Gaining a Nation, Losing the Republic: Reconstruction, 1863–1877

A dead president, carpetbaggers, scalawags, burning crosses, white hoods, an occupied South, Boss Tweed, Thomas Nast cartoons, the New York Democratic machine, and an imprisoned Jefferson Davis—all provide vivid images of the dozen years following the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s forces at Appomattox in April 1865. As every historian knows, often to his chagrin, [...]

Yet Again with the National ID

Fresh from their defeat in forcing national identity papers on us with REAL ID, the feds are trying once more. Their plea this time isn’t terrorism but immigration—though they’re pretty much the same, according to the State. Introduced in 2005 to combat the waves of terrorists thronging our shores, REAL ID was supposed to thwart [...]

Ain’t My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism

The abysmal 2008 presidential election should have Americans scratching their heads, pondering how the political economy of the United States devolved into a duopoly of two nearly identical, state-loving political parties that are always ready to intervene militarily anywhere on the planet. It was not always this way, and how we got here is the [...]

Slick Construction Under the Articles of Confederation

Writing lately on the Fourth Amendment, Professor Thomas Y. Davies decries the “originalism” practiced by certain Supreme Court justices and sundry legal commentators. On historical-hermeneutic grounds, he faults face-value originalism for missing “the shared, implicit assumptions that informed the public meaning” on which a given constitutional provision rested. Underlying the Fourth Amendment were common-law rules [...]

Book Reviews – November 2006

• 
  "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;
  mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Nation, State, and Economy: Contributions to the
  Politics and the History of Our Time
  by
  "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;
  mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Ludwig von Mises "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;
  mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> Reviewed
  by Richard M. Ebeling
• 
  1776
  by David McCullough
  Reviewed by George C. Leef
• 
  Active
  Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution
  by Stephen Breyer
  Reviewed by Michael DeBow
• 
  Making
  Great Decisions in Business and Life
  by David R. Henderson and Charles
  L. Hooper Reviewed by Philip R. Murray

“The Tariff is the Mother of Trusts”

Why should we expect business people to favor laissez faire and to abhor government intervention? Few people outside of business do so.

From Pennsylvania to Verdun: Friedrich List and the Origins of World War I

World War I, or the “Great War” (as most Europeans still call it), was one of the biggest disasters in human history. It not only killed and maimed millions, the cream of a generation, it also destroyed the liberal, cosmopolitan system that had been created in the nineteenth century. It was, moreover, the direct cause [...]

The Pledge versus the Oath

When George W. Bush became president last January, he struck a familiar pose. Raising his right hand before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he swore to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The oath serves to remind us that the United States is a constitutional republic with a federal [...]

In Praise of Hard Industries

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. The subtitle of this book reads: Why manufacturing, not the information economy, is the key to future prosperity. That tells me that the author thinks himself capable of central economic planning at the macro level, knowing as he does what economic formula will lead to “prosperity.” [...]