The Myth of U.S. Prosperity during World War II

World War II, the so-called Good War, has been a fount of historical fallacies. One of the greatest—and one of the most pernicious for subsequent policymakers—is the notion that prosperity prevailed during the war. Although Americans might have been dying in the Pacific and European theaters of war, people on the home front actually benefited [...]

For the Survival of Democracy: Franklin Roosevelt and the World Crisis of the 1930s

The latest New Deal synthesis is For the Survival of Democracy by veteran historian Alonzo Hamby of Ohio University. What makes Hamby’s research design different is that he describes the development of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal in an international context. Specifically, he weaves the American narrative with events in Britain and Germany in [...]

E.G. West: Champion of the Market for Education

(Editor’s Note: Professor E. G. West, the distinguished economist and historian of education, died last October 6 at the age of 79. His most recent articles in this magazine, “The Spread of Education Before Compulsion: Britain and America in the Nineteenth Century” and “Classical Libertarian Compromises on State Education,” appeared in the July and October [...]

A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of ’08 and the Descent into Depression

Richard Posner’s latest book belongs to the fast-expanding cottage industry of financial crisis books. A federal judge with a grounding in economics, Posner would seem to be an ideal person to tackle this complicated subject. Alas, he provides neither fresh material nor an interesting perspective. Posner describes well-known events—the failure of investment banks Bear Stearns [...]

A Family of Heroes

In any major city, particularly a capital, the great majority of statues and memorials pay tribute to monarchs and presidents, priests, generals, and statesmen. This reflects the way history is commonly understood and taught: as the story of the achievements of those associated with political power, government, and war. Memorials to the historical figures associated [...]

Human Action, 1949: A Dramatic Episode in Intellectual History

A great book, it has been remarked, is like a great castle. It can be viewed from many different angles, each offering a unique perspective. Viewing Ludwig von Mises’s monumental work from the vantage of 2009 permits one to see with great clarity one fascinating aspect of the book–the sheer drama of its emergence at [...]

Book Reviews – July 2008

• A Farewell to Alms by Gregory Clark Reviewed by Gene Callahan
• Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don’t by John Lott Reviewed by Robert P. Murphy
• Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval that Inspired America’s Founding Fathers by Michael Barone Reviewed by Martin Morse Wooster
• Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and Other Boneheaded Bureaucrats Are Turning America Into a Nation of Children David Harsanyi Reviewed by George Leef

A Patriot’s History of the United States: From Columbus’s Great Discovery to the War on Terror

U.S. history textbooks are important because they are a benchmark of what we as a nation value in our past and what we envision for our future. After thumbing through a recent batch of texts, David McCullough, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, concluded that “most of them, it appears to me, have been published in [...]

The Republic of West Florida: Freedom Fight or Land Grab?

Probably not one American in a hundred knows anything about the short-lived Republic of West Florida (1810). At first glance it might seem to have sprung from a worthy fight for self-government and independence from Spain. On closer inspection, however, this venture, born of low-level filibuster and high-level intrigue, illustrates the same ingrained American propensity [...]