Ettienne de la Boetie (1530-1563),
Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (1552/1553, published 1574)
This remarkable Frenchman says that rulers have only as much
power as people willingly let them have. The radical meaning was
plain, that rulers are doomed when people have had enough of them.
[mind-trek.com]
John Locke (1632-1704), An Essay Concerning
the True Original End and Extent of Government (1689)
The first major work, better known as Locke's Second Treatise, saying that individuals have a natural right to
life, liberty and property, regardless what governments might say.
Individuals have a right to rebel if necessary to secure their rights,
this English physician and philosopher declared. His work had a
major impact on Americans who gained independence from England.
[Institute for American Liberty]
Adam Ferguson (1723-1816), A History of
Civil Society
(1767)
The Scottish philosopher observes that key institutions of a free society
developed spontaneously. F.A. Hayek liked to quote Ferguson's line
that the essential institutions of a free society were "the result of
human action, but not the execution of any human design."
[McMaster University]
Thomas Paine (1737-1809), Common Sense
(January 10, 1776)
The pamphlet that inspired Americans to talk openly about about
achieving independence.
[Bartleby.com]
Thomas
Paine (1737-1809), The Crisis (1976-1783)
With this series of essays composed by the campfires of the Continental
Army, Paine helped inspire George Washington's men to carry on.
[Thomas.paine.com]
Adam Smith (1723-1790), The Wealth of
Nations (1776)
Scottish philosopher's famous case for economic liberty. He
explains how self-interest drives individuals to profit by providing goods
and services people are willing to pay for.
[Bibliomania.com]
James
Madison (1751-1836), Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) and John Jay
(1745-1829), The Federalist Papers (1787, 1788)
Newspaper articles which made a case for adopting the U.S. Constitution,
and in the process explained much about the issues of government power.
[Library of Congress]
Thomas Paine (1737-1809), The Rights of Man
(March 1791)
Part I
Part II
Horrified by the French Revolution, the Englishman Edmund Burke countered
with a defense of aristocratic tradition, and Paine replied with this
eloquent defense of natural rights and justice.
[Thomas.Paine.com]
Benjamin
Franklin (1706-1790), Autobiography (1795)
One of the most influential American books ever written, which
inspired generations to take responsibility, work hard, save money and
make a better life.
[earlyamerica.com]
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), Vindication of the
Rights of Woman (1792)
English natural rights thinker urges equal liberty for women,
including the right to enter into contracts, the right to own property and
the right to vote.
[Bartleby.com]
Thomas Paine (1737-1809), The Age of Reason
(1793-1794)
Part
I
Part II
Paine's most controversial work which advocated a religion based on
reason. Because of this work, he was generally treated as an outcast
when he returned to the United States.
[Thomas.Paine.com]
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), Democracy
in America (1835, 1840)
The most famous book ever written about America, how democracy works and
the dangers facing it.
[University of Virginia]
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass (1845)
Runaway slave tells how he endured slavery, how he educated himself
and made a new life in freedom.
[Sunsite.berkeley.edu]
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), A History of
England (1848)
The eloquent story about how English liberty and prosperity
developed. In all of English literature, it was long said, only the
Bible and Shakespeare were more widely read than Macaulay's History.
[Project Gutenberg]
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), On Civil Disobedience (1848)
His talk which, according to Harvard
historian Samuel Eliot Morison, became the best-known work of American
literature around the world. Thoreau declared that people should
disobey government laws if this is necessary to observe moral laws about
what it right and wrong.
[Indiana University]
Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), Economic
Sophisms (1850)
French journalist's devastating satires about efforts to have government
protect powerful interest groups at the expense of everyone else.
The most famous satire is "A Petition" of candlemakers lobbying
for protection against their principal competitor, the sun.
[Library of Economics and Liberty]
Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), The Law (1850)
The passionate, brief case for liberty by the great French pamphleteer
who identified critical errors of socialism even before Marx and Engels
had written The Communist Manifesto.
[The Looking Glass]
Lysander
Spooner (1808-1887), Trial by Jury (1852)
One of the most important works on this bulwark of liberty, with a
powerful case for jury nullification. This is a partial document.
[mind-trek.com]
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), On Liberty (1859)
The English philosopher's eloquent and influential case for
toleration.
[Bartleby.com]
Samuel Smiles (1812-1904), Self-Help
(1859)
In his most famous book, an eloquent Scotsman
chronicles enduring principles which enable individuals and society to
prosper.
[Project Gutenberg]
Victor
Hugo (1802-1885), Les Miserables (1862)
One of the most beloved novels of all time, about a good man who is
hunted by police and who redeems himself through private enterprise and
charity.
[Judith Boss]
Lysander
Spooner (1807-1887), The Constitution of No
Authority (1870)
The American individualist maintains that individuals ought to be free
to live peaceably without government interference.
[mind-trek.com]
Samuel Smiles (1812-1904), Character
(1871)
A classic which inspired generations to be honest, responsible and
enterprising.
[Project Gutenberg]
Lysander
Spooner (1808-1887), Vices Are Not Crimes
(1875)
It's none of the government's business if people do things which might
harm only themselves.
[mind-trek.com]
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), The Man Versus The State
(1884)
The English philosopher launches a prophetic attack on expanding
government power.
[McMaster University]
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), Up from Slavery
(1901)
One of the most inspiring works about self-help, told by a former
American slave who became a leading educator, fund raiser and behind the
scenes champion of civil rights.
[Bartleby.com]
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), The American Language
(1921)
The witty author and editor chronicles the spontaneous development of
an enormously dynamic language, as Americans drew on words and ideas from
around the world.
[Bartleby.com]
Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), Liberalism (1927)
Courageous Austrian economist defends individual liberty, private
property, free trade and laissez faire.
[Ludwig von Mises Institute]
Albert Jay Nock (1870-1945), Our Enemy, The
State (1935)
Elegant literary stylist writes case for individualism and against
government power.
[Barefoot Bob]
Ayn Rand (1905-1982), Anthem
(1938)
Short novel asserts the morality of individualism in a bleak
collectivist world.
[Project Gutenberg]
Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), Human Action (1949)
An overwhelming case for economic liberty and against government
intervention in an economy.
[Ludwig von Mises Institute]
Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995), Freedom,
Inequality, Primitivism, and the Division of Labor (1971)
A vigorous attack against the egalitarian dogma, that government power
should be used to try making everyone equal.
[Ludwig von Mises Institute] Ludwig von
Mises (1881-1973), Money, Method, and the Market Process (1990)
21 essays on liberty, money, inflation and socialism, by the
Great Austrian economist.
[Ludwig von Mises Institute]
Peter
McWilliams (1950-2000), Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do (1993)
A great book defending the right to privacy, drawing on vast knowledge of
history. He covered legal issues, moral issues, everything. Afflicted with AIDS, he was hounded
to death by
the feds for seeking to relieve his pain privately with marijuana.
[McWilliams.com]
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