All Posts Tagged With: "economic history"
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 [...]
1Jun2005 | Robert Higgs | 2 comments | ContinuedThe Liberty Tradition Among Black Americans
Slavery and free institutions can never live peaceably together,” Frederick Douglass observed. “Liberty . . . must either overthrow slavery, or be itself overthrown by slavery.” Douglass, black America’s most renowned spokesman, made this argument during the Civil War. But what about after the war? Was it proper for the government afterward to intervene and [...]
1May2005 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Business Revolution of the Nineteenth Century
The business corporation is one of the most maligned and disliked institutions of our time. The criticism comes from many parts of the political spectrum, and its substance has become a common-sense assumption for many. As ever, much of this criticism lacks historical perspective, despite the inclusion of historical accounts of the growth of large [...]
1Apr2005 | Stephen Davies | 0 comments | ContinuedHow the Federal Government Got into the Ocean-Shipping Business
Someone who maintains that the relations between government and business in the United States during the past century have been essentially fascistic could find no better example than ocean shipping. Here we observe all the requisite elements of economic fascism: government-authorized and -supervised cartels, the semblance of private property rights without the substance, and the [...]
1Nov2003 | Robert Higgs | 0 comments | ContinuedChina’s Historic Error
Last time I wrote about the dynamic and innovative economy of Song China. Had China continued to develop as it did under that dynasty we would undoubtedly be talking now of “the Industrial Revolution of the fourteenth century.” However, this did not happen. Instead China gradually lost the dynamism and inventiveness that for so long [...]
1Oct2003 | Stephen Davies | 1 comment | ContinuedBook Reviews – October 2003
The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I by Thomas Fleming Basic Books • 2003 • 543 pages • $30.00 Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling Imagine how different the twentieth century might have been if Lenin and the Bolsheviks had never come to power in Russia in 1917 and had not set in motion all the cruel crimes that were [...]
1Oct2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedAndrew Johnson and the Constitution
Before 1998 “Andrew Johnson” used to be the answer to the question “Who was the only U.S. president to be impeached?” But Andrew Johnson, the self-educated tailor, deserves to be remembered more for his ideas, especially his defense of the Constitution in a troubled time. Johnson was born in poverty in North Carolina in 1808 [...]
1Sep2003 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedBest Textbooks for a Free-Market University
“I don’t care who writes a nation’s laws . . . if I can write its economics textbooks.” -Paul A. Samuelson When I majored in economics in the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were precious few textbooks with a strong free-market bent. My introductory course required Paul A. Samuelson’s Economics, a strictly Keynesian work [...]
1Dec1998 | Mark Skousen | 2 comments | ContinuedThe American Economy in the Twentieth Century
Uncork the champagne! It’s time to celebrate! The first free-market economic history textbook is now available for college students. The American Economy in the Twentieth Century is written by Gene Smiley, economics professor at Marquette University, and published by SouthWestern, a major college textbook publisher. There is much to applaud. Smiley’s textbook is lucid, interesting, [...]
1Aug1995 | Mark Skousen | 0 comments | ContinuedSecond Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History
The two magnetic poles of social science are the bumper-sticker and quod erat demonstrandum—that is, the important and the precise. Anyone can make his statements precise and cohesive if he is willing to be irrelevant, and anyone can prattle about important issues if he is willing to be imprecise and incoherent. The best social science [...]
1Jan1995 | Daniel B. Klein | 2 comments | ContinuedBook Review: An Economic History of England: The 18th Century by T. S. Ashton
New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc. 257 pp. $4.00. Despite the romanticism of folk tales, life was far from idyllic in the days when Jack-of-the-Beanstalk and his young contemporaries trudged along picturesque country lanes, leading the family cow or pigs to market. Conditions changed slowly in those times. Before 1700 life was pretty much the [...]
1Jul1956 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 0 comments | Continued-
The Latest
Government Beneficence and Other Fairy Tales
I admit I’m amused by the unceasing economic and political malarkey that flows from the pundits at... Read More
The Myths of the Interventionists
One of the most pernicious myths in the economic history of the twentieth century is the belief that... Read More
JPMorgan Chase and Casino Banking
JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the nation’s leading banks, revealed in May that a London trader racked... Read More
Individualism, Trade-Unions, and “Self-Governing Combinations”
Who do you imagine said this? “[Trade-unions] seem natural to the passing phase of social evolution,... Read More
Bubbles, Malinvestment, and Higher Education
Many commentators are asking whether the next big bubble to burst will be the debt associated with the... Read More
