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DAVID HART'S WEBPAGE

 

Bibliography on Class and The State

[Created May 26, 2011]
[Updated January 15, 2017]

 
The Frontispiece to Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
[showing the two pillars of state authority -
"throne and altar" - more]

Recommended Reading

Recent Additions

Sheldon D. Pollack, War, Revenue, and State Building: Financing the Development of the American State (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009). The first 100 pages provide a useful summary of the theory of class and state development in Europe. The second 200 pages apply this theory to the development of the American state. Pollack's expertise is in American tax policy and "fiscal extraction".

Kevin Phillips, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush (New York: Viking/Penguin, 2004). A close study of two powerful American families, the Walkers and the Bushes, who rose from supplying munitions in WW1 to the highest levels of American government (the CIA, state governorships, and the presidency) via international banking and oil interests in Texas and the Middle East. An excellent case study of ruling elites.

 

Theory

Murray Rothbard, "The Anatomy of the State" in Egalitarianism as a Revolt against Nature (2nd ed. Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2000).

Frédéric Bastiat, “The State”, in Selected Essays on Political Economy, trans. Seymour Cain, ed. George B. de Huszar, introduction by F.A. Hayek (Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1995).

Frédéric Bastiat, “ The Physiology of Plunder “ in Economic Sophisms, trans. Arthur Goddard, introduction by Henry Hazlitt (Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996).

Randolph Bourne, The State (1918) (Tucson, Arizona: See Sharp Press, 1998). [PDF 3.6 MB]

Edmund Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society: or, a View of the Miseries and Evils arising to Mankind from every Species of Artifical Society. In a Letter to Lord *** by a Late Noble Writer,* ed. Frank N. Pagano (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1982).

Margaret Levi, Of Rule and Revenue (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988).

James Mill, "Caste," Supplement to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1824), vol. 2, pp. 674-54. [PDF 1 MB] and HTML.

James Mill, "Summary Review of the Conduct and Measures of the Seventh Imperial Parliament" in Parliamentary History and Review (1826), pp. 772-802. [PDF 2.3 MB] and HTML version.

James Mill, "State of the Nation," The London Review, Apr. 1835, vol. I, no. 1, pp. 1–24 [PDF 1.3 MB] and HTML version.

James Mill, "Aristocracy," The London Review, Jan. 1836, vol. II, pp. 283–306. This was reprinted in a collection of pamphlets edited by John Arthur Roebuck, Pamphlets of the People, vol. 1 (London: Charles Ely, 1835). [PDF 1.2 MB] and HTML.

Ludwig von Mises, “The Clash of Group Interests” in The Clash of Group Interests and Other Essays (The Center for Libertarian Studies, New York, 1978).

Ludwig von Mises, Chapter 9 “The Role of Ideas” Section 3 “Might” in, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, in 4 vols., ed. Bettina Bien Greaves (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2007). Vol. 1. Chapter: 3: Might.

Gaetano Mosca, The ruling class (Elementi di scienza politica). by Gaetano Mosca. Translation by Hannah D. Kahn. Edited and revised with an introduction, by Arthur Livingston. (New York, London: McGraw-Hill book company, inc., 1939.) [PDF 37.2 MB]

Gaetano Mosca, Elementi di scienza politica. (Torino, Fratelli Bocca, 1923). 2. ed., con una seconda parte inedita. [PDF 30.4 MB]

Gaetano Mosca, Elementi di scienza politica. (Roma, Fratelli Bocca, 1896). [PDF 8.4 MB]

Robert Nisbet, Twilight of Authority (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975).

Albert Jay Nock, Our Enemy, the State (1935). With a Preface by Fran Chodorov (1946). (Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd.: 1950).

Albert Jay Nock, Our Enemy the State. Including “On Doing the Right Thing”, introduction by Walter E. Grinder (New York: Free Life Editions, 1973).

Franz Oppenheimer, Der Staat (Frankfurt am Main: Rütten & Loening, 1907). [PDF 2.2 MB]. English version on the OLL website <http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1662>.

Vilfredo Pareto, The Rise and Fall of the Elites: An Application of Theoretical Sociology, Introduction by Hans L. Zetterberg (Totowa, N. J: Bedminster Press, 1968).

Vilfredo Pareto, "Un' applicazione di teorie sociologiche," Rivista Italiana di sociologia, 1900, p. 402-456 [PDF 3.8 MB]; translated as The Rise and Fall of the Elites: An Application of Theoretical Sociology, Introduction by Hans L. Zetterberg (Totowa, N. J: Bedminster Press, 1968.]

Vilfredo Pareto, The Other Pareto, ed. Placido Bucolo, trans. Placido and Gillian Bucolo, with a Preface by Ronald Fletcher (London: Scolar Press, 1980).

Gianfranco Poggi, The Development of the Modern State: A Sociological Introduction (Stanford University press, 1978).

Ralph Raico, “Classical LiberalExploitation Theory: A Comment on Professor Liggio’s Paper” in the Journal of Libertarian Studies, 1977 vol. 4, no. 1.

Murray N. Rothbard, Anatomy of the State (Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2009). Originally published in Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays by Murray N. Rothbard (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2000 [1974]), pp. 55–88. <http://mises.org/books/anatomy_of_the_state.pdf>. At this site [PDF 1.7 MB]

Murray N. Rothbard, Power and Market: Government and the Economy (Menlo Park, CA: Institute for Humane Studies, 1970).

Herbert Spencer, “The Right to Ignore the State” in Social Statics: or, The Conditions essential to Happiness specified, and the First of them Developed, (London: John Chapman, 1851).

 

Additional Recommended Reading: History of Ideas

John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton, Acton-Creighton Correspondence (1887)

Jeremy Bentham, "Principles of Judicial Proceedure”, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1843). 11 vols.

Étienne de la Boétie, The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, trans. Harry Kurz (1942).

John C. Calhoun, A Disquisition of Government (1849) in Union and Liberty: The Political Philosophy of John C. Calhoun, ed. Ross M. Lence (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1992).

David Hume, “Of the First Principles of Government” in Essays Moral, Political, Literary, edited and with a Foreword, Notes, and Glossary by Eugene F. Miller, with an appendix of variant readings from the 1889 edition by T.H. Green and T.H. Grose, revised edition (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1987).

David Hume, “Of the Origin of Government” in Essays Moral, Political, Literary, edited and with a Foreword, Notes, and Glossary by Eugene F. Miller, with an appendix of variant readings from the 1889 edition by T.H. Green and T.H. Grose, revised edition (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1987).

James Mill, Essays on Government, Jurisprudence, Liberty of the Press, Prison and Prison Disciple, Colonies, Laws of Nations, Education from the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica (London: Routledge, 1992, reprint of 1828 ed.).

Herbert Spencer, “The Militant Type of Society” in Political Institutions, being Part V of the Principles of Sociology (The Concluding Portion of Vol. II) (London: Williams and Norgate, 1882).

Herbert Spencer, “The Industrial Type of Society” in Political Institutions, being Part V of the Principles of Sociology (The Concluding Portion of Vol. II) (London: Williams and Norgate, 1882).

John Wade, The Extraordinary Black Book: an exposition of abuses in church and state, courts of law, representation, municipal and corporate bodies, with a précis of the House of Commons, past, present, and to come (London: Effingham Wilson, 1832).

 

Additional Recommended Reading: History (Europe)

Perry Anderson, Lineages of the Absolutist State (London: Verso, 1979).

Perry Anderson, Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism (London: Verso, 1979).

Reinhard Bendix, Kings or People: Power and the Mandate to Rule (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980).

Cities and the Rise of States in Europe, A. D. 1000 to 1800, ed. Charles Tilly and Wm. P. Blockmans (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994).

Martin van Crefeld, The Rise and Decline of the State (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

The Formation of National States in Western Europe, ed. Charles Tilly (Princeton University Press, 1975).

Otto Hintze, The Historical Essays of Otto Hintze, edited with an Introduction by Felix Gilbert (New York: Oxford University press, 1975).

Alexander Rüstow, Freedom and Domination: A Historical Critique of Civilization, abbreviated translation from the german by Salvator Attanasio, edited and with an Introduction by Dankwart A. Rustow (Princeton University Press, 1980).

Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990-1990 Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990).

Additional Recommended Reading: History (USA)

Arms, Politics, and the Economy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, ed. Robert Higgs, foreword by William A. Niskanen (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1990).

Richard Franklin Bensel, Yankee Leviathan: The Origins of Central State Authority in America, 1859-1877 (Cambridge University Press, 1990).

Bringing the State Back In, ed. Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Theda Skocpol (Cambridge University Press, 1985).

Robert Higgs, Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).

Ruling America: A History of Wealth and Power in a Democracy, ed. Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University press, 2005).

Stephen Skowronek, Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities 1877-1920 (Cambridge University Press, 1982).