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DAVID HART'S WEBPAGE

 

The Classical Liberal Tradition
A Reader on Individual, Economic, and Political Liberty

[Created: 13 August, 2024]
[Updated: 18 August, 2024]

Introduction

This Reader is being expanded, revised, and updated. The list below is the table of contents with links to the books on the OLL website. It is designed to be a larger, online version of the excellent collection edited by David Boaz, The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Readings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman, ed. David Boaz (New York: The Free Press, 1997).

The collection consists of chapter-length extracts from some of the key works in the Classical Liberal tradition, grouped into a dozen key topics. The original edition of the Reader had a brief introduction by the editor which was followed by the bibliographic details of the book, and a link to the extract, either at the OLL website or other external websites. There were 96 peices in the main collection.

Guides to the Classical Liberal Tradition

It is part of a collection of material relating to the history and theory of classical liberal/libertarian thought:

  1. a series of lectures and blog posts on The Classical Liberal Tradition: A 400 Year History of People, Ideas, and Movements for Reform
  2. The Great Books of Liberty: the large Guillaumin Collection in an "enhanced" HTML format and a citation tool for scholars (nearly 200 titles); and my personal favourites
  3. a collection of 600 Quotations about Liberty and Power from some of the key works in the Classical Liberal tradition. This collection of shorter pieces is organised into 30 topics. Each quotation has a brief commentary.
  4. The Classical Liberal Tradition: A Reader on Individual, Economic, and Political Liberty with a 100 or so chapter-length items to date. Each extract is accompanied by an introduction.
  5. articles from The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism (2008) organised thematically
  6. an anthology of petitions, declarations of rights, and constitutions in a "handy" Pocket Guide to our Political and Civic Rights: The English, American, and French Traditions, 1215-1830.

 

 

Table of Contents

The Reader is divided into the following sections:

 

 

PART I: SCEPTICISM ABOUT POWER↩

  1. Samuel anoints Saul the First King of Israel (c. 1,000 B.C.) - [OLL Website]
  2. Thomas Gordon, “On the Nature of Power” (1721) - [OLL Website]
  3. David Hume, “On Government” (1777) - [OLL Website]
  4. Frédéric Bastiat, “The State” (1848) - [OLL Website]
  5. Herbert Spencer, “The Right to Ignore the State” (1851) - [OLL Website]
  6. John Stuart Mill, “Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual” (1859) - [OLL Website]
  7. James M. Buchanan, “The Threat of Leviathan” (1975) - [OLL Website]
  8. Anthony de Jasay, “Liberalism and Democracy” (1985) - [OLL Website]

PART II: THE BASIC PRINCIPLES↩

  1. Hugo Grotius “The Preliminary Discourse Concerning the Certainty of Right” (1625) - [OLL Website]
  2. John Locke, “Of Property” (1698) - [OLL Website]
  3. Sir William Blackstone, “Of the Absolute Rights of Individuals” (1766) - [OLL Website]
  4. Immanuel Kant, “The Principles of Political Right” (1791) - [OLL Website]
  5. Jean-Baptiste Say, “Of the Right of Property” (1819) - [OLL Website]
  6. Jeremy Bentham, “The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number” (1830) - [OLL Website]
  7. Léon Faucher,“Property I” (1852) - [OLL Website]
  8. John Stuart Mill, “Utilitarianism” (1863) - [OLL Website]
  9. Louis Wolowski and Émile Levasseur,“Property II” (1864) - [OLL Website]
  10. Lysander Spooner, "Natural Law; or the Science of Justice" (1882) - [OLL Website]
  11. Ludwig von Mises, “Liberty and Property” (1958) - [OLL Website]

PART III: POLITICAL LIBERTY↩

  1. Lao Tzu, “The Tao of Governing” (6thC BC) - [OLL Website]
  2. John Milton, “For the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing” (1664) - [OLL Website]
  3. Montesquieu, “Of the Constitution of England” (1748) - [OLL Website]
  4. James Madison, “The Utility of the Union As a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection” (1788) - [OLL Website]
  5. Condorcet and Olympe de Gouges, “The Rights of Women” (1790–91) - [OLL Website]
  6. Benjamin Constant, "On Freedom of Thought" (1815) - - [OLL Website]
  7. James Mill, “Liberty of the Press” (1825) - [OLL Website]
  8. J. S. Mill, “On Representative Government” (1861) - [OLL Website]

PART IV: ECONOMIC LIBERTY↩

Free Trade

  1. Adam Smith, “On Free Trade” (1776) - [OLL Website]
  2. Frédéric Bastiat, “The Petition of the Manufacturers of Candles” (October 1845) - [OLL Website]
  3. Richard Cobden, “On the Total and Immediate Repeal of the Corn Laws” (January 1846) - [Source
  4. Gustave de Molinari, "Protection and Restrictions on Free Trade" (1853): [OLL Website]
  5. David A. Wells, "Free Trade" (1882): [OLL Website]
  6. Ludwig von Mises on Tariffs and Protection
    1. Mises, "Free Trade" (1927) [OLL Website]
    2. Mises, "The Ricardian Law of Association" (1949) [OLL Website]
    3. Mises, "Restriction as a Privilege" (194o) [OLL Website]
  7. Leland Yeager, “The Positive Case for Free Trade” (1954) - [OLL Website]

General Economic Issues

  1. Abbé de Condillac, “On Value and Trade” (1776) - [OLL Website]
  2. Destutt de Tracy, “Of Society” (1817) - [OLL Website]
  3. Jean-Baptiste Say, “Of the Demand or Market for Products” (1819) - [OLL Website]
  4. Frédéric Bastiat, “The Broken Window” (July 1850) - [OLL Website]
  5. F.A. Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society” (1945) - [OLL Website]
  6. Milton Friedman, “Capitalism and Freedom” (1961) - [OLL Website]
  7. Israel Kirzner, “Entrepreneurial Activity and the General Market Process” (1963) - [OLL Website]
  8. Israel Kirzner, “Efficiency, Coordination, and the Market Economy” (1963) - [OLL Website]
  9. Friedrich Hayek, “Kinds of Order in Society” (1964) - [OLL Website]
  10. Norman Barry, “Hayek’s Theory of Spontaneous Order I: Economic Orders” (1982) - [OLL Website]
  11. Norman Barry, “Hayek’s Theory of Spontaneous Order II: Legal Orders” (1982) - [OLL Website]
  12. Paul Heyne, “Economics Is a Way of Thinking” (1995) - [OLL Website]

PART V: INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY↩

  1. Richard Overton, “An Arrow against all Tyrants and Tyranny” (October, 1646 - [OLL Website]
  2. Adam Smith, “Of the Character of Virtue” (1759) - [OLL Website]
  3. Wilhelm von Humboldt, “Of the Individual Man” (1792) - [OLL Website]
  4. Mary Wollstonecraft, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” (1792) - [OLL Website]
  5. Lysander Spooner, “Vices are Not Crimes” (1875) - [OLL Website]

PART VI: WAR & PEACE↩

  1. Vicesimus Knox, “The Prospect of Perpetual and Universal Peace” (1793) - [OLL Website]
  2. Daniel Webster, “Speech on the Draft” (1814) - [OLL Website]
  3. William Graham Sumner, “The Conquest of the United States by Spain” (1898) - [OLL Website]
  4. Ludwig von Mises, “The Economics of War” (1949) - [link to be added later]

PART VII: KEY LEGAL & POLITICAL DOCUMENTS↩

  1. “Magna Carta” (The Great Charter) (1215) - [OLL Website]
  2. Sir Edward Coke, “Petition of Right” (1628) - [OLL Website]
  3. "Three Agreements of the People" (1647-49) - [link to be added later]
  4. “The Habeas Corpus Act” (1679) - [OLL Website]
  5. “The English Bill of Rights” (1689) - [OLL Website]
  6. [George Mason], “The Virginia Bill of Rights” (June, 1776) Source [external website]
  7. Thomas Jefferson, “The Declaration of Independence” (July, 1776) - [OLL Website]
  8. “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” (August, 1789) Source [external website]

Also see the collection of [Key Documents of Liberty in which there are 100 documents stretching back to the Code of Hammurabi.

PART VIII: THE HISTORY OF LIBERTY & POWER↩

  1. David Hume, “The Progress of English Liberty” (1761) - [OLL Website]
  2. Lord Acton, “Inaugural Lecture on the Study of History” (1895) - [OLL Website]

PART IX: THE LITERATURE OF LIBERTY↩

  1. John Thelwall, "Political Songs" (1795) - [OLL Website]
  2. Percy Bysshe Shelley, “On Liberty” (1810–22) - [link to come]

PART X: THE CRITIQUE OF SOCIALISM AND INTERVENTIONISM↩

  1. Frédéric Bastiat, “Individualism and Fraternity” (June 1848) - [OLL Website]
  2. Alexis de Tocqueville, “On Socialism” (1848) - [OLL Website]
  3. Gustave de Molinari, “On Socialism and Property Rights” (1849) - [OLL Website]
  4. John Stuart Mill, “The Difficulties of Socialism” (1879) - [OLL Website]
  5. Bruce Smith, “True Liberalism vs. Socialism” (1888) - [OLL Website]
  6. Wordsworth Donisthorpe, “An Analysis of Socialism” (1889) - [OLL Website]
  7. Herbert Spencer, “From Freedom to Bondage” (1891) - [OLL Website]
  8. Yves Guyot, “The Socialist Tyranny” (1893) - [OLL Website]
  9. Eugen Richter, "Economic Chaos after the Socialist Revolution" (1893) - [OLL Website]
  10. Thomas Mackay “The Interest of the Working Class in Free Exchange” (1894) - [OLL Website]
  11. Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, “The Error in the Marxist System” (1896) - [OLL Website]
  12. Auberon Herbert, “Against Force and Socialist Compulsion” (1898) - [OLL Website]
  13. Ludwig von Mises, “The Impossibility of Economic Calculation under Socialism” (1922) - [OLL Website]
  14. Ludwig von Mises, “Socialism, Interventionism, and the Free Market” (1949) - [OLL Website]
  15. H.B. Acton, “Marxist Ethics” (1955) - [OLL Website]

PART XI: THE RULING CLASS AND THE STATE↩

  1. Estienne de la Boétie, “Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (1576)- [OLL Website]
  2. John Trenchard, “On the Nature of Political Parties” (1721) - [OLL Website]
  3. John Millar "Circumstances which tend to increase the power of the Sovereign" (1771) - [OLL Website]
  4. James Mill, “The State of the Nation” (1835) - [OLL Website]
  5. William Graham Sumner, "The Forgotten Man and Woman" (1883) - [OLL Website]

This section has been expanded. See "[The Ruling Class and the State".

PART XII: VISIONS OF THE FUTURE↩

  1. James Harrington, “The Commonwealth of Oceana” (1656) - [OLL Website]
  2. David Hume, "Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth" (1777) - [OLL Website]
  3. Marquis de Condorcet, “Tenth Epoch. Future Progress of Mankind” (1794) - [OLL Website]
  4. John Stuart Mill, “The Spirit of the Age” (1831) - [OLL Website]
  5. Frédéric Bastiat, “The Utopian” (1847) - [OLL Website]
  6. Gustave de Molinari, “Of the Liberty of Government” (1849) - [OLL Website]
  7. Herbert Spencer, “Political Retrospect and Prospect” (1882) - [OLL Website]