Celebrating The BiCentennial of the Birth of
Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912)

The Founding Father of the Anarcho-Capitalist Tradition

[Commemorating the Bicentennial of his birth on 3 March 1819 in Liège.
He died at 92 years of age on 28 January, 1912 in Adinkerke, Belgium]

Introduction

In 2012, the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustave de Moliari, I complied an anthology of his key writings on the state which consisted of 13 items in facsimile format only [listed here]. In 2019, the bicentennial year of his birth, with the cooperation of the Institut Coppet in Paris, I will publish a larger anthology of his key writings both as a book and in HTML. It will consist of a lengthy biographical introduction to his writings, introductions to 24 of his key works, and the most comprehensive bibliography of his very numerous writings to date.

I would also like to note that 2019 is the 40th anniversary of the completion of my undergraduate honours thesis on Molinari which I wrote while at Macquarie University, Sydney.

I had hoped that the translation of Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare I have been editing for many years would have been available in 2019, but unfortunately this cannot be. A near final draft has been online for several years here, and contains much material on his life and thought as well.

Resources on or by Molinari at this site are listed below.

Resources on Gustave de Molinari (mostly at this site)

• Obituaries
  • Obituary by Yves Guyot [JDE, Febraury 1912].
  • My Obit page.
• Biographical information
  • Brief Biography
  • the main biographical essay on his life and works
• Bibliography of his works
  • an older Bibliography with links to copies of 52 of his books at this site
  • the new (Dec. 2018) more complete bibliography of his works
• My undergraduate thesis on Molinari "Gustave de Molinari and the Anti-statist Liberal Tradition" (1979)
• Anthologies of his key works
  • On the State
    • a collection of 13 items done for the centenial of his birth in 2102 - listed here - in facsimile PDF format [27.5 MB]
    • The "Bicentennial Anthology": a more comprehensive anthology of 24 of his works on the state done for the bicentennial of his birth in 2019
      • the biographical essay on his life and wortk
      • with texts (in French) with my introductions to the extracts
      • the updated bibliography
  • a proposed more general anthology of his writings on many topics
• Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare (1849)
  • the English translation of Les Soirées de la Rue Saint-Lazare (1849)
    • Table of Contents of the draft [at this site]
    • the main text and supplementary material [at the OLL website]
    • my translation of Soirée 11 - old - revised
    • his inspiring conclusion to S12
  • older French version HTML - facs. PDF
  • recent (June 2022) version in HTML (with original page numbers), a text-based ebook PDF of this version, and a coloured facs. PDF
• other things by Molinari
  • the street magazine he published with Bastiat in June 1848, Jacques Bonhomme
  • his article "The Production of Security" (Feb. 1849)
    • French version - HTML - facs. PDF
    • my English translation
  • on the Different Kinds of Liberties and Entrepreneurs (1849-1863)
  • on "ulcerous government" (my translation)
• other things about Molinari
  • a discussion of his work at the Liberty Matters online discussion forum on the OLL website (May 2013)
  • Gustave de Molinari and the Future of Liberty: 'Fin de Siècle, Fin de la Liberté'? (2000, 2016)
  • Gustave de Molinari and the Seven Musketeers of French Political Economy in the 1840s (2015)
  • Charles Coquelin, Gustave de Molinari, Frederic Bastiat and the "Austrian Moment" in French Political Economy 1845-1855: Part II. Molinari and the Private Production of Security (2016)
  • The Struggle against Protectionism, Socialism, and the Bureaucratic State: The Economic Thought of Gustave de Molinari, 1845-1855 (2016)
  • Draft Introduction to the translation of Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare [at the OLL swebsite]
  • related material: The Paris School of Liberal Political Economy, 1803–1853 (2018)