Even though my website, “The Digital Library of Liberty and Power”, has been in existence since June 2010, because Google changed its method of collecting data in early 2022 this report only goes back until then for the sake of consistency.

Since 14 Feb. 2022 the site has had 96,318 users (i.e. visitors) and 132,180 page views (most visitors view more than 1 page per visit), and 3,510 files have been downloaded (probably PDFs).

It is currently averaging 3,334 page views per month, before an unusually large spike happened in November when it got nearly 37,000 page views. I haven’t figured out why yet.

Out of the Top 50 most popular items (between 450 and 6,000 views) 26 are books and essays by other people and 15 are essays and papers by me. By far my most viewed paper is one I wrote in 2020 on “Thomas Hobbes and the Iconography of the Leviathan State” Online with 3,499 views over the past 4 years. All I can think of is that some university library links to it on their website. My most viewed paper with an economics component is “The Struggle against Protectionism, Socialism, and the Bureaucratic State: The Economic Thought of Gustave de Molinari, 1845-1855” from 2016 with 2,066 views.

Concerning my more academic papers I can report that there have been 14,771 views over the past 4 years. What is surprising is that some quite old papers going back to the 1990s still get visitors. My most viewed papers and essays are:

1. “Thomas Hobbes and the Iconography of the Leviathan State” Online – 3,499
2. “Images of Liberty and Power: Ridiculing the Anti-Imperialist League’s Opposition to the Conquest of the Philippines” (1901) Online – 2,446
3. “The Struggle against Protectionism, Socialism, and the Bureaucratic State: The Economic Thought of Gustave de Molinari, 1845-1855” Online – 2016
4. “Pablo Picasso (1881-1973): From the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam” Online – 1,550
5. “Libertarian Class Analysis: An Historical Survey” (Sept. 2020 Draft) Online – 1,493
6. “Otto Dix (1891-1969): Life and Death in the Trenches” Online – 1,021
7. “Class Analysis, Slavery and the Industrialist Theory of History in French Liberal Thought, 1814-1830: The Radical Liberalism of Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer” (1990, 2013) Online – 909
8. “The Paris School of Liberal Political Economy, 1803-1853” Online – 836
9. “The Bayeux Tapestry (circa 1070A.D.): Celebrating the Norman Conquest of England in 1066” Online – 718
10. “Frédéric Passy and ‘The School of Liberty’ (April, 1890)” Online – 650
11. “Images of the Ruled as ‘Atlas’” Online – 644
12. “Images of Liberty and Power: Thomas Nast and the Slavery of the Income Tax (1878)” Online – 466
13. “Frédéric Bastiat on Plunder, Class, and the State” Online – 464

The most viewed books and documents by others are the following. It is interesting that works by socialists like Blanc, Marx, and G.B. Shaw are also popular:

1. Murray N. Rothbard, “A Strategy for the Right” (Jan. 1992) Online – 6,273
2. Murray N. Rothbard, “Toward a Strategy for Libertarian Social Change” (April, 1977) Online – 3,602
3. Ernst Friedrich, Krieg dem Kriege! Guerre a la Guerre! War against War! Oorlog aan den Oorlog! (1924) Online – 2,323
4. William Graham Sumner, Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals (1906) Online – 2,292
5. Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John, Ed. William Sharp Mckechnie (1215, 1914) Online – 1,609
6. Thomas Hill Green, Lecture on Liberal Legislation and Freedom Of Contract (1881) Online – 1,500
7. Jeremy Bentham, Anarchical Fallacies; Being an Examination of the Declarations of Rights issued during the French Revolution (c. 1795) Online – 1,314
8. John Milton, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649) Online – 1,257
9. William Wollaston, The Religion of Nature Delineated (1722, 1750) Online – 1,187
10. Aesop’s “Political Fables” (Croxall Ed.) Online – 1,105
11. Louis Blanc, Organisation du Travail (Sept., 1840) Online – 951
12. Voltaire, The Philosophical Dictionary (1764, 1901) Online – 884
13. The Complet Libertarian Forum (1969-1984). Murray N. Rothbard (ed.) Online – 866
14. Elizabeth Lilburne, The humble Petition of diverse wel-affected Weomen (5 May, 1649) Online – 794
15. George Bernard Shaw, Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889) Online – 675
16. Charles Dunoyer, Nouveau traité d’économie sociale (1830) 2 Volumes in 1 Online – 650
17. The Putney Debates. The General Council of Officers at Putney (Oct.-Nov. 1647) Online – 573
18. William Edward Hearn, Plutology or the Theory of the Efforts to Satisfy Human Wants (1864) Online – 567
19. [John Rushworth], A Declaration, or, Representation From his Excellency, Sir Thomas Fairfax, And the Army under his command, Humbly tendred to the parliament (14 June 1647) Online – 563
20. Voltaire, Dictionnaire Philosophique (1764, 1878) Online – 538
21. William Graham Sumner, War and Other Essays (1919) Online – 531
22. Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Sociology, Vol. I (1898) Online – 503
23. Ludwig von Mises, Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (1936, 1951) Online – 503
24. Karl Marx, Das Kapital. Band I. Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie. Der Produktionsprozess des Kapitals (1867, 1890) Online – 501
25. Charles Dunoyer, L’Industrie et la Morale considérées dans leurs rapports avec la Liberté (1825) Online – 494
26. Frédéric Bastiat, Œuvres Complètes. Deuxième Édition. Tome Deuxième. Le Libre-Échange (1862) Online – 473
27. John Millar, The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks (1806) Online – 456
28. Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Ethics. Two Volumes in One (1897) Online – 440

Since the history of economic thought is a special interest of mine I list here the well viewed papers which have an economics component:

1. “The Struggle against Protectionism, Socialism, and the Bureaucratic State: The Economic Thought of Gustave de Molinari, 1845-1855.” Total of 2,066 views: Online – 1,563 and revised 2024 version Online – 453 ; another version 55
2. A HETSA Paper: “The Paris School of Liberal Political Economy, 1803-1853” – 1,221 views; Online – 836 and /liberty/Papers/ParisSchool/HETSA-Sept2022/index.html – 385
3. “Class Analysis, Slavery and the Industrialist Theory of History in French Liberal Thought, 1814-1830: 
The Radical Liberalism of Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer” – 953 views: 2013 version Online – 909 ; another version Online – 44
4. “Frédéric Passy and ‘The School of Liberty’ (April, 1890)” – 705 views; Online – 650 ; another version – 55
5. “The Idea of the Withering Away of the State: 19th Century Liberal and Marxist Perspectives” Online – 394
6. “Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912): A Survey of the Life and Work of an “économiste dure” (a hard-core economist)” Online – 327
7. “Literature IN Economics, and Economics AS Literature I: Bastiat’s use of Literature in Defense of Free Markets and his Rhetoric of Economic Liberty.” Online – 289
8. “Negative Railways, Turtle Soup, talking Pencils, and House owning Dogs: ‘The French Connection’ and the Popularization of Economics from Say to Jasay” Online – 280
9. “Bastiat on the Seen and The Unseen: An Intellectual History” – 275 views: 2020 version Online – 71 ; 2022 revised version Online – 71 ; 2024 revised version Online – 133
10. “Opposing Economic Fallacies, Legal Plunder, and the State: Frédéric Bastiat’s Rhetoric of Liberty in the Economic Sophisms (1846–1850)” – 264. HETSA paper Online – 260 ; revised version Online – 4
11. “Literature IN Economics, and Economics AS Literature II: The Economics of Robinson Crusoe from Defoe to Rothbard by way of Bastiat.” Online – 263
12. A HETSA Paper: “Putting the ‘Political’ back into Adam Smith’s Political Economy: Smith on Power and Privilege, Faction and Fanaticism, and Corruption and Conspiracies” Online – 245
13. “Bastiat’s Theory of Harmony and Disharmony: An Intellectual History” – 235 views: Online – 177 ; another version – 58
14. “Reassessing Bastiat’s Economic Harmonies” after 170 Years" Online – 189
15. “Gustave de Molinari and The Seven Musketeers of French Political Economy in the 1840s” Online – 184
16. “Reassessing Frédéric Bastiat as an Economic Theorist.” Online – 181
17. “Plunderers, Parasites, and Plutocrats: Some Reflections on the Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall of Classical Liberal Class Analysis.” Online – 173
18. “Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Scribblers: An Austrian Analysis of the Structure of Production and Distribution of Ideas” – 165 views: 2015 version Online – 95  ; revised 2024 version Online – 70
19. “Charles Coquelin, Gustave de Molinari, Frederic Bastiat and the “Austrian Moment” in French Political Economy 1845-1855” Online – 163
20. “Some Thoughts on an ‘Austrian Theory of Film’: Ideas and Human Action in a Film about Frédéric Bastiat” Online – 141
21. “Was Molinari a true Anarcho-Capitalist?: An Intellectual History of the Private and Competitive Production of Security” Online – 123
22. “Bastiat: the ‘Unseen’ Radical” Online – 112
23. “On Teaching Economics as “A Way of Thinking” by telling your Students good Stories” – 93 views ; Online – 55 ; plus handouts 38
24. “The Liberal Roots of American Conservatism: Bastiat and the French Connection.” Online – 68
25. "On Ricochets, Hidden Channels, and Negative Multipliers: Bastiat on calculating the Economic Costs of ‘The Unseen’ " Online – 47
26. “Gustave de Molinari and the Future of Liberty: ‘Fin de Siècle, Fin de la Liberté’?” Online – 44
27. A HETSA Paper: “A Monument to French Political Economy’: the Dictionnaire de l’Économie Politique (1852-53). The Contributions of Gilbert-Urbain Guillaumin (1801-1864), Charles Coquelin (1802-1852), and Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912” – 42 views : Online – 24 ; another version Online – 18
28. “Arguments against Slavery in France during the Restoration: From Art to Political Economy” Online – 36
29. “Slavery: The French Classical Liberal Critique, 1750-1850.” Online – 35
30. “J.B. Say and the Transformation of Restoration French Liberalism” Online – 30
31. “Bastiat goes to the Movies, or “Filming Freddie”: How to Popularise Economic Ideas in Film” Online – 30
32. “Frédéric Bastiat’s Distinction between Legal and Illegal Plunder.” Online – 19
33. A HETSA Paper: “Grappling with Economic Complexity: The Idea of “Ceteris Paribus” or “Toutes Choses d’ailleurs Égales” in the Thought of J.S. Mill and Frédéric Bastiat” Online – 18
34. “An Introduction to Gustave de Molinari’s Esquisse de l’organisation politique et économique de la Société future (A Sketch of the Political and Economic Organisation of the Society of the Future) (1899)” Online – 12