All Posts Tagged With: "world war I"

Wartime Curbs on Liberty Are Costless?

In one of the most provocative opinion articles of recent times, “Security Comes Before Liberty” (Wall Street Journal, October 23, 2001), Jay Winik argued (1) that in previous national emergencies, U.S. presidents took strong repressive measures against citizens and other residents of the country, (2) that the repressive measures implemented so far by the Bush [...]

1Mar2002 | | 0 comments | Continued

How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century

This article is reprinted from the July 1999 issue of The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty. After surveying the Western world in the past six centuries, Bruce Porter concluded: “a government at war is a juggernaut of centralization determined to crush any internal opposition that impedes the mobilization of militarily vital resources. This centralizing tendency of [...]

1Dec2001 | | 0 comments | Continued

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk: A Sesquicentennial Appreciation

Richard Ebeling is currently a professor of economics at Northwood University in Midland, MI. In January 1914 there appeared three articles in one of the leading newspapers in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, world-renowned member of the Austrian school of economics and a three-time minister of finance. He warned his readers that the Austrian [...]

1Feb2001 | | 0 comments | Continued

The Pity of War

Niall Ferguson is a history professor who taught at Cambridge and is now a tenured Oxford don. Those are the credentials of an establishment, or “court,” historian, whose main purpose is to protect the patriotic and political myths of his government. Professor Ferguson, however, has written an iconoclastic attack on one of the most venerable [...]

1May2000 | | 0 comments | Continued

Isolationism

Frank Chodorov (1887-1966) was editor of The Freeman in 1954 and 1955. This is excerpted from his autobiography Out of Step (Devin-Adair, 1962). Reprinted with permission. Isolationism has been turned (by our politicians, our bureaucracy and its henchmen, the professorial idealists) into a bad word. And yet, isolationism is inherent in the human makeup. It [...]

1Jul1999 | | 4 comments | Continued

How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century

After surveying the Western world in the past six centuries, Bruce Porter concluded: “a government at war is a juggernaut of centralization determined to crush any internal opposition that impedes the mobilization of militarily vital resources. This centralizing tendency of war has made the rise of the state throughout much of history a disaster for [...]

1Jul1999 | | 1 comment | Continued

War’s Other Casualty

“War is the health of the State.” Those famous words are contained in Randolph Bourne’s essay “The State,” written in response to America’s participation in World War I, but left unfinished because of his death from influenza in 1918. In the introduction to War and the Intellectuals: Collected Essays 1915–1919—an anthology of Bourne’s writings—editor Carl [...]

1Jul1999 | | 0 comments | Continued

America’s Forgotten War

Doug Bandow, a nationally syndicated columnist, is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the author and editor of several books, including Tripwire: Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World. The war that did the most to transform the world for the worse was formally settled 80 years ago. Not World War [...]

1Mar1999 | | 0 comments | Continued

The Costs of War: America’s Pyrrhic Victories edited by John V. Denson

Transaction Publishers • 1997 • 450 pages • $44.95 cloth; $29.95 paperback Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of Tripwire: Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World. He formerly served as a special assistant to President Reagan. Advocates of limited government have long known that war and [...]

1Feb1999 | | 0 comments | Continued

Leonard E. Read: A Portrait

The Reverend Mr. Opitz, a contributing editor of The Freeman, was a senior staff member of the Foundation for Economic Education until his retirement in 1992. He was book review editor of The Freeman for many years. Leonard started out as a farm boy in the small town of Hubbardston, Michigan. There are always chores [...]

1Sep1998 | | 4 comments | Continued

White Magic

Editor’s Note: To mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of FEE founding president Leonard E. Read (1898–1983), The Freeman will publish a classic Read essay each month under the series heading “Anything That’s Peaceful.” Leonard Read was born on a farm in Michigan. At 19, his formal education was interrupted by his entry into [...]

1Jan1998 | | 2 comments | Continued

Federal Government Growth Before the New Deal

Professor Holcombe teaches economics at Florida State University. Popular opinion holds that most of the credit (or blame) for the incredible growth of the federal government should go to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal. While Roosevelt certainly was a willing participant in that process, the federal government began its amazingly rapid growth [...]

1Sep1997 | | 0 comments | Continued

Military Follies and Memorial Day Memories

Mr. Bandow, a nationally syndicated columnist, is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the author and editor of several books, including Tripwire: Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World. Washington, D.C., is ever the city of contradictions. Eloquent speeches about freedom by legislators voting to limit liberty. Emotional promises to aid [...]

1Sep1997 | | 4 comments | Continued

The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars

Dr. Hoppe is professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and co-editor of the Review of Austrian Economics and the Journal of Libertarian Studies. History is invariably written by its victors. Because the twentieth century is uniquely the American century, with the United States [...]

1Nov1996 | | 0 comments | Continued

War and Liberty in American History

Mr. Riddle teaches American History at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. This essay is based on excerpts from remarks presented at a FEE summer seminar in Irvington-on-Hudson, August 14, 1995. Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every [...]

1Feb1996 | | 0 comments | Continued

Did the Gold Standard Cause the Great Depression?

“Far from being synonymous with stability, the gold standard itself was the principal threat to financial stability and economic prosperity between the wars.” —Barry Eichengreen, Golden Fetters (1992), p. 4 Berkeley Professor Barry Eichengreen has fueled the flames of anti-gold in his recent historical work, Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919-1939 [...]

1May1995 | | 0 comments | Continued

The Conscription Idea

“The principle of voluntarism should not be compromised.” That policy on civilian manpower was recommended to the National Security Council in a May, 1954, report from the Office of Defense Mobilization. The report suggests an extensive program of voluntary incentives as the best method to secure the most effective use of civilian manpower in time [...]

1May1955 | | 2 comments | Continued
Newer Entries

    • © Copyright 2011 Freeman - Ideas on Liberty. All rights reserved.

    71 queries. 2.895 seconds