Chapter VIII: Part 8

This is by far the best book ever written about America, and the most penetrating book ever written about democracy. It won instant acclaim, not only in the writer’s native France, where Royer-Collard declared: “Nothing equal to it has appeared since Montesquieu,” but in England, where John Stuart Mill hailed it as “among the most remarkable productions of our time.” Its central theme is that democracy has become inevitable; that it is, with certain qualifications, desirable; but that it has great potentialities for evil as well as good, depending upon how well it is understood and guided. In the view of de Tocqueville, the greatest danger that threatens democracy is its tendency toward the centralization and concentration of power: “If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be attributed to the omnipotence of the majority.”

There is revived interest in Tocqueville today because of what seems like the uncanny clairvoyance of his prophecies. For example (this by a Frenchman in 1835): “There are at the present time two great nations in the world, which started from different points, but seem to tend towards the same end. I allude to the Russians and the Americans.... The principal instrument of [America] is liberty; of [Russia] servitude. Their starting point is different and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems marked by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe.”

But the special reason for including _Democracy in America_ in this bibliography is that, as John Bigelow wrote in his Introduction to the 1904 (Appleton) edition, it is “an intellectual arsenal in which the friends of freedom will long come to seek weapons.” F. A. Hayek has written of de Tocqueville and Lord Acton: “These two men seem to me to have more successfully developed what was best in the political philosophy of the Scottish philosophers, Burke, and the English Whigs than any other writers I know.”

TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE. _The Old Régime and the French Revolution._ London: Murray. 1856. 511 pp. (Doubleday Anchor Books. 1955. 300 pp.)

This book appeared some twenty years after _Democracy in America_. It is marked by the same luminous logic and eloquence. “The peculiar object of the work I now submit to the public is to explain why this great [French] Revolution [of 1789], which was in preparation at the same time over almost the whole continent of Europe, broke out in France sooner than elsewhere; why it sprang spontaneously from the society it was about to destroy; and lastly, how the old French monarchy came to fall so completely and so abruptly....

“Many will perhaps accuse me of showing in this book a very unseasonable love of freedom--a thing for which it is said that no one any longer cares in France....

“[Yet] despots themselves do not deny the excellence of Freedom, but they wish to keep it all to themselves, and maintain that all other men are utterly unworthy of it. Thus it is not on the opinion which may be entertained of freedom that this difference subsists, but on the greater or the less esteem we may have for mankind; and it may be said with strict accuracy, that the taste a man may show for absolute government bears an exact ratio to the contempt he may profess for his countrymen.”--From the Preface.

TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE. _Recollections._ Columbia University Press. 1949. 331 pp.

“No Nineteenth Century student of history and politics ... better understood the direction in which European society was evolving than the Count de Tocqueville. He knew that he was living in an age of continuous revolution and that this process, if accompanied by further concentration of power, could lead nowhere but into a tyranny unrestrained by either custom or religion.... The _Recollections_ begin with the February Revolution of 1848, and are continued until the end of Tocqueville’s ministry.... The book, however, is less valuable for its historical content than for the political and philosophic lessons abstracted by Tocqueville from his experience and observation.... His great passion was for the dignity of the human person and for the liberty necessary to its preservation. What he dreaded about democracy was the destruction of this dignity, not so much by violence as by the insidious regimen of mediocrity.”--J. M. Lalley, in _Human Events_.

TOLEDANO, RALPH DE. _Spies, Dupes and Diplomats._ Duell, Sloan & Pearce. 1952. 244 pp.

“The spies are those, American and non-American, who have served the Soviet Union so assiduously during the past decade and more. The dupes are a number of highly placed citizens of the United States who, through misguided liberalism, bad judgment, or just plain muddle-headedness, also have served to further Russian aims. The diplomats, for the most part, are in the Departments of State, Defense, and Justice, and, if we can believe what we read, they also showed a surprising lack of insight and vigor where Soviet intrigue was concerned. It is the author’s thesis that, taken together, these three categories of individuals have aided immeasurably the Russian design for world conquest. More particularly, he charges them with having made possible the Communist conquest of China, the present weakened state of Japan, and the tragic division of Korea.”--_Christian Science Monitor._

TOLEDANO, RALPH DE, AND LASKY, VICTOR. _Seeds of Treason._ Published for _Newsweek_ by Funk & Wagnalls. 1950. 270 pp.

The story of the Hiss-Chambers case and the Hiss trials, by two reporters--Ralph de Toledano of _Newsweek_ and Victor Lasky of the _New York World-Telegram_--who covered the case for their respective journals. “A fine professional job.... A delightfully readable presentation of all the evidence required for the forming of a fair judgment on a most puzzling case.... To many, its outstanding excellence consists in the clear light it throws on the process by which an heir of the American tradition is turned into a traitor to his country.”--_Catholic World._

TREVELYAN, G. M. _Life of John Bright._ Houghton Mifflin. 1913.

A portrait of the life and times of the great exponent of free trade, by an outstanding British historian.

TUCKER, JOSIAH. _A Brief Essay, etc._ 1750. _Four Tracts._ 1774. (_A Selection from His Economic and Political Writings._ Ed. by R. L. Schuyler. Columbia University Press. 191. 576 pp.)

The PI refers to Tucker as “a racy forerunner of the Manchester School, especially on questions of colonial trade.” He is regarded by F. A. Hayek as one of the founders of true individualism. In his _Elements of Commerce_ (1756) he wrote: “The main point is neither to extinguish nor to enfeeble self-love, but to give it such a direction that it may promote the public interest by promoting its own.”

UTLEY, FREDA. _Lost Illusion._ Philadelphia: Fireside Press. 1948. 288 pp.

The author has rewritten her book, _The Dream We Lost_, and now calls it _Lost Illusion_. It is “her account of herself as an English communist who was converted romantically, she now believes, to the Russian version of communism, lived for years in Russia, was progressively disillusioned by the change from original communism to ruthless industrialism, and got away to the United States.”--_New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review._ “A book like Miss Utley’s is a powerful educational instrument for democracy because of its honesty, its humility, its information, and above all for the unescapable moral issues it places before the intellectuals of the West.”--Sidney Hook, in _The New York Times_.

UTLEY, FREDA. _Last Chance in China._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1947. 408 pp.

This book proved to be prophetic. Reviewing it on its appearance in 1947, _The New Yorker_ wrote: “A treatise on the situation in China, based on a trip the author, for many years a strenuous convert to anti-Communism, took through the East shortly after the war. Miss Utley views everything with alarm; she believes that the United States has badly mismanaged its Chinese affairs and, by hamstringing Chiang Kai-shek, has practically invited the Chinese Communists to overrun the East.”

UTLEY, FREDA. _The China Story._ Regnery. 1951. 274 pp.

“Immediately after the war the market was flooded with books favorable to the Chinese Communists. Miss Utley has presented the other side of the case more thoroughly and more ably than any other American publicist. Her story throws a good deal of light (if sometimes controversial light) on one of the most burning and tragic issues of American foreign policy.”--W. H. Chamberlin, in the _Christian Century_.

VALTIN, JAN. _Out of the Night._ Alliance Book. 1941. 841 pp.

“There is no better picture of the life of a secret agent floating about the Communist underworld of the twenties, and no more horrible and convincing account of conditions in Nazi prisons and concentration camps. But beyond all the things which make it more readable than any ‘thriller’ are the profound political morals of the decline into sordid intrigue, corruption, and mechanical obedience of the international Communist movement.”--A. P. W., in the _Manchester Guardian_.

VAN SICKLE, JOHN V., AND ROGGE, BENJAMIN A. _Introduction to Economics._ Van Nostrand. 1954. 746 pp.

This stands out as one of the few introductory college economic textbooks today that are frankly and positively liberal in the traditional meaning of the term. It is notable for the simplicity and skill of its exposition. While its own conclusions are conservative, it explains clearly and objectively, for example, what is meant by “Keynesian economics.” The authors place special stress on the importance of functionally correct wages to the performance of a private enterprise system. There is also a discussion of communism, socialism, and planning as alternatives to capitalism.

VENNARD, EDWIN, AND WINSBOROUGH, ROBB M. _The American Economic System._ Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson & Co. 1953. 96 pp.

The authors attempt to give a simple explanation of the American economic system. Their book contains over a hundred illustrations in one to four colors, and illuminating charts and tables. Their theme is that the American people are better housed, better clothed, and better fed than any other major group of people in the world because of their free, or comparatively free, market economy.

VERRIJN STUART, COENRAAD A. _De Wetenschap der Economic en de Grondslagen van Het Sociaaleconomisch Leven._ Haarlem, Holland: Erven F. Bohn. 1947. 319 pp.

A notable book by an eminent liberal Dutch economist.

VIERECK, PETER. _The Shame and Glory of the Intellectuals._ Beacon Press. 1953. 320 pp.

An eloquent and stimulating, although often confused, book. Its author preaches a “new conservatism” but wants to “take conservatism away from the conservatives.” His central argument is that it is our duty to fight the evil of totalitarianism in all its forms, and that the shame of the intellectuals lies in their failure to fight the terrorism of Stalin with the same vigor that they fought that of Hitler.

VLUGT, EBED VAN DER. _Asia Aflame._ Devin-Adair. 1953. 294 pp.

An historical survey, by a native of Holland, and an influential editor and lawyer, of the growth of Red Russia’s influence in the various countries and regions of Asia during the last three decades. “If in addition to the convincing text of this book, there were need of authoritative recommendation, it might be mentioned that the author’s views are fully in accord with those of General Albert C. Wedemeyer, who writes the Foreword.”--Joseph McSorley, in the _Catholic World_.

VOIGT, F. A. _Unto Caesar._ Putnam. 1938. 303 pp.

An analysis of political conditions in Europe--particularly the fundamentals of fascism and communism and Great Britain’s role in keeping the peace. The author was a member of the staff of the _Manchester Guardian_. “A brilliant, circumstantial and thought-provoking book.”--_The_ [London] _Economist_.

VOLTAIRE. _Works._ Many editions.

Voltaire (1694-1778), particularly after his three-year visit to England from 1726 to 1729, became one of the great influences of the eighteenth century for toleration and personal liberty. But if any one-volume anthology devoted to the libertarian side of his thought has been selected and compiled from his voluminous works, I do not know of it. Such a selection should include much from his _Lettres Philosophiques sur les Anglais_ (1733). (See also LORD MORLEY’S _Voltaire_.)

WALSH, EDMUND A. _Total Empire._ Milwaukee: Bruce Publishers. 1951. 293 pp.

“Father Walsh, regent of the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University, is a lifelong student of geopolitics.... As director of the papal relief mission to Soviet Russia, Father Walsh witnessed the Bolshevik Revolution. These first-hand observations plus his own encyclopedic knowledge enable him to examine the grave question: Why has Russia’s attempt thus far succeeded where Germany’s failed?”--_The New York Times._

WARREN, CHARLES. _Making of the Constitution._ Little, Brown. 1928. 832 pp.

“For the first time in a single volume all the contemporary material relating to the formation of the Constitution has been brought together and the history of the Constitutional Convention is presented, day by day. Mr. Warren has assembled the letters of the public men of the day, the delegates and others, and has printed also the editorials and articles from the contemporary newspapers, presenting thus not only the thoughts of the men who were at work upon the Constitution or were otherwise influential in the country, but the conditions and the public opinion of that time.... _Making of the Constitution_ measures up to every demand of authoritative history, alike in its scholarly research, its liberal humanitarianism and its smoothly flowing style.”--_The New York Times._

WASSON, R. GORDON. _The Hall Carbine Affair._ New York: Pandick Press. 1941. 1948. 190 pp.

The author, a vice president of J. P. Morgan & Co., seizes on an oft-told episode in the life of the elder Morgan, founder of the banking house, in which he is alleged to have sold to the government during the Civil War some condemned arms at a profit that would have been exorbitant for first-class weapons. Mr. Wasson delves into the contemporary records and reveals with very careful documentation exactly what took place. Then he turns to the spurious version of this episode, identifies its inventor as Gustavus Myers, tracks down its successive embellishments at the hands of later anti-capitalistic “economic historians,” and shows how the myth got itself firmly embedded into the American credo. The disclosure is important for the light it throws on how cynical hostility to present big business leads to the invention and acceptance of historic slanders. Allan Nevins calls the Wasson book “a capital piece of work.”

WATTS, V. ORVAL. _Away From Freedom: The Revolt of the College Economists._ Los Angeles: Foundation for Social Research. 1952. 105 pp.

A vigorous answer to Keynesism, from an uncompromising advocate of free enterprise. Dr. Watts takes off from the criticisms of Keynesism previously made by such writers as L. Albert Hahn, Ludwig von Mises, and the late Benjamin M. Anderson. His analysis of the technical aspects of Keynesism leaves something to be desired, but his discussion of its moral and political weaknesses is admirable. He points out in detail how it teaches disregard for property rights, disparages self-reliance, foresight, thrift and enterprise, puts its faith in bureaucracy and coercive authority, and is fundamentally hostile to free trade, free markets and individual liberty.

WATTS, V. ORVAL. _Union Monopoly: Its Cause and Cure._ Los Angeles: Foundation for Social Research. 1954. 88 pp.

Dr. Watts argues that present labor union monopolies are the product of a special government license granted to unions to use violence, coercion and compulsion, and that this state of affairs is further aggravated by denial to employers of what ought to be their legal right of choice. Dr. Watts also argues that, in spite of all their specially granted privileges and immunities, unions have not raised the over-all share of employees in the product of industry. The book is well organized and contains an excellent analysis of the defects of the Wagner Labor Relations Act of 1935, and of the subsequent Taft-Hartley Act.

WATTS, V. ORVAL. _The United Nations: Planned Tyranny._ Devin-Adair. 1955. 160 pp.

The author argues that the United Nations as presently constituted is “not liberal but reactionary,” and that it is “a blueprint for tyranny and perpetual war instead of an instrument of peace.”

WEAVER, HENRY GRADY. _Mainspring._ 1947. Irvington, N. Y.: The Foundation for Economic Education. 1953. 279 pp.

Contends that only free men can make effective use of their imaginations and creative abilities and that the purpose of government is to protect personal liberty. An excellent introduction to the history of human freedom and the resulting moral, social, and material benefits. “Down through the ages,” writes Mr. Weaver, “countless millions, struggling unsuccessfully to keep bare life in wretched bodies, have died young in misery and squalor.... Then suddenly, on one spot on this planet, people eat so abundantly that the pangs of hunger are forgotten.” The reason for this miracle, the author contends, is not any extraordinary inherent ability in the American people, but their system of economic freedom.

WEBER, MAX. _General Economic History._ Greenberg. 1927. 401 pp.

A history of the evolution of the capitalistic spirit from a sociological point of view. The book was prepared by German editors from notes left by Max Weber and the notebooks of his students.

WEISSBERG, ALEXANDER. _The Accused._ Simon & Schuster. 1951. 518 pp.

“This is not just one more book in the rapidly growing literature on the _Chystka_, the Great Purge, of 1936-1938. It is a landmark, a monument, and an inexhaustible source of penetrating insights into the souls of the men who confess and of those who make them confess; of a few political heroes and a number of political provocateurs; of real and fictitious spies; and of thousands of simple human beings, disoriented, frightened, and often going from prison cell to execution.... From this source a future Dostoevsky will draw the elements and inspiration for a new _House of the Dead_.”--D. J. Dallin, in _The New York Times_.

WEST, REBECCA. _The Meaning of Treason._ Viking. 1947. 307 pp.

A profound study of the motives that have led scientists and other “intellectuals” of the Western world to betray their own countries in the service of the communist conspiracy. “Wonderfully illuminating reports on William Joyce, John Amery, and other British traitors.”--_The Atlantic._ “A tour de force ... told in memorable prose.”--_Commonweal._

In the second edition published in 1952 Miss West added new chapters containing studies of two more traitors--Dr. Alan Nunn May and Dr. Klaus Emil Fuchs.

WHITE, ANDREW DICKSON. _Fiat Money Inflation in France._ 1896. (Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation for Economic Education. 1952.) (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers.) 69 pp.

Andrew Dickson White was an eminent historian, the first president of Cornell, and American ambassador to Russia and Germany. This is a brilliant history of inflation in France in the revolutionary period from 1789 to 1797. It shows by scrupulous citation of documented data how irredeemable paper money leads to soaring prices, price fixing, scarcity, the black market, the spy system, the invasion of privacy, immorality and tyranny. A little masterpiece.

WHITE, W. L. _Report on the Russians._ Harcourt, Brace. 1945. 309 pp.

The story of a six-weeks’ trip to Russia during the summer of 1944. Because it was one of the first books to break the conspiracy of silence about the shortcomings of our then “ally,” its appearance met a storm of denunciation and protest. “Mr. White makes little attempt to analyze the social processes at work in Russia or to generalize about her recent history. He simply tells what he saw, heard, and felt. But, as a journalist, he was in a position to enjoy certain unique advantages. He traveled about in a way that no regular correspondent in the Soviet Union had been permitted to do in years.... His book has thus a unique value and ought not to be confused with the ordinary correspondent’s book about Russia. Mr. White not only saw much more than most visitors, he is a better observer than most, and he tells you how things look and people behave, and how everything strikes an American, in a way that few other writers have ever done.”--Edmund Wilson, in _The New Yorker_.

WICKSELL, KNUT. _Lectures on Political Economy._ London: Routledge. 1934. 2 vols. 299 pp. 238 pp.

Knut Wicksell (1851-1926) was a Swedish economist most celebrated for his theory concerning the relations between money and natural rates of interest and movements in the general level of prices. This was of more than purely theoretical interest, because it pointed to the errors that governments make in bringing on inflation by trying to maintain artificially low interest rates. But his total contribution to economics was of much wider importance than this. Lionel Robbins writes: “There is no work in the whole range of modern economic literature which presents a clearer view of the main significance and interrelations of the central propositions of economic analysis than these lectures.”

WICKSTEED, PHILIP H. _The Common Sense of Political Economy._ 1910. (London: Routledge. 1933, etc.) 2 vols. 871 pp.

This brilliant book is as remarkable for the ease and lucidity of its style as for the penetration and power of its reasoning. Its real importance has only been recognized in recent years. In his Preface in 1910, Wicksteed wrote: “The Introduction will make it clear that the author makes no claim to originality or priority with respect to anything that it contains.” This modest disavowal was taken too literally, and for years Wicksteed was regarded mainly as a popularizer of Jevons. But in his Introduction to the 1933 edition, Lionel Robbins pointed out that the book is “the most exhaustive non-mathematical exposition of the technical and philosophical complications [implications?] of the so-called _marginal_ theory of pure economics, which has appeared in any language.... The book was the culmination of Wicksteed’s life work.... Into it he poured all the subtlety and persuasiveness, all the literary charm, of which he was capable. It is a masterpiece of systematic exposition.... Wicksteed’s place in the history of economic thought is beside the place occupied by Jevons and the Austrians.”

WILCOX, THOMAS. _The Anti-Bolshevik Bibliography._ Distributed by Thomas Wilcox, 712 W. Second St., Los Angeles 12. 1955. 89 pp.

A bibliography of anti-Marxist literature.

WILLOUGHBY, CHARLES ANDREW. _Shanghai Conspiracy._ Dutton. 1952. 315 pp.

The report of General MacArthur’s intelligence chief on the Soviet military intelligence operations in Shanghai, as revealed through the confessions of Richard Sorge. Contains a chapter on “Agnes Smedley and the War Department.”

WILLOUGHBY, WESTEL W. _The Ethical Basis of Political Authority._ Macmillan. 1930. 460 pp.

The author has been professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins University, and his work is distinguished for scholarship and clarity. His aim in this book is to examine political authority as viewed by the moralist. He believes that political coercion “is justified to the extent that it provides a more efficient and less oppressive form of control than would exist without it.”

WILSON, THOMAS. _Modern Capitalism and Economic Progress._ Macmillan. 1950. 274 pp.

“The position occupied by British liberals is defended by Mr. Wilson, and from it he directs a scathing fire against the Labor Government of his country. Like American critics of socialism, he fears the socialistic threat to human liberty, but he thinks of liberty as a fairly tough plant which can stand considerable doses of government guidance.... He shows that capitalism has been progressive, that it can continue so, and that the profit motive has been a safeguard to liberty.”--_The New York Times._

WILTSE, CHARLES M. _John C. Calhoun: Nationalist (1782-1828)._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1944. 477 pp. _John C. Calhoun: Nullifier (1829-1839)._ Bobbs-Merrill. 1951. 511 pp.

Of the first volume, R. N. Current wrote in the _American Historical Review_: “This study of Calhoun’s earlier career, much the ablest and most thorough yet published, must take its place at once as the standard account.” Felix Morley calls the two books together “a great biography.” “It was time,” he writes, “for a sympathetic biographer to rescue Calhoun from the avalanche of tendentious smearing under which his name has long been buried. In Mr. Wiltse’s own words: ‘He seemed to me the most original and in many respects the keenest political thinker this country has produced, but few people had ever heard of him except as a defender of slavery.... Being of good Yankee stock, and brought up accordingly, I was a little surprised myself to discover that he didn’t wear horns.’” (See the entry under Calhoun’s _A Disquisition on Government_.)

WINDER, GEORGE. _The Free Convertibility of Sterling._ London: Batchworth Press. 1955. 62 pp.

A lucid, thorough, and uncompromising protest against continuation of exchange control. It is not merely a polemic, but a sort of elementary textbook on foreign exchange. The author emphasizes that exchange control involves not only price-fixing in currencies, but arbitrary confiscation of the overseas earnings of a country’s own citizens. He also points out that the postwar overvaluation of sterling relative to the dollar brought about the so-called “dollar shortage” and discouraged British exports.

WITHERS, HARTLEY. _Poverty and Waste._ London: Smith, Elder. 1914. 180 pp.

“This book might have been called ‘The Case for the Poor.’ The author throughout is pleading for those in relative poverty. It is a frank discussion of some of the admitted faults of the Capitalistic system, and an examination of the more honest and enlightened criticisms that are made against the present order. He shows that ‘There is plenty of excuse for the bitterness on the part of the workers,’ and in his pleading on their behalf he sometimes seems to overstate their case and to understate the point of view of the employer and the wealthy consumer. As, however, he is mainly appealing to the wealthy and attacking extravagance, this is not necessarily a drawback. One would not get the impression from this book that Mr. Hartley Withers was an Individualist, and yet it is really one of the best arguments against Socialism that we have.”--PI.

WITHERS, HARTLEY. _The Case for Capitalism._ Dutton. 1920. 255 pp.

“As a writer of popular works on economics and finance, Mr. Hartley Withers stands alone. In this book he makes many undoubted complexities appear simple and almost obvious. That the Capitalist system is ‘more truly democratic and in favor of freedom than either of the rival systems’ has nowhere been more clearly argued. No mere pleading for the preservation of all aspects of Capitalist society as it exists is to be found here. There is much keen criticism of certain features of the Capitalist regime. Although published in 1920 it suffers less than the majority of books which appeared about that time from the false optimism that colored most thinking and writing in those days.”--PI.

WOLFE, BERTRAM D. _Three Who Made a Revolution._ Dial Press. 1948. 661 pp.

Studies of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. “This is one of those rare books which are obviously destined from the moment of publication to become a source and authority for the guidance of all later writers on the subject. It is to be hoped that _Three Who Made a Revolution_ will also be discovered and widely studied by a general public which earnestly wants to understand why the Soviets behave the way they do.”--Hal Lehrman, in _The Saturday Review of Literature_.

WOLMAN, LEO. _Industry-Wide Bargaining._ Irvington, N. Y.: Foundation for Economic Education. 1948. 63 pp.

One of the country’s outstanding authorities on labor points out the consequences of industry-wide unions. He concludes: “The problem of labor monopoly cannot be dealt with effectively unless, and until, the immunity to the anti-trust laws which organized labor has enjoyed since 1914 is withdrawn.... Its perpetuation ... will in time cause the break-down of our entire anti-monopoly policy. This is the first step toward a regulated or planned economy, as it has proved to be in other countries.”

WOODHOUSE, A. S. P. (ed.). _Puritanism and Liberty._ London: Dent. 1938. 506 pp.

Contains well-selected documentation of the Puritan Revolution in England.

WOODLOCK, THOMAS F. _Thinking It Over._ Declan X. McMullen Co. 1947. 292 pp.

A compilation of more than a hundred of the author’s articles which originally appeared in _The Wall Street Journal_. Woodlock was a wise and farsighted defender of the free enterprise system. The subjects covered here include: “Society: Isms and Idols,” “Democracy: Definition and Debate,” and “Economics: Order and Disorder.”

WRIGHT, DAVID MCCORD. _Capitalism._ McGraw-Hill. 1951. 246 pp.

One of the most vigorous and intelligent defenses of capitalism ever made by an American economist. It views its subject from a political and social as well as a purely economic standpoint.

WRIGHT, DAVID MCCORD. _Economics of Disturbance._ Macmillan. 1946. 115 pp.

A main thesis of this book is suggested by two sentences in it: “The socially tolerable rate of expansion likely to be demanded in a democratic society will probably be much faster than the ‘equilibrium’ rate which would ensure a permanent full employment adjustment” (p. 85). “Much of the insecurity and the instability we now decry is the result of the scientific achievement and the social democracy which we admire” (p. 98).

WRIGHT, DAVID MCCORD. _Democracy and Progress._ Macmillan. 1948. 220 pp.

“Professor Wright has written the best defense of private enterprise we have seen.... It is an argument, brilliant in many respects, for a flexible capitalism capable of adjustment to changing conditions.”--A. B. Wolfe, in _The American Economic Review_.

WRIGHT, DAVID MCCORD (ed.). _The Impact of the Union._ Harcourt, Brace. 1951. 405 pp.

This is a round-table discussion, by eight prominent economists, of the economic and political consequences of labor unions. The participants are John Maurice Clark, Gottfried Haberler, Frank H. Knight, Kenneth E. Boulding, Edward H. Chamberlin, Milton Friedman, David McCord Wright, and Paul A. Samuelson. Although it is impossible to summarize here their diverse conclusions, the papers and comments are often highly critical of labor union policies, and the discussion as a whole is in striking contrast with the political dogma that the influence of labor unions has been entirely beneficent, and that the chief aim of law should be to encourage the growth of their numbers and powers.

WRISTON, HENRY M. _Challenge to Freedom._ Harper. 1943. 240 pp.

The thesis of this book, according to its author, “is simple and may be stated explicitly: the principal duty of democratic government is the maintenance and expansion of freedom.” He declares in his conclusion: “The proposals of this book are all radical; none of them looks toward any reactionary policy whatever. We have been living in a world where, by a kind of double talk, the vocabulary of liberalism has been stolen by the real reactionaries. Only in a world where values have become topsy-turvy would it be possible for Hitler to describe tyranny as a ‘new order,’ or for bureaucracy to masquerade in the habiliments of liberalism, or for the planned economy to make a pretense of ‘economic democracy.’ Government by bureaucracy, control of business by administrative regulation, manipulation of the economy for political reasons--these are stark reaction. Not all the cascades of beautiful words about ‘new social goals,’ ‘bold social engineering,’ ‘security from the cradle to the grave’ can wash away that ineradicable fact.” One of the best works in the recent literature of individualism.

ZAMIATIN, EUGENE. _We._ Dutton. 1924. 286 pp.

A sometimes obscure but haunting and powerful novel of life in a totalitarian society. It is a remarkable anticipation in some respects of Huxley’s _Brave New World_ (q.v.), or Orwell’s _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ (q.v.)--and of the realities of Soviet Russia. The last is not so surprising, as Zamiatin was a Russian writer living in Soviet Russia. His book, however, was published only in translation, outside of Russia. At the climax of the novel the authorities order a brain operation on everyone to remove the Imagination as a danger to the State. Totalitarian communist governments today perform the moral equivalent of this operation: it has come to be known as brainwashing.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This was the introduction to _The Philosophy of Individualism: A Bibliography_ published in 1927 by The Individualist Bookshop of London. Because it gives so compact, informative and balanced a survey of the intellectual history of individualism I am reprinting it in full. Although it was originally anonymous, I have since learned (see my own introduction) that the author was W. H. Hutt. The footnotes are also his, except one or two which are signed with my own initials.

[2] _Latet dolus in generalibus_--“Fallacy lurks in general terms”--is an old and true maxim of the Schoolmen.

[3] “The Hellenic State, like the ancient State in general, because it was considered all powerful, actually possessed too much power,”--Blumschli, _The Theory of the State_ (Book I., c. iii).

[4] _Laissez faire_ might be translated “Leave us to act as we please.” Its literal meaning is, of course, “Let do.”

[5] Much of Locke’s most important work was _written_ in that reign, though not published till later.

[6] “On the whole, the most important figure in English philosophy.”--Sorley. _Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit._ Vol. VIII., c. 14.

[7] These assertions, of course, are found in the Declaration of Independence, but not specifically in the Constitution.--H. H.

[8] This statement was written, it must be remembered, in 1927.--H. H.

Transcriber's Notes:

Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.

Perceived typographical errors have been changed.