searching analysis of

fundamental economic, political, legal and moral concepts. It draws a

constant contrast between a regime of economic liberalism with true

rights, and a statist, socialist or authoritarian regime with its

system of “false rights.” It is especially effective in demonstrating

the demoralizing economic and political effects of the cycle of deficit

financing, monetary inflation, exchange control and price control that

has marked the policies of so many “free” countries of the West since

World War II.

RUEFF, JACQUES. _Épître aux Dirigistes._ Paris: Gallimard. 1949. 120

pp.

This is a “letter” addressed in a conciliatory tone to the Economic

Planners, and more particularly to those who think that they can halt

inflation or control an economy largely through the control of prices.

M. Rueff shows the many evils to which attempts at price-fixing lead,

and points on the other hand to the benefits brought about by freedom

of the markets and a policy of economic liberalism.

RUEFF, JACQUES. _The Fallacies of Lord Keynes’ General Theory.

Quarterly Journal of Economics._ May, 1947. 24 pp.

An important analysis.

RUGGIERO, GUIDO DE. _The History of European Liberalism._ Oxford

University Press. 1928. 476 pp.

The author defines liberalism as neither democracy, in the sense of the

rule of the mere majority, nor authoritarianism, in the sense of the

irresponsible rule of those who happen to be in power. “An excellent

exposition of modern liberalism.”--_Boston Transcript._

RUSSELL, DEAN. _The TVA Idea._ Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation for

Economic Education. 1949. 108 pp.

“With surgical skill, Dean Russell dissects not only the Tennessee

Valley Authority in operation, but the philosophy of industry

socialization, which the TVA represents. In a mere 100 pages, packed

with supporting data, Russell thoroughly debunks the blatant claims

made for TVA by its starry-eyed supporters. He then raises a warning

that the TVA is more than just dams and power plants--it’s an idea,

the extension of which involves loss of individual freedom and drastic

political, social and economic consequences.”--John Fisher, in the

_Chicago Tribune_.

SALTER, F. R. _Karl Marx and Modern Socialism._ Macmillan. 1921. 260

pp.

“In some ways this is the most useful account and criticism of

Karl Marx that we have. Prof. J. Shield Nicholson in his _Revival

of Marxism_ can hardly hide his complete contempt for Marx’s

inconsistencies and confusions, and he admits that he finds him

‘hopeless and depressing.’ But _Das Kapital_ has had an immense

influence, and Mr. Salter is more sympathetic. In fact, one might

almost say that he is clearly out to paint as favorable a picture of

Marx as his conscience will allow. In spite of this and his constant

attempts to explain away or minimize errors, he cannot avoid exposing

the false assumptions and the structure of false reasoning on which

Marxian theories are built.”--PI (1927).

SAMUELSON, BERNARD. _Socialism Rejected._ London: Smith, Elder. 1913.

330 pp.

“A satirical examination of Socialism, written in a mock heroic

style.”--PI. The author considers “art” socialism, “Christian”

socialism, political and ethical socialism, utopian socialism,

“natural” socialism, and syndicalist socialism, and rejects them all.

SANBORN, FREDERIC ROCKWELL. _Design for War._ Devin-Adair. 1951. 607

pp.

A study of secret power politics from 1937 to 1941. “The basic

contention of the book is that a President of the United States ought

to consult freely and publicly with the Cabinet and Congress before

making foreign engagements of any consequence. The author expresses the

belief that the U. S. should follow more nearly the pattern of Britain,

where foreign policy decisions generally are made only after a thorough

airing in Commons, and where the Prime Minister is always directly

accountable to the elected representatives of the people. The book is

heavily documented.”--_Springfield Republican._

SAY, JEAN BAPTISTE. _Treatise on Political Economy._ 1803.

(Philadelphia: Grigg & Eliot. 1834.)

Jean Baptiste Say (1767-1832) was the founder of the classical school

in France. Although an ardent disciple of Adam Smith, he made it his

mission to reduce the “vast chaos” of Smith’s ideas to more orderly and

simplified form. Among his original contributions were the introduction

of the famous term _entrepreneur_ into economic terminology, his

emphasis on and explanation of the role of the entrepreneur, and

his theory of markets. Say was the originator of “Say’s Law,” which

points out that ultimately goods and services must be bought and paid

for with other goods and services. This is a truism. But many errors

resulted from ignoring it, as Malthus and others did, in their theory

that depressions are caused by a _general_ overproduction. And many

present-day fallacies result from actually _denying_ Say’s Law, as

the Keynesians do. In short--although this truth must, of course, be

understood with the proper qualifications--supply creates its own

demand.

SCHAPIRO, J. SALWYN. _Liberalism and the Challenge of Fascism._

McGraw-Hill. 1949. 421 pp.

An admirable history of social and intellectual forces in England

and France from 1815 to 1870. The book is unsatisfactory in its

interpretation and understanding of economic developments and the

contribution of the classical economists; but it is excellent in

its shrewd and balanced judgments of the political, philosophical

and literary currents of the period. It is distinguished by a ripe

scholarship and is very well written.

“This book is devoted to a study of the formation of the pattern of

liberalism in England and France, where its ideals and policies became

a model, followed more or less by the other nations of Europe. It

also treats of the origins of fascist ideology in these countries ...

Chapters 13 to 15, dealing with the Heralds of Fascism, aim to throw a

new light on Louis Napoleon, Proudhon, and Carlyle--the light of the

present on the past. The system established in France by the strange

and enigmatic Emperor cannot be understood without its being seen as a

historic preview of the fascist state with its popular, even socialist,

appeals cloaking a ruthless personal dictatorship.”--From the Preface.

SCHATZ, ALBERT. _L’Individualisme économique et social._ Paris: A.

Colin. 1907. 590 pp.

“This great work of 590 pages is one of the most exhaustive studies of

Individualism that exists and probably the most complete history.”--PI.

“An excellent survey of the history of individualist theories....

Deserves to be much more widely known as a contribution not only to the

subject indicated by its title but to the history of economic theory in

general.”--F. A. Hayek.

SCHNABEL, F. _Deutsche Geschichte im 19. Jahrhundert._ Freiburg i.B. 4

vols. 1929-37.

“A remarkable recent work on the modern history of Germany which is not

so well known abroad as it deserves.”--F. A. Hayek.

SCHUMPETER, JOSEPH A. _Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy._ Harper.

1942. 381 pp.

An attempt to compare the relative merits and defects of capitalism

and socialism, explain their respective relations to democracy, and

indicate the type of society probable or possible in the future. I

include this book in the present list with misgivings. Much of it is

deliberately paradoxical. Professor Schumpeter seems to me unduly

pessimistic about the future prospects of capitalism. He airily

grants to socialism a practicability that no complete socialism could

possess; and he never seriously comes to grips with the main economic

argument against it. Yet this is nonetheless a remarkable book, rich in

scholarship, witty, and often penetrating and profound. At least one

college professor of my acquaintance, who himself ardently supports the

principles of free enterprise, tells me that this book more than any

other has shaken some of his students out of previous pro-socialist

leanings. It can probably be recommended, therefore, to advanced

economic students already acquainted with the work of von Mises, and

possessing analytical powers of their own.

SCHUMPETER, JOSEPH A. _History of Economic Analysis._ Oxford

University Press. 1954. 1,260 pp.

“A monumental achievement of scholarship, without equal in its

field.... Readers of this journal will probably be irritated by the

unnecessary condescending, if not contemptuous, manner in which

Schumpeter usually refers to nineteenth-century liberalism and

_laissez-faire_. But they should remember that it comes from an author

who knew as well as anybody ‘that capitalist evolution tends to peter

out because the modern state may crush or paralyze its motive force,’

yet who seems to have had an irrepressible urge _pour épater les

bourgeois_.”--F. A. Hayek, in _The Freeman_.

SCHWARTZ, HARRY. _Russia’s Soviet Economy._ Prentice-Hall. 1950. 592

pp.

A careful description of the historical and ideological background

of Soviet Russia, its economic plan, its industry, agriculture, and

transportation. “The true value of this book lies in its solidly

informative presentation of the Soviet economic machine and its

pernicious effects upon the individual human Russian. A lucid

introductory essay is contributed by William Henry Chamberlin.”--David

Hecht, in the _Saturday Review of Literature_.

SCHWARZ, SOLOMON M. _The Jews in the Soviet Union._ Syracuse

University Press. 1951. 380 pp.

“In the first part of the book Dr. Schwarz exhaustively analyzes

Communist doctrine on minority nationalities in general, and on the

Jewish people in particular; the history of the Soviet treatment of

the Jewish community since the coming to power of the Bolsheviks in

1917; the successive Soviet programs for solving the Jewish problem;

the story of the province of Birobidzhan; and the present situation

of the Jews in the Soviet Union. In the second part of the book, the

author makes a study of the evidences of antisemitism in the USSR from

the first years of Communist rule until today.”--From the Publisher’s

Note. “For the time being, it can be called the definitive study on the

subject.”--Hans Kohn, in _The New Republic_.

SCHWARZSCHILD, LEOPOLD. _The Red Prussian._ Scribner’s. 1947. 422 pp.

“A biography of Karl Marx, mostly based on the enormous Marx-Engels

correspondence, along with a critique of Marx’s _Capital_ and of the

Marxian theory of value. Mr. Schwarzschild does not present a kindly

portrait of his subject; he convicts Marx, by quoting him, of virulent

anti-semitism, and makes him out to be a petty, dishonest, completely

unscrupulous and opportunistic man, a loose thinker, and a very bad

prophet--in other words, the archetype of the totalitarian exponent

of power who has become such a common figure in our times.... In

holding the Marxian economic theory up to a strong light, the author

uncovers some grave flaws in it, which have been noted by other critics

but rarely so sharply illuminated. An important and well-presented

book.”--_New Yorker._

SCOVILLE, JOHN W. _Labor Monopolies or Freedom._ Committee for

Constitutional Government. 1946. 167 pp.

A vigorous criticism of “collective bargaining” as commonly interpreted

in practice. The author contends that competition will ensure fair

wages. His final conclusion is: “Employers and employees should be free

to make voluntary agreements with each other. The employer should be

free. The worker should be free. Neither should be subject to coercion,

intimidation, or compulsion from any source.”

SCOVILLE, JOHN W., AND SARGENT, NOEL. _Fact and Fancy in the T. N. E.

C. Monographs._ National Association of Manufacturers. 1942. 812 pp.

During the administrations of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the

Temporary National Economic Committee was set up, held hearings, and

published forty-three monographs, running to 12,400 pages, which

attempted to prove the existence of great concentration of economic

power. This is a documented answer. The authors declare: “Many, but not

all, of these monographs are impregnated with hostility to corporations

and individuals of wealth. These reviews expose those statements and

conclusions which, in the opinion of the reviewers, are fallacious or

unsupported by evidence.... The monographs vary greatly in quality;

they run the gamut from scholarly and comprehensive exposition to

political claptrap.”

SENNHOLZ, HANS F. _How Can Europe Survive?_ Van Nostrand. 1955. 336 pp.

This is one of the very few books of recent years to give a realistic

analysis of the numerous schemes for European and Western unification,

and to show how virtually all of these schemes have been rendered

futile by internal interventionist and socialist policies that

inevitably intensify and perpetuate nationalism. The author points out

that the only feasible alternative is international cooperation based

on individual liberty and free enterprise.

SENNHOLZ, MARY (ed.). _On Freedom and Free Enterprise._ Van Nostrand.

1956. 333 pp.

Essays in honor of Ludwig von Mises, on subjects ranging from “The Road

to Totalitarianism” to “Progressive Taxation Reconsidered,” by nineteen

authors from the United States, South Africa, Switzerland, Italy,

Mexico, and France: Jacques Rueff, William E. Rappard, Henry Hazlitt,

Bertrand de Jouvenel, Hans F. Sennholz, F. A. Harper, Wilhelm Röpke,

Faustino Ballvé, Carlo Antoni, Louis M. Spadaro, Fritz Machlup, L. M.

Lachmann, Leonard E. Read, W. H. Hutt, William H. Peterson, Murray N.

Rothbard, F. A. Hayek, Percy L. Greaves, Jr., and Louis Baudin.

SERGE, VICTOR. _The Case of Comrade Tulayev._ Doubleday. 1950. 306 pp.

On a cold winter’s night a young clerk, on impulse, shot and killed a

highly placed member of the Communist party in Russia, Comrade Tulayev.

The young man escapes, but, in the far-flung investigations of the

“plot,” three other men, of far greater importance, are pursued to

their death, men who are not guilty of this crime, at least, but men

who have roused the distrust and enmity of the rulers of Russia. The

author, who died in 1947, was an old revolutionary who had lived in

exile, in France and Mexico, after the mid-thirties. “This is a novel

in the great Russian tradition. Its theme is the modern tragedy of the

old Bolsheviks, faced with the insoluble problem of reconciling their

abiding faith in the original Communist ideal with acceptance of the

tyranny, injustice and misery of the Soviet world they made.”--Freda

Utley, in _Human Events_.

SHADWELL, ARTHUR. _The Socialist Movement, 1824-1924._ London: Allan.

1925. 2 vols.

“Dr. Shadwell has been described as ‘the greatest authority on the

Socialist movement,’ and outside the Socialist camp this is probably

true. These volumes constitute the best short history of the movement,

and the only one which brings the account up to 1924.... The work

includes an excellent refutation of Marxism, and the errors and

illusions of Socialism are constantly indicated.”--PI (1927).

SHADWELL, ARTHUR. _The Breakdown of Socialism._ Little, Brown. 1926.

272 pp.

“A valuable study of recent Socialist experiments in Europe.”--PI.

SHUB, DAVID. _Lenin: a Biography._ Doubleday. 1948. 438 pp.

“Mr. Shub’s biography is the book you must read if you want to know

what Communism is.... You will learn that Lenin’s superiority as a

politician lay in the fact that he alone realized that social democracy

is not the ultimate state of liberalism, but its antithesis; and you

will learn by that token--though not directly from Mr. Shub, who sticks

to his job as the biographer of a doctrine--how to deal with Communism

effectively.”--Asher Brynes, in _The Saturday Review of Literature_.

SIDGWICK, HENRY. _The Principles of Political Economy._ Macmillan.

1883. 592 pp.

“In economics Sidgwick tends to follow John Stuart Mill; but his was

an independent type of mind and he is always anxious to unearth new

truths.... In the second ... section ... he begins by referring to the

‘sweeping doctrine,’ mainly derived from the Physiocrats, that ‘the

sole function of an ideal government in relation to industry is simply

to leave it alone.’ While giving this a certain general approval,

he holds that it postulates a large amount of human virtue and

unselfishness, and that there must be cases ‘in which its optimistic

conclusion is inadmissible.’ Monopolies, for instance, are often urgent

matters for Government interference. He gives a list of the familiar

exceptions, e.g., Government must interfere for the purpose of national

defense, the preservation of public health, etc., etc. Much of what he

lays down is too well recognized to need recapitulation.”--PI.

SIDGWICK, HENRY. _The Elements of Politics._ Macmillan. 1891. 665 pp.

“Henry Sidgwick was a thinker of very high ability; possibly his

influence is below his merits, because he possessed a cautious and

noncommittal mind which did not favor vivid and popular treatment of

his subjects; and further, his style is dry. This book from Chapters

III to XII has much to say about the respective provinces of the

Government and the individual. He is too cautious to go much beyond

empiric methods, and is content to allow the questions to be determined

largely by the circumstances of each particular case. However, his

bias is towards Individualism. He points out several dangers in

Government interference--(1) That of overburdening the governmental

machinery with work. (2) That of increasing the power capable of being

used by governing persons oppressively or corruptly. (3) The danger

that the delicate economic functions of government will be hampered

by the desire to gratify certain specially influential sections of

the community. He adds: ‘When, along with these dangers, we take into

account that the work of Government must be done by persons who--even

with the best arrangement for effective supervision and promotion

of merit--can only have a part of the stimulus and enterprise which

the independent worker feels, it will be easily understood that we

are not justified in concluding that governmental interference is

always expedient, even where _laissez-faire_ leads to a manifestly

unsatisfactory result; its expediency has to be decided in any

particular case by a careful estimate of advantages and drawbacks,

requiring data obtained from special experience.’”--PI.

SIMONS, HENRY C. _Economic Policy for a Free Society._ University of

Chicago Press. 1948. 353 pp.

Reviewing this book in _The New York Times_ of Aug. 1, 1948, I

wrote: “As an economic theorist Simons was far from first-rate; his

originality lay in the realm of phrase-making rather than in that of

thought; and while his style was vigorous, epigrammatic and witty, it

was also interrupted, discursive and often pedantic.... [But] no one

could deny Simons’ disinterestedness, or the depth of his desire for

a better and freer society. Though many of his ideas were eccentric

and crotchety, and neither adopted nor expounded with the patient,

step-by-step reasoning which mark the work of Adam Smith, Mill,

Marshall and most of the others to whom he felt himself to belong, he

shared with these great figures their deep concern for freedom and a

suspicion everywhere of concentrated power.”

A more favorable verdict is given by F. A. Hayek: “One need not agree

with the whole of this work and one may even regard some of the

suggestions made in it as incompatible with a free society, and yet

recognize it as one of the most important contributions made in recent

times.”

SIMONSON, GUSTAVE. _A Plain Examination of Socialism._ London: Swan

Sonnenschein. 1900. 155 pp.

“A short and handy criticism, written by an American, of the general

Socialist position. The writer contends that it is based upon absurd

postulates. It rests on the undemonstrable and untenable assumptions

that we can possibly right in the present supposed wrongs of the past;

that each one who is born has a ‘natural right to the free use of the

instruments of production which others may own; that labor is the sole

cause of the value of anything and everything produced; that all values

in property are not founded on demand-and-supply; and that a large

share of these values has been produced by, and wrongly withheld from,

those who have created them--in other words, that most of the present

private property is the accumulated plunder from unrewarded past labor,

and that this plunder must go on forever as long as the instruments of

production are in private ownership.’”--PI.

SMITH, ADAM. _The Wealth of Nations._ 1776. Many editions. (London:

Methuen. Edited by Edwin Cannan. 1904.) (Modern Library. 1937.) 2

vols. 462 pp. 506 pp.

Adam Smith is not merely the founder of political economy, but the

father of economic liberty. In the 180 years since _The Wealth of

Nations_ appeared, the case for free trade, for example, has been

stated thousands of times, but probably never with more direct

simplicity and force than in that volume.

Gide and Rist, in their _History of Economic Doctrines_, have admirably

summarized the qualities that make _The Wealth of Nations_ unique: It

“instantly eclipsed the tentative efforts of [Smith’s] predecessors....

His discussion of ... questions is marked by such mastery of detail

and such balance of judgment that he convinces without effort. His

facts are intermixed with reasoning, his illustrations with argument.

He is instructive as well as persuasive. Withal there is no trace of

pedantry, no monotonous reiteration in the work, and the reader is not

burdened with the presence of a cumbersome logical apparatus. All is

elegantly simple.... In addition to this, Smith has been successful

in borrowing from his predecessors all their more important ideas and

welding them into a more general system. He superseded them because he

rendered their work useless. A true social and economic philosophy was

substituted for their fragmentary studies, and an entirely new value

given to their contributions.”

SMITH, BRADFORD B. _Liberty and Taxes._ Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation

for Economic Education. 1947. 20 pp.

The author argues against the progressive income tax and in favor of

proportional taxation. “The one thing always to dread is the laying

of a tax burden on minorities by majorities which the majority itself

escapes. That is tax despoliation.”

SMITH, WALTER BEDELL. _My Three Years in Moscow._ Lippincott. 1950.

346 pp.

An account of three years of the cold war in Russia as viewed by the

former United States ambassador to Moscow in the period from March 1946

to March 1949. Among the subjects discussed are Soviet industry and

agriculture, the cultural purge, slave labor, anti-Semitism, the Berlin

blockade, the Yugoslav situation, and the possibility of war.

SNYDER, CARL. _Capitalism the Creator._ Macmillan. 1940. 473 pp.

“The thesis here presented,” writes the author, “is that there is one

way, and only one way, that any people, in all history, have ever

risen from barbarism and poverty to affluence and culture; and that

is by that concentrated and highly organized system of production and

exchange which we call capitalistic.”

In reviewing this book in _The New York Times_, I wrote: “It is frankly

and belligerently a defense of capitalism, and as such it is one of the

most original and interesting this reviewer has ever seen. Mr. Snyder

is one of the country’s best known statisticians; he is full of all

sorts of miscellaneous learning.... He uses epithets freely and he has

a habit of deliberately leaving out the verbs in most of his sentences,

so that the reader is bumped and jolted rather than carried along.

“Mr. Snyder has a profound faith in the probative value of

statistics.... Impressive are the statistics and reasoning by which Mr.

Snyder contends that wages are determined primarily by the product per

worker; and that the product per worker is determined in the long run

by the capital investment per worker, which makes possible the use of

new machinery, new processes and new methods of production.”

SOLOVIEV, MIKHAIL. _When the Gods Are Silent._ McKay. 1953. 506 pp.

“The author, a former editor of _Izvestia_, tells a moving story

of the development of the Russian revolutionary movement from its

beginnings before World War I until a period just after World War II.

It depicts, through the eyes of members of a Russian peasant family

deeply involved in the whole movement, the growing blind obedience and

the final realization that Russia must be saved but cannot be by the

Communists.”--_Library Journal._

SOMARY, FELIX. _Democracy at Bay._ Knopf. 1952. 171 pp.

William Henry Chamberlin calls this “a profound and searching little

book” which “deserves a place on the same shelf with Hayek’s _Road

to Serfdom_.” Somary measures the ills of the modern world against

the standards of old-fashioned liberal individualism. He condemns

the contemporary erosion of property rights, the tendency of direct

taxation to reach confiscatory levels, and the general abandonment of

the gold standard for unlimited paper inflation. “The more functions

the state assumes,” he contends, “the less it is possible to control

the administration.”

SOUVARINE, BORIS. _Stalin: A Critical Survey of Bolshevism._ Alliance.

1939. 690 pp.

“This book is one of the most remarkable biographies of our times....

It is the best critical history of Bolshevism from Lenin to Stalin

that has been written to date.... Lesser men would have been borne

down by the weight of M. Souvarine’s vast erudition, but the author

has a keen mind, a delightful sense of humor, and knows how to etch in

acid.”--Sidney Hook, in _Books_.

SPENCER, HERBERT. _The Man Versus the State._ 1884. Many editions.

(Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers. 1940.) 213 pp.

One of the most powerful and influential arguments for limited

government, _laissez faire_ and individualism ever written. The

prophetic insight of such essays as “The Coming Slavery,” pointing

out the then unrecognized threat of socialism to the freedom of the

individual, has led to a strong revival of interest in Spencer after

long neglect.

“Dictatorial measures, rapidly multiplied,” he wrote in the preface to

this volume in 1884, “have tended continually to narrow the liberties

of individuals.... Regulations have been made in yearly-growing

numbers, restraining the citizen in directions where his actions were

previously unchecked, and compelling actions which previously he might

perform or not as he liked; and at the same time heavier public burdens

... have further restricted his freedom, by lessening that portion

of his earnings which he can spend as he pleases, and augmenting the

portion taken from him to be spent as public agents please.”

Spencer contended that the sphere of government should be “confined

to the duty of preventing aggressions of individuals upon each other,

and protecting the nation at large against external enemies.” It

should, in other words, be confined to maintaining security of life and

property, and the freedom of the individual to exercise his faculties.

He warned against all efforts by the State to confer positive benefits

upon citizens. He objected even to sanitary supervision. Even most

individualists today would regard Spencer’s individualism as in many

respects extreme. Yet no one concerned with individual freedom can

afford to ignore his work. Every student of the subject should be

familiar with it.

Hardly less important in its bearing on individualism is Spencer’s

Social Statics, published in 1850. But the theme of individualism

runs through all his writings--through _The Study of Sociology_, _The

Principles of Ethics_, and the _Autobiography_.

SPERBER, MANES. _The Burned Bramble._ Doubleday. 1951. 405 pp.

A novel about the Communist party in Europe in the 1930’s. “An

impassioned and profound picture of Communist experience in the years

before Stalinism had fully shown its face--of the faith and exaltation;

the monstrous erasure of human decency and truth; the incredible

loyalty and self-sacrifice whose eventual reward was a disillusioned

soul, a cheated mind, and a bullet in the neck.”--C. J. Rolo, in _The

Atlantic_.

SPITZBERGEN, HENRY E. (HENRY PLOWDEEPER). _“Liberals” and the

Constitution._ Washington, D. C.: Liberty & Freedom Press. 1950. 301

pp.

A defense of free enterprise, private ownership of property, limited

government, and the doctrine of constitutional “separation of powers.”

SPRADING, CHARLES T. (ed.). _Liberty and the Great Libertarians._ Los

Angeles: The author. 1913. 540 pp.

An anthology on liberty. Among the authors from whom passages have been

selected are: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, John Stuart

Mill, Emerson, Thoreau, Ingersoll, Henry George, Bernard Shaw, Olive

Shreiner, and Maria Montessori.

STAMP, SIR JOSIAH. _Wealth and Taxable Capacity._ London: King. 1922.

195 pp.

“An analysis of the fundamental factors determining the relation of

price, taxation and public debt to the total national income and

capital.... Like Prof. Bowley’s works on national income, this is a

book with which all who are seriously concerned about the problem of

distribution ought to be acquainted.”--PI.

STAMP, SIR JOSIAH. _Inheritance as an Economic Factor. Economic

Journal._ September 1926.

“The best analysis of the economic significance of inheritance that

has yet been made. Of the conclusions, the following is of fundamental

importance in modern controversy. ‘I think it probable that, through

the inequalities due to the system in which inheritance has a part, the

average man has a slightly smaller proportionate share of the aggregate

than he would have had if there had been no inheritance system, but

a substantially larger _absolute_ amount because he shares a larger

aggregate.... Whether under the circumstances he is justified in having

a sense of injustice ... is a matter lying beyond economics.’”--PI.

STANNARD, HAROLD MARTIN. _Two Constitutions._ Van Nostrand. 1949. 210

pp.

A comparative study of the written American constitution and the

unwritten British one. It attempts to show a unity of purpose

underlying the two.

STEINBERG, JULIEN. _Verdict of Three Decades._ Duell, Sloan & Pearce.

1950. 634 pp.

“An integrated and well-edited collection of writings about Soviet

Communism, drawn mostly from the works of men and women who have

revolted against it and believe that Lenin and Stalin cynically

betrayed a revolution that they did not start in the first place.... If

there are any people around who still do not believe the accusations

made against Lenin and Stalin, this book should dispel their

doubts.”--_New Yorker._

STEPHEN, SIR JAMES FITZJAMES. _Liberty, Equality, Fraternity._ London:

Smith, Elder. 1873. 350 pp.

“A considerable portion of the book is devoted to J. S. Mill’s essay

_On Liberty_. Stephen was a utilitarian and an admirer of Mill’s

earlier writings. Mill, he says, ‘is the only modern author who has

handled the subject with whom I agree sufficiently to differ from

him profitably.’ Stephen delights in logical controversy. Here is an

example: ‘To force an unwilling person to contribute to the British

Museum is as distinct a violation of Mr. Mill’s principle as religious

persecution.’ Stephen emphasized the necessity for definitions and the

difficulty of finding a satisfactory definition for liberty. It is an

interesting and useful book by a clever and vigorous writer with a

good legal brain, who leans to the individualistic side and despises

sentimentalism in economics and politics.”--PI. There are chapters

on “Equality,” “Fraternity,” and “The Doctrine of Liberty in Its

Application to Morals.”

STEPHEN, SIR LESLIE. _History of English Thought in the Eighteenth

Century._ 1876. London School of Economics. 1950. 3 vols. 1,233 pp.

“No single work quoted will be more useful to a beginner than this.

Chapter X, ‘Political Theories,’ and Chapter XI, ‘Political Economics,’

are indispensable, but the whole is very valuable, because a knowledge

of the intellectual conditions of the eighteenth century is all

important for an understanding of English Individualism.”--PI.

STEPHEN, SIR LESLIE. _The English Utilitarians._ Putnam. 1900. 3 vols.

326 pp. 382 pp. 525 pp.

“Written when Stephen’s health was failing, these volumes have less

vigor and merit than the previous work. But almost every chapter bears

on our subject, and much useful information and criticism may be

extracted.”--PI.

STEPHEN, SIR LESLIE. _The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Bart._

London: Smith, Elder. 1893. 504 pp.

“Stephen, who in later life became a judge, was long a busy journalist,

writing much for the _Saturday Review_ and _Pall Mall Gazette_. His

brother and biographer says: ‘He had sat at the feet of Bentham and

Austin, and had found the most congenial philosophy in Hobbes.’ He had

two counts against Mill--(1) That he had forsaken the straightforward

principles of utilitarianism and _laissez-faire_. (2) That though he

had diverged into a sort of sentimental Socialism, he would not permit

the State to use the force it had at its disposal, for the purpose of

restraining evil. Stephen was a convinced Individualist. His creed was

to allow as much scope as possible to liberty and the individual,

under the protection of a strong Government for purposes of police and

security.”--PI.

STIGLER, GEORGE J. _Five Lectures on Economic Problems._ Longmans,

Green. 1949. 65 pp.

These lectures, delivered before the London School of Economics by a

professor of economics at Columbia University, are distinguished for

pithy wisdom and shrewd analysis. They discuss “equality,” monopolistic

competition, classical economics, mathematical economics, and the

status of competition in the United States. This last lecture is

particularly notable for the deftness with which it punctures the

popular myth that competition has been declining steadily (and in many

versions, drastically) for a half century or more. Professor Stigler

estimates that competitive industries were producing seven-tenths of

the national income in 1939, and utilizing more than four-fifths of the

labor force. In his lecture on the classical economists he shows how

much more they knew, and how much more humane and realistic they were,

than it has been fashionable for our generation to believe.

STOWE, LELAND. _Conquest by Terror._ Random House. 1952. 300 pp.

A study of the countries behind the Iron Curtain: Rumania,

Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. The author, an American

newspaperman, bases his work on his own knowledge, plus material

gained from journalists in exile, recent refugees, former officers,

specialists of various kinds, and the underground. “Mr. Stowe has

written a book to alarm the West, to make it aware of the important

changes which five to seven years of Soviet control have already

produced, not in the satellites alone but also in the balance between

East and West in Europe. It is a grim story and one which needs to be

widely reflected on.”--Philip Mosely, in the _New York Herald Tribune_.

STRAUSZ-HUPÉ, ROBERT, AND POSSONY, STEFAN T. _International Relations

in the Age of the Conflict Between Democracy and Dictatorship._

McGraw-Hill. 1950. 947 pp.

“The long title of this book suggests its massive character. The

almost unlimited subject of international relations is examined in

almost one thousand pages of text, buttressed with vast erudition and

illuminated by many flashes of perceptive wisdom. The authors are

scholars connected respectively with the University of Pennsylvania

and Georgetown University.... However, the book is far from being a

colorless collection of undisputed facts. It should be, but probably

will not be, required reading for all utopians. For much learning has

made the authors profoundly skeptical about the value of one-idea

panaceas. And they are ruthless with attempts to make platitudes a

substitute for policy.”--W. H. Chamberlin, in _Human Events_.

STRIPLING, ROBERT E. _Red Plot Against America._ Drexel Hill, Pa.:

Bell Publications. 1950. 282 pp.

“The author of this book was the chief investigator for the House

Committee on Un-American Activities from 1938 to 1948. Mr. Bob

Considine has ‘edited’ the story of Mr. Stripling’s adventures first

for a newspaper syndicate, then for publication in the present book.

The final 113 pages are lifted, by permission, from ‘primers’ against

communism published by the committee in 1948 and obtainable from the

Government Printing Office.”--_The New York Times._

STRUNSKY, SIMEON. _Two Came to Town._ Dutton. 1947. 219 pp.

A fantasy, speculating on what Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson,

respectively (introduced under the thin disguises of “Mr. Alexander”

and “Mr. Thomas”), would say and think about New York and the ideology

of present-day America if they could pay us a visit from the grave.

Under a surface of playful humor, the author conveys a wise and

penetrating message on how recent fashionable ideas and phrases could

cause us to surrender our liberties.

STYPULKOWSKI, ZBIGNIEW F. _Invitation to Moscow._ McKay. 1951. 359 pp.

The author, a Polish lawyer and political prisoner, describes his long

session in the notorious Soviet Lubianka prison, and the methods used

to obtain a confession of his non-guilt. “It would be unfortunate if

this volume were catalogued as merely another book on Soviet political

terror. It is much more than that. An important half of the book is

devoted to the author’s experience in the Polish underground, fighting

against the German invaders.... Finally, this book is valuable because

it gives the detailed story of Soviet perfidy toward the Polish

underground in the closing days of World War II.”--Harry Schwartz, in

_The New York Times_.

SULLIVAN, LAWRENCE. _Bureaucracy Runs Amuck._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1944. 318

pp.

A study of the confusion and overlapping in hundreds of the United

States war emergency bureaus and agencies.

SULZBACH, WALTER. _National Consciousness._ Washington, D. C.:

American Council on Public Affairs. 1943. 168 pp.

“Whoever reads it should have a more lively and discerning

understanding of contemporary nationalism.”--Garland Downum, in the

_American Political Science Review_.

SULZBACH, WALTER. “_Capitalistic Warmongers._” University of Chicago

Press. 1942.

Punctures with facts and economic analysis the socialist superstition

that “capitalism creates war.”

SUMNER, WILLIAM GRAHAM. _What Social Classes Owe to Each Other._ 1883.

(Yale University Press. 1927.) 169 pp.

Few men have ever exposed the fallacies of state paternalism with

more gusto and devastating logic than the American sociologist and

economist, William Graham Sumner (1840-1910). The lucidity of his style

and the humor of his illustrations are comparable to those of Bastiat.

This little book contains among others the famous essay on “The

Forgotten Man”--a phrase later perverted by politicians to mean exactly

the opposite of what Sumner meant by it: “The type and formula of most

schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their

heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D.... I call C

the Forgotten Man.... The state cannot get a cent for any man without

taking it from some other man, and this latter must be a man who has

produced and saved it. This latter is the Forgotten Man.”

Sumner also wrote valuable essays on free trade, protectionism and

_laissez faire_. He was more celebrated in his own lifetime for

his sociological work--his _Folkways_ (1907), and his monumental

four-volume study, _The Science of Society_, with A. G. Keller, which

appeared in 1927.

SWANSON, ERNST W., AND SCHMIDT, EMERSON P. _Economic Stagnation or

Progress._ McGraw-Hill. 1946. 212 pp.

A critique of recent doctrines on the mature economy, oversavings, and

deficit spending. It is also a critique of the Keynes-Hansen school

of economic stabilization--which held that the American economy was

stagnant because of “lack of investment opportunities,” and that

therefore deficit spending by government on a more or less continuous

basis was necessary to sustain prosperity. Basically, this is a book

of readings from other economists, but these are linked together

by commentaries and supplemented by the authors’ own summaries and

conclusions. The book covers much of the same ground as George

Terborgh’s _The Bogey of Economic Maturity_ (q.v.).

TALMON, L. J. _The Rise of Totalitarian Democracy._ Beacon Press.

1952. 366 pp.

This study seeks to show how totalitarian ideas grew out of utopianism,

and how the extreme democrats of the French Revolution turned into the

most ruthless dictators. “A book of great wisdom which I recommend

to anyone who not only wants to broaden his basic knowledge of the

French Revolution but also wishes to understand the basic--that is the

intellectual--causes of the modern world crisis. Dr. Talmon’s work

meets the highest academic standards.”--S. T. Possony, in the _Annals

of the American Academy_.

TANSILL, CHARLES CALLAN. _America Goes to War._ Little, Brown. 1938.

731 pp.

A study of the reasons why America went to war in 1917. “The great

value of Professor Tansill’s book is that it shows with incontestable

detail just how independent of Congressional check is the President’s

control of foreign affairs, and how this control can lead to

war.”--John Chamberlain, in _Books_. “Mr. Tansill’s book ... is

critical, searching and judicious.... It is presented in a style that

is always vigorous and sometimes brilliant. It is the most valuable

contribution to the history of the pre-war years in our literature,

and one of the notable achievements of historical scholarship of this

generation.”--H. S. Commager, in _The Yale Review_.

TANSILL, CHARLES CALLAN. _Back Door to War._ Regnery. 1952. 690 pp.

The author is professor of American diplomatic history at Georgetown

University. This volume on the origins of World War II is based on

extensive research, including access to the confidential files of the

State Department. “Prof. Tansill sketches briefly American foreign

policy from Versailles to 1933, then gives many details and biting

comments on the actions and attitudes of F. D. Roosevelt, Hull,

Stimson, Ambassador Dodd, etc.”--_Library Journal._ “When he is at his

best, he is unfolding a diplomatic narrative with considerable skill,

and with an excellent command of his sources.”--Dexter Perkins, in _The

New York Times_.

TAUSSIG, F. W. _Principles of Economics._ Macmillan. 1911, etc. 2

vols. 545 pp. 576 pp.

“Characterized by an exquisite sanity. We do not recall any work

in which these subjects are discussed with an equal degree of

lucidity. Professor Taussig’s book from beginning to end is intensely

readable.”--_The New York Times_, in 1925. “The reviewer is impressed

anew with the maturity and breadth, as well as with the literary style,

which are outstanding characteristics of Taussig’s _Principles_.”--R.

T. Bye, in the _Annals of the American Academy_, 1940. “A fine picture

of classical doctrines.... All in all, Professor Taussig’s _Principles_

remains an important part of economic literature--as it has been for

over a quarter of a century. That is a distinguished record, almost

unique for textbook writers in the field.”--T. F. Haygood, in the

_Southern Economic Journal_, 1940.

TAUSSIG, F. W. _International Trade._ Macmillan. 1927. 425 pp.

The outstanding exposition, after the period of Bastable, of the

“classical” theory of international trade. “What gives this book

its great value--apart from gifts of exposition which recall the

seductive clarity of the best pages of Stuart Mill--is the analysis

and description of a multitude of facts drawn from his practical

experience and which, even if one does not accept his general

theory, have a special flavor and provide rich information of all

sorts.”--Charles Rist. “Clarity of exposition is perhaps the first of

the characteristics that will make the book supersede other treatises

on the subject.”--London _Times Literary Supplement_.

TAYLOR, REGINALD. _The Socialist Illusion._ 1920.

“A study of the illusions and delusions from which Socialists suffer.

Ideas such as ‘surplus value’ and the ‘something for nothing attitude’

are attacked. It is pointed out how much worse off all classes

would be under a Socialist regime than under one which is primarily

individualist.”--PI.

TCHERNAVIN, MME. TAT’YANA. _Escape from the Soviets._ London:

Hamilton. 1934. 320 pp.

“By all odds the most vivid and inspiring--and compassionate--human

document that has come out of the whole Bolshevik Revolution and the

subsequent regime.”--F. H. Britten, in _Books_.

TCHERNAVIN, VLADIMIR. _I Speak for the Silent Prisoners of the

Soviets._ Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint. 1935. 368 pp.

In _Escape from the Soviets_ Mme. Tchernavin told the story of her

escape to Finland with her husband and her young son. In this book

Vladimir Tchernavin recounts what happened before the escape, of his

work as a scientist in a northern fishing center, of his arrest and the

long months during which the GPU tried to wring a “confession” out of

him, of his sentence to five years hard labor, and of the conditions of

the prisons and concentration camps in which he was held. “It is a book

which no lover of human liberty can read without being moved to horror

and indignation.”--J. D. Adams, in _The New York Times_.

TENNIEN, MARK A. _No Secret Is Safe._ Farrar, Straus, 1952. 270 pp.

“No book has yet appeared which compels more belief than does Father

Mark Tennien’s account of the ordeal of contemporary China. Speaking as

both observer and victim, Father Tennien, a Maryknoll priest, provides

us with a model of dispassionate reporting.”--Julien Steinberg, in _The

Saturday Review_.

TERBORGH, GEORGE. _The Bogey of Economic Maturity._ Chicago: Machinery

& Allied Products Institute. 1945. 263 pp.

The doctrine of economic maturity was born in the depression years

of the thirties. It held that the passing of the frontier, the

tapering off of population growth, the improbability of any further

revolutionary inventions, left a dearth of opportunity for private

investment, and that therefore the government must either expand

“public investment” through deficit financing, or tax out of existence

the excess savings poisoning the economy. Reviewing this book in _The

New York Times_ of Aug. 27, 1945, I wrote: “One by one, with closely

reasoned arguments, with historic illustrations, and with a wealth of

statistical documentation, the author kicks all the props from under

the mature economy doctrine.... A first-rate contribution.”

THOMAS, IVOR. _The Socialist Tragedy._ Macmillan. 1951. 254 pp.

“Mr. Ivor Thomas is a former member of the Labor government in Britain

turned Conservative.... He attacks the ‘myth’ that socialism is a

barrier against communism. He recalls the actions of the Socialist

parties in Eastern Europe and France and Italy as examples of how the

socialists were not only powerless against the Communists but allied

with the Communists. Mr. Thomas believes the only difference between

socialism and communism is in degree; adoption of either results in

loss of civil liberties and in reduced standards of living.”--_Current

History._

THOREAU, HENRY D. _Civil Disobedience._ 1849. Many editions. 29 pp.

Thoreau (1817-1862) was an extreme nonconformist and individualist--so

extreme that the doctrine of this essay (inspired by a night spent

in jail for Thoreau’s refusal to pay his poll-tax) comes close to

anarchism. “I heartily accept the motto,” he begins, “‘That government

is best which governs least’; and I should like to see it acted up to

more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to

this, which also I believe--‘That government is best which governs not

at all.’”

He claims the right of personal secession. “The authority of

government,” he declares, “can have no pure right over my person and

property but what I concede to it.” If everyone claimed the right of

withdrawal and noncooperation, and disobedience of whatever laws did

not entirely accord with his own ideas of justice or wisdom, government

would become impossible. (On the other hand, I do not mean to imply by

this objection that the individual is _never_ under _any_ circumstances

justified in refusing obedience to a government or a particular law:

such refusal may sometimes be the only method of reducing injustice or

preventing despotism.)

Thoreau’s case is powerfully argued in a taut and elevated prose.

Although some of the conclusions at which he arrives are too sweeping,

he gives us many pearls of truth along the way.

TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE. _Democracy in America._ 1835. Many editions.

(Knopf. 1945.) 2 vols. 452 pp. 518 pp.

This is by far the best book ever written about America, and the

most penetrating book ever written about democracy. It won instant

acclaim, not only in the writer’s native France, where Royer-Collard

declared: “Nothing equal to it has appeared since Montesquieu,” but in

England, where John Stuart Mill hailed it as “among the most remarkable

productions of our time.” Its central theme is that democracy has

become inevitable; that it is, with certain qualifications, desirable;

but that it has great potentialities for evil as well as good,

depending upon how well it is understood and guided. In the view of

de Tocqueville, the greatest danger that threatens democracy is its

tendency toward the centralization and concentration of power: “If

ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be

attributed to the omnipotence of the majority.”

There is revived interest in Tocqueville today because of what seems

like the uncanny clairvoyance of his prophecies. For example (this by

a Frenchman in 1835): “There are at the present time two great nations

in the world, which started from different points, but seem to tend

towards the same end. I allude to the Russians and the Americans....

The principal instrument of [America] is liberty; of [Russia]

servitude. Their starting point is different and their courses are not

the same; yet each of them seems marked by the will of Heaven to sway

the destinies of half the globe.”

But the special reason for including _Democracy in America_ in this

bibliography is that, as John Bigelow wrote in his Introduction to

the 1904 (Appleton) edition, it is “an intellectual arsenal in which

the friends of freedom will long come to seek weapons.” F. A. Hayek

has written of de Tocqueville and Lord Acton: “These two men seem to

me to have more successfully developed what was best in the political

philosophy of the Scottish philosophers, Burke, and the English Whigs

than any other writers I know.”

TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE. _The Old Régime and the French Revolution._

London: Murray. 1856. 511 pp. (Doubleday Anchor Books. 1955. 300 pp.)

This book appeared some twenty years after _Democracy in America_.

It is marked by the same luminous logic and eloquence. “The peculiar

object of the work I now submit to the public is to explain why this

great [French] Revolution [of 1789], which was in preparation at

the same time over almost the whole continent of Europe, broke out

in France sooner than elsewhere; why it sprang spontaneously from

the society it was about to destroy; and lastly, how the old French

monarchy came to fall so completely and so abruptly....

“Many will perhaps accuse me of showing in this book a very

unseasonable love of freedom--a thing for which it is said that no one

any longer cares in France....

“[Yet] despots themselves do not deny the excellence of Freedom, but

they wish to keep it all to themselves, and maintain that all other

men are utterly unworthy of it. Thus it is not on the opinion which

may be entertained of freedom that this difference subsists, but on

the greater or the less esteem we may have for mankind; and it may be

said with strict accuracy, that the taste a man may show for absolute

government bears an exact ratio to the contempt he may profess for his

countrymen.”--From the Preface.

TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE. _Recollections._ Columbia University Press.

1949. 331 pp.

“No Nineteenth Century student of history and politics ... better

understood the direction in which European society was evolving

than the Count de Tocqueville. He knew that he was living in an age

of continuous revolution and that this process, if accompanied by

further concentration of power, could lead nowhere but into a tyranny

unrestrained by either custom or religion.... The _Recollections_ begin

with the February Revolution of 1848, and are continued until the end

of Tocqueville’s ministry.... The book, however, is less valuable for

its historical content than for the political and philosophic lessons

abstracted by Tocqueville from his experience and observation.... His

great passion was for the dignity of the human person and for the

liberty necessary to its preservation. What he dreaded about democracy

was the destruction of this dignity, not so much by violence as by the

insidious regimen of mediocrity.”--J. M. Lalley, in _Human Events_.

TOLEDANO, RALPH DE. _Spies, Dupes and Diplomats._ Duell, Sloan &

Pearce. 1952. 244 pp.

“The spies are those, American and non-American, who have served the

Soviet Union so assiduously during the past decade and more. The

dupes are a number of highly placed citizens of the United States

who, through misguided liberalism, bad judgment, or just plain

muddle-headedness, also have served to further Russian aims. The

diplomats, for the most part, are in the Departments of State, Defense,

and Justice, and, if we can believe what we read, they also showed

a surprising lack of insight and vigor where Soviet intrigue was

concerned. It is the author’s thesis that, taken together, these three

categories of individuals have aided immeasurably the Russian design

for world conquest. More particularly, he charges them with having made

possible the Communist conquest of China, the present weakened state of

Japan, and the tragic division of Korea.”--_Christian Science Monitor._

TOLEDANO, RALPH DE, AND LASKY, VICTOR. _Seeds of Treason._ Published

for _Newsweek_ by Funk & Wagnalls. 1950. 270 pp.

The story of the Hiss-Chambers case and the Hiss trials, by two

reporters--Ralph de Toledano of _Newsweek_ and Victor Lasky of the

_New York World-Telegram_--who covered the case for their respective

journals. “A fine professional job.... A delightfully readable

presentation of all the evidence required for the forming of a

fair judgment on a most puzzling case.... To many, its outstanding

excellence consists in the clear light it throws on the process by

which an heir of the American tradition is turned into a traitor to his

country.”--_Catholic World._

TREVELYAN, G. M. _Life of John Bright._ Houghton Mifflin. 1913.

A portrait of the life and times of the great exponent of free trade,

by an outstanding British historian.

TUCKER, JOSIAH. _A Brief Essay, etc._ 1750. _Four Tracts._ 1774. (_A

Selection from His Economic and Political Writings._ Ed. by R. L.

Schuyler. Columbia University Press. 191. 576 pp.)

The PI refers to Tucker as “a racy forerunner of the Manchester School,

especially on questions of colonial trade.” He is regarded by F. A.

Hayek as one of the founders of true individualism. In his _Elements

of Commerce_ (1756) he wrote: “The main point is neither to extinguish

nor to enfeeble self-love, but to give it such a direction that it may

promote the public interest by promoting its own.”

UTLEY, FREDA. _Lost Illusion._ Philadelphia: Fireside Press. 1948. 288

pp.

The author has rewritten her book, _The Dream We Lost_, and now

calls it _Lost Illusion_. It is “her account of herself as an

English communist who was converted romantically, she now believes,

to the Russian version of communism, lived for years in Russia, was

progressively disillusioned by the change from original communism to

ruthless industrialism, and got away to the United States.”--_New York

Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review._ “A book like Miss Utley’s is a

powerful educational instrument for democracy because of its honesty,

its humility, its information, and above all for the unescapable moral

issues it places before the intellectuals of the West.”--Sidney Hook,

in _The New York Times_.

UTLEY, FREDA. _Last Chance in China._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1947. 408 pp.

This book proved to be prophetic. Reviewing it on its appearance in

1947, _The New Yorker_ wrote: “A treatise on the situation in China,

based on a trip the author, for many years a strenuous convert to

anti-Communism, took through the East shortly after the war. Miss

Utley views everything with alarm; she believes that the United States

has badly mismanaged its Chinese affairs and, by hamstringing Chiang

Kai-shek, has practically invited the Chinese Communists to overrun the

East.”

UTLEY, FREDA. _The China Story._ Regnery. 1951. 274 pp.

“Immediately after the war the market was flooded with books favorable

to the Chinese Communists. Miss Utley has presented the other side

of the case more thoroughly and more ably than any other American

publicist. Her story throws a good deal of light (if sometimes

controversial light) on one of the most burning and tragic issues of

American foreign policy.”--W. H. Chamberlin, in the _Christian Century_.

VALTIN, JAN. _Out of the Night._ Alliance Book. 1941. 841 pp.

“There is no better picture of the life of a secret agent floating

about the Communist underworld of the twenties, and no more horrible

and convincing account of conditions in Nazi prisons and concentration

camps. But beyond all the things which make it more readable than any

‘thriller’ are the profound political morals of the decline into sordid

intrigue, corruption, and mechanical obedience of the international

Communist movement.”--A. P. W., in the _Manchester Guardian_.

VAN SICKLE, JOHN V., AND ROGGE, BENJAMIN A. _Introduction to

Economics._ Van Nostrand. 1954. 746 pp.

This stands out as one of the few introductory college economic

textbooks today that are frankly and positively liberal in the

traditional meaning of the term. It is notable for the simplicity and

skill of its exposition. While its own conclusions are conservative,

it explains clearly and objectively, for example, what is meant

by “Keynesian economics.” The authors place special stress on the

importance of functionally correct wages to the performance of a

private enterprise system. There is also a discussion of communism,

socialism, and planning as alternatives to capitalism.

VENNARD, EDWIN, AND WINSBOROUGH, ROBB M. _The American Economic

System._ Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson & Co. 1953. 96 pp.

The authors attempt to give a simple explanation of the American

economic system. Their book contains over a hundred illustrations in

one to four colors, and illuminating charts and tables. Their theme is

that the American people are better housed, better clothed, and better

fed than any other major group of people in the world because of their

free, or comparatively free, market economy.

VERRIJN STUART, COENRAAD A. _De Wetenschap der Economic en de

Grondslagen van Het Sociaaleconomisch Leven._ Haarlem, Holland: Erven

F. Bohn. 1947. 319 pp.

A notable book by an eminent liberal Dutch economist.

VIERECK, PETER. _The Shame and Glory of the Intellectuals._ Beacon

Press. 1953. 320 pp.

An eloquent and stimulating, although often confused, book. Its author

preaches a “new conservatism” but wants to “take conservatism away from

the conservatives.” His central argument is that it is our duty to

fight the evil of totalitarianism in all its forms, and that the shame

of the intellectuals lies in their failure to fight the terrorism of

Stalin with the same vigor that they fought that of Hitler.

VLUGT, EBED VAN DER. _Asia Aflame._ Devin-Adair. 1953. 294 pp.

An historical survey, by a native of Holland, and an influential editor

and lawyer, of the growth of Red Russia’s influence in the various

countries and regions of Asia during the last three decades. “If in

addition to the convincing text of this book, there were need of

authoritative recommendation, it might be mentioned that the author’s

views are fully in accord with those of General Albert C. Wedemeyer,

who writes the Foreword.”--Joseph McSorley, in the _Catholic World_.

VOIGT, F. A. _Unto Caesar._ Putnam. 1938. 303 pp.

An analysis of political conditions in Europe--particularly the

fundamentals of fascism and communism and Great Britain’s role

in keeping the peace. The author was a member of the staff of

the _Manchester Guardian_. “A brilliant, circumstantial and

thought-provoking book.”--_The_ [London] _Economist_.

VOLTAIRE. _Works._ Many editions.

Voltaire (1694-1778), particularly after his three-year visit to

England from 1726 to 1729, became one of the great influences of the

eighteenth century for toleration and personal liberty. But if any

one-volume anthology devoted to the libertarian side of his thought

has been selected and compiled from his voluminous works, I do not

know of it. Such a selection should include much from his _Lettres

Philosophiques sur les Anglais_ (1733). (See also LORD MORLEY’S

_Voltaire_.)

WALSH, EDMUND A. _Total Empire._ Milwaukee: Bruce Publishers. 1951.

293 pp.

“Father Walsh, regent of the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown

University, is a lifelong student of geopolitics.... As director of

the papal relief mission to Soviet Russia, Father Walsh witnessed

the Bolshevik Revolution. These first-hand observations plus his own

encyclopedic knowledge enable him to examine the grave question: Why

has Russia’s attempt thus far succeeded where Germany’s failed?”--_The

New York Times._

WARREN, CHARLES. _Making of the Constitution._ Little, Brown. 1928.

832 pp.

“For the first time in a single volume all the contemporary material

relating to the formation of the Constitution has been brought together

and the history of the Constitutional Convention is presented, day by

day. Mr. Warren has assembled the letters of the public men of the

day, the delegates and others, and has printed also the editorials and

articles from the contemporary newspapers, presenting thus not only

the thoughts of the men who were at work upon the Constitution or were

otherwise influential in the country, but the conditions and the public

opinion of that time.... _Making of the Constitution_ measures up to

every demand of authoritative history, alike in its scholarly research,

its liberal humanitarianism and its smoothly flowing style.”--_The New

York Times._

WASSON, R. GORDON. _The Hall Carbine Affair._ New York: Pandick Press.

1941. 1948. 190 pp.

The author, a vice president of J. P. Morgan & Co., seizes on an

oft-told episode in the life of the elder Morgan, founder of the

banking house, in which he is alleged to have sold to the government

during the Civil War some condemned arms at a profit that would have

been exorbitant for first-class weapons. Mr. Wasson delves into the

contemporary records and reveals with very careful documentation

exactly what took place. Then he turns to the spurious version of

this episode, identifies its inventor as Gustavus Myers, tracks down

its successive embellishments at the hands of later anti-capitalistic

“economic historians,” and shows how the myth got itself firmly

embedded into the American credo. The disclosure is important for the

light it throws on how cynical hostility to present big business leads

to the invention and acceptance of historic slanders. Allan Nevins

calls the Wasson book “a capital piece of work.”

WATTS, V. ORVAL. _Away From Freedom: The Revolt of the College

Economists._ Los Angeles: Foundation for Social Research. 1952. 105 pp.

A vigorous answer to Keynesism, from an uncompromising advocate of

free enterprise. Dr. Watts takes off from the criticisms of Keynesism

previously made by such writers as L. Albert Hahn, Ludwig von Mises,

and the late Benjamin M. Anderson. His analysis of the technical

aspects of Keynesism leaves something to be desired, but his discussion

of its moral and political weaknesses is admirable. He points out

in detail how it teaches disregard for property rights, disparages

self-reliance, foresight, thrift and enterprise, puts its faith in

bureaucracy and coercive authority, and is fundamentally hostile to

free trade, free markets and individual liberty.

WATTS, V. ORVAL. _Union Monopoly: Its Cause and Cure._ Los Angeles:

Foundation for Social Research. 1954. 88 pp.

Dr. Watts argues that present labor union monopolies are the product

of a special government license granted to unions to use violence,

coercion and compulsion, and that this state of affairs is further

aggravated by denial to employers of what ought to be their legal

right of choice. Dr. Watts also argues that, in spite of all their

specially granted privileges and immunities, unions have not raised the

over-all share of employees in the product of industry. The book is

well organized and contains an excellent analysis of the defects of the

Wagner Labor Relations Act of 1935, and of the subsequent Taft-Hartley

Act.

WATTS, V. ORVAL. _The United Nations: Planned Tyranny._ Devin-Adair.

1955. 160 pp.

The author argues that the United Nations as presently constituted is

“not liberal but reactionary,” and that it is “a blueprint for tyranny

and perpetual war instead of an instrument of peace.”

WEAVER, HENRY GRADY. _Mainspring._ 1947. Irvington, N. Y.: The

Foundation for Economic Education. 1953. 279 pp.

Contends that only free men can make effective use of their

imaginations and creative abilities and that the purpose of government

is to protect personal liberty. An excellent introduction to the

history of human freedom and the resulting moral, social, and material

benefits. “Down through the ages,” writes Mr. Weaver, “countless

millions, struggling unsuccessfully to keep bare life in wretched

bodies, have died young in misery and squalor.... Then suddenly, on one

spot on this planet, people eat so abundantly that the pangs of hunger

are forgotten.” The reason for this miracle, the author contends, is

not any extraordinary inherent ability in the American people, but

their system of economic freedom.

WEBER, MAX. _General Economic History._ Greenberg. 1927. 401 pp.

A history of the evolution of the capitalistic spirit from a

sociological point of view. The book was prepared by German editors

from notes left by Max Weber and the notebooks of his students.

WEISSBERG, ALEXANDER. _The Accused._ Simon & Schuster. 1951. 518 pp.

“This is not just one more book in the rapidly growing literature on

the _Chystka_, the Great Purge, of 1936-1938. It is a landmark, a

monument, and an inexhaustible source of penetrating insights into

the souls of the men who confess and of those who make them confess;

of a few political heroes and a number of political provocateurs;

of real and fictitious spies; and of thousands of simple human

beings, disoriented, frightened, and often going from prison cell

to execution.... From this source a future Dostoevsky will draw the

elements and inspiration for a new _House of the Dead_.”--D. J. Dallin,

in _The New York Times_.

WEST, REBECCA. _The Meaning of Treason._ Viking. 1947. 307 pp.

A profound study of the motives that have led scientists and

other “intellectuals” of the Western world to betray their own

countries in the service of the communist conspiracy. “Wonderfully

illuminating reports on William Joyce, John Amery, and other British

traitors.”--_The Atlantic._ “A tour de force ... told in memorable

prose.”--_Commonweal._

In the second edition published in 1952 Miss West added new chapters

containing studies of two more traitors--Dr. Alan Nunn May and Dr.

Klaus Emil Fuchs.

WHITE, ANDREW DICKSON. _Fiat Money Inflation in France._ 1896.

(Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation for Economic Education. 1952.)

(Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers.) 69 pp.

Andrew Dickson White was an eminent historian, the first president

of Cornell, and American ambassador to Russia and Germany. This is a

brilliant history of inflation in France in the revolutionary period

from 1789 to 1797. It shows by scrupulous citation of documented data

how irredeemable paper money leads to soaring prices, price fixing,

scarcity, the black market, the spy system, the invasion of privacy,

immorality and tyranny. A little masterpiece.

WHITE, W. L. _Report on the Russians._ Harcourt, Brace. 1945. 309 pp.

The story of a six-weeks’ trip to Russia during the summer of 1944.

Because it was one of the first books to break the conspiracy of

silence about the shortcomings of our then “ally,” its appearance met

a storm of denunciation and protest. “Mr. White makes little attempt

to analyze the social processes at work in Russia or to generalize

about her recent history. He simply tells what he saw, heard, and felt.

But, as a journalist, he was in a position to enjoy certain unique

advantages. He traveled about in a way that no regular correspondent

in the Soviet Union had been permitted to do in years.... His book has

thus a unique value and ought not to be confused with the ordinary

correspondent’s book about Russia. Mr. White not only saw much more

than most visitors, he is a better observer than most, and he tells

you how things look and people behave, and how everything strikes an

American, in a way that few other writers have ever done.”--Edmund

Wilson, in _The New Yorker_.

WICKSELL, KNUT. _Lectures on Political Economy._ London: Routledge.

1934. 2 vols. 299 pp. 238 pp.

Knut Wicksell (1851-1926) was a Swedish economist most celebrated for

his theory concerning the relations between money and natural rates

of interest and movements in the general level of prices. This was

of more than purely theoretical interest, because it pointed to the

errors that governments make in bringing on inflation by trying to

maintain artificially low interest rates. But his total contribution

to economics was of much wider importance than this. Lionel Robbins

writes: “There is no work in the whole range of modern economic

literature which presents a clearer view of the main significance and

interrelations of the central propositions of economic analysis than

these lectures.”

WICKSTEED, PHILIP H. _The Common Sense of Political Economy._ 1910.

(London: Routledge. 1933, etc.) 2 vols. 871 pp.

This brilliant book is as remarkable for the ease and lucidity of its

style as for the penetration and power of its reasoning. Its real

importance has only been recognized in recent years. In his Preface

in 1910, Wicksteed wrote: “The Introduction will make it clear that

the author makes no claim to originality or priority with respect

to anything that it contains.” This modest disavowal was taken too

literally, and for years Wicksteed was regarded mainly as a popularizer

of Jevons. But in his Introduction to the 1933 edition, Lionel Robbins

pointed out that the book is “the most exhaustive non-mathematical

exposition of the technical and philosophical complications

[implications?] of the so-called _marginal_ theory of pure economics,

which has appeared in any language.... The book was the culmination

of Wicksteed’s life work.... Into it he poured all the subtlety and

persuasiveness, all the literary charm, of which he was capable. It is

a masterpiece of systematic exposition.... Wicksteed’s place in the

history of economic thought is beside the place occupied by Jevons and

the Austrians.”

WILCOX, THOMAS. _The Anti-Bolshevik Bibliography._ Distributed by

Thomas Wilcox, 712 W. Second St., Los Angeles 12. 1955. 89 pp.

A bibliography of anti-Marxist literature.

WILLOUGHBY, CHARLES ANDREW. _Shanghai Conspiracy._ Dutton. 1952. 315

pp.

The report of General MacArthur’s intelligence chief on the Soviet

military intelligence operations in Shanghai, as revealed through the

confessions of Richard Sorge. Contains a chapter on “Agnes Smedley and

the War Department.”

WILLOUGHBY, WESTEL W. _The Ethical Basis of Political Authority._

Macmillan. 1930. 460 pp.

The author has been professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins

University, and his work is distinguished for scholarship and clarity.

His aim in this book is to examine political authority as viewed by

the moralist. He believes that political coercion “is justified to the

extent that it provides a more efficient and less oppressive form of

control than would exist without it.”

WILSON, THOMAS. _Modern Capitalism and Economic Progress._ Macmillan.

1950. 274 pp.

“The position occupied by British liberals is defended by Mr. Wilson,

and from it he directs a scathing fire against the Labor Government

of his country. Like American critics of socialism, he fears the

socialistic threat to human liberty, but he thinks of liberty as a

fairly tough plant which can stand considerable doses of government

guidance.... He shows that capitalism has been progressive, that it

can continue so, and that the profit motive has been a safeguard to

liberty.”--_The New York Times._

WILTSE, CHARLES M. _John C. Calhoun: Nationalist (1782-1828)._

Bobbs-Merrill. 1944. 477 pp. _John C. Calhoun: Nullifier (1829-1839)._

Bobbs-Merrill. 1951. 511 pp.

Of the first volume, R. N. Current wrote in the _American Historical

Review_: “This study of Calhoun’s earlier career, much the ablest

and most thorough yet published, must take its place at once as the

standard account.” Felix Morley calls the two books together “a great

biography.” “It was time,” he writes, “for a sympathetic biographer

to rescue Calhoun from the avalanche of tendentious smearing under

which his name has long been buried. In Mr. Wiltse’s own words: ‘He

seemed to me the most original and in many respects the keenest

political thinker this country has produced, but few people had ever

heard of him except as a defender of slavery.... Being of good Yankee

stock, and brought up accordingly, I was a little surprised myself to

discover that he didn’t wear horns.’” (See the entry under Calhoun’s _A

Disquisition on Government_.)

WINDER, GEORGE. _The Free Convertibility of Sterling._ London:

Batchworth Press. 1955. 62 pp.

A lucid, thorough, and uncompromising protest against continuation of

exchange control. It is not merely a polemic, but a sort of elementary

textbook on foreign exchange. The author emphasizes that exchange

control involves not only price-fixing in currencies, but arbitrary

confiscation of the overseas earnings of a country’s own citizens. He

also points out that the postwar overvaluation of sterling relative

to the dollar brought about the so-called “dollar shortage” and

discouraged British exports.

WITHERS, HARTLEY. _Poverty and Waste._ London: Smith, Elder. 1914. 180

pp.

“This book might have been called ‘The Case for the Poor.’ The author

throughout is pleading for those in relative poverty. It is a frank

discussion of some of the admitted faults of the Capitalistic system,

and an examination of the more honest and enlightened criticisms that

are made against the present order. He shows that ‘There is plenty

of excuse for the bitterness on the part of the workers,’ and in his

pleading on their behalf he sometimes seems to overstate their case

and to understate the point of view of the employer and the wealthy

consumer. As, however, he is mainly appealing to the wealthy and

attacking extravagance, this is not necessarily a drawback. One would

not get the impression from this book that Mr. Hartley Withers was an

Individualist, and yet it is really one of the best arguments against

Socialism that we have.”--PI.

WITHERS, HARTLEY. _The Case for Capitalism._ Dutton. 1920. 255 pp.

“As a writer of popular works on economics and finance, Mr. Hartley

Withers stands alone. In this book he makes many undoubted complexities

appear simple and almost obvious. That the Capitalist system is ‘more

truly democratic and in favor of freedom than either of the rival

systems’ has nowhere been more clearly argued. No mere pleading for

the preservation of all aspects of Capitalist society as it exists is

to be found here. There is much keen criticism of certain features of

the Capitalist regime. Although published in 1920 it suffers less than

the majority of books which appeared about that time from the false

optimism that colored most thinking and writing in those days.”--PI.

WOLFE, BERTRAM D. _Three Who Made a Revolution._ Dial Press. 1948. 661

pp.

Studies of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. “This is one of those rare books

which are obviously destined from the moment of publication to become

a source and authority for the guidance of all later writers on the

subject. It is to be hoped that _Three Who Made a Revolution_ will also

be discovered and widely studied by a general public which earnestly

wants to understand why the Soviets behave the way they do.”--Hal

Lehrman, in _The Saturday Review of Literature_.

WOLMAN, LEO. _Industry-Wide Bargaining._ Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation

for Economic Education. 1948. 63 pp.

One of the country’s outstanding authorities on labor points out the

consequences of industry-wide unions. He concludes: “The problem of

labor monopoly cannot be dealt with effectively unless, and until,

the immunity to the anti-trust laws which organized labor has enjoyed

since 1914 is withdrawn.... Its perpetuation ... will in time cause the

break-down of our entire anti-monopoly policy. This is the first step

toward a regulated or planned economy, as it has proved to be in other

countries.”

WOODHOUSE, A. S. P. (ed.). _Puritanism and Liberty._ London: Dent.

1938. 506 pp.

Contains well-selected documentation of the Puritan Revolution in

England.

WOODLOCK, THOMAS F. _Thinking It Over._ Declan X. McMullen Co. 1947.

292 pp.

A compilation of more than a hundred of the author’s articles which

originally appeared in _The Wall Street Journal_. Woodlock was a wise

and farsighted defender of the free enterprise system. The subjects

covered here include: “Society: Isms and Idols,” “Democracy: Definition

and Debate,” and “Economics: Order and Disorder.”

WRIGHT, DAVID MCCORD. _Capitalism._ McGraw-Hill. 1951. 246 pp.

One of the most vigorous and intelligent defenses of capitalism ever

made by an American economist. It views its subject from a political

and social as well as a purely economic standpoint.

WRIGHT, DAVID MCCORD. _Economics of Disturbance._ Macmillan. 1946. 115

pp.

A main thesis of this book is suggested by two sentences in it: “The

socially tolerable rate of expansion likely to be demanded in a

democratic society will probably be much faster than the ‘equilibrium’

rate which would ensure a permanent full employment adjustment” (p.

85). “Much of the insecurity and the instability we now decry is the

result of the scientific achievement and the social democracy which we

admire” (p. 98).

WRIGHT, DAVID MCCORD. _Democracy and Progress._ Macmillan. 1948. 220

pp.

“Professor Wright has written the best defense of private enterprise

we have seen.... It is an argument, brilliant in many respects, for a

flexible capitalism capable of adjustment to changing conditions.”--A.

B. Wolfe, in _The American Economic Review_.

WRIGHT, DAVID MCCORD (ed.). _The Impact of the Union._ Harcourt,

Brace. 1951. 405 pp.

This is a round-table discussion, by eight prominent economists, of the

economic and political consequences of labor unions. The participants

are John Maurice Clark, Gottfried Haberler, Frank H. Knight, Kenneth E.

Boulding, Edward H. Chamberlin, Milton Friedman, David McCord Wright,

and Paul A. Samuelson. Although it is impossible to summarize here

their diverse conclusions, the papers and comments are often highly

critical of labor union policies, and the discussion as a whole is in

striking contrast with the political dogma that the influence of labor

unions has been entirely beneficent, and that the chief aim of law

should be to encourage the growth of their numbers and powers.

WRISTON, HENRY M. _Challenge to Freedom._ Harper. 1943. 240 pp.

The thesis of this book, according to its author, “is simple and may be

stated explicitly: the principal duty of democratic government is the

maintenance and expansion of freedom.” He declares in his conclusion:

“The proposals of this book are all radical; none of them looks toward

any reactionary policy whatever. We have been living in a world where,

by a kind of double talk, the vocabulary of liberalism has been stolen

by the real reactionaries. Only in a world where values have become

topsy-turvy would it be possible for Hitler to describe tyranny as

a ‘new order,’ or for bureaucracy to masquerade in the habiliments

of liberalism, or for the planned economy to make a pretense of

‘economic democracy.’ Government by bureaucracy, control of business by

administrative regulation, manipulation of the economy for political

reasons--these are stark reaction. Not all the cascades of beautiful

words about ‘new social goals,’ ‘bold social engineering,’ ‘security

from the cradle to the grave’ can wash away that ineradicable fact.”

One of the best works in the recent literature of individualism.

ZAMIATIN, EUGENE. _We._ Dutton. 1924. 286 pp.

A sometimes obscure but haunting and powerful novel of life in

a totalitarian society. It is a remarkable anticipation in some

respects of Huxley’s _Brave New World_ (q.v.), or Orwell’s _Nineteen

Eighty-Four_ (q.v.)--and of the realities of Soviet Russia. The last

is not so surprising, as Zamiatin was a Russian writer living in

Soviet Russia. His book, however, was published only in translation,

outside of Russia. At the climax of the novel the authorities order a

brain operation on everyone to remove the Imagination as a danger to

the State. Totalitarian communist governments today perform the moral

equivalent of this operation: it has come to be known as brainwashing.