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Book Reviews

Liberty and Revisionist History

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Why American History Is Not What They Say: An Introduction to Revisionism by Jeff Riggenbach (Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2009), 210 pages. Historical revisionism often gets a bad rap. The term is typically used derisively to attack historical accounts that are unconventional, usually with the implication that they are false. But that is a grave misunderstanding of revisionism and the study ... [click for more]

The Real Culprit in the Housing Crisis

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The Housing Boom and Bust by Thomas Sowell (Basic Books, 2009); 192 pages. Throughout Thomas Sowell’s long career, he has tried to get Americans to grasp some simple but crucial truths about economics and government policy. One of those lessons is central to this book, namely that it is a mistake to judge policy enactments on the basis of their stated, ... [click for more]

The Anti-Fed Revolution

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End the Fed by Ron Paul (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009), 212 pages. Through his 2008 presidential campaign, Ron Paul managed to make monetary policy a national political issue. For nearly a century it had been a relatively obscure topic, and throughout my lifetime respectable opinion considered it a fringe inclination even to be interested in it. ... [click for more]

America’s Injustice System

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Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent by Harvey A. Silverglate (Encounter Books, 2009); 325 pages. It was probably inevitable that as the United States became an increasingly politicized nation, its justice system would be transformed from one that actually sought justice into one where prosecutors abuse their power to win cases and advance their careers. ... [click for more]

Bursting the Myths of the Great Depression

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The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal by Robert P. Murphy (Regnery, 2009); 272 pages. Government of all kind depends on elaborate mythologies to keep the people complacent in the face of constant attacks on their liberty, their property, and even their lives. Kings used to proclaim that they were divine or at least ... [click for more]

New Deal Charades

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New Deal or Raw Deal? by Burton Folsom Jr. (Threshold Editions, 2008); 318 pages. The New Deal rescued the United States from the terrible depression caused by the instability of our capitalist economy. Thats the standard line peddled to gullible Americans by most history books, historians, and politicians. It was not surprising when Republican Speaker of the House Newt ... [click for more]

Government Caused the Meltdown

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Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods (Regnery, 2009); 194 pages. Thomas Woodss Meltdown is a truly radical book. That is to say, it probes to the root ... [click for more]

A Prudent Foreign Policy

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Smart Power: Toward a Prudent Foreign Policy for America by Ted Galen Carpenter (Cato Institute, 2008); 352 pages. Change has come to Washington in the form of a new administration. Yet the cast of characters looks much the same. Their philosophies, while differing in degree, remain solidly interventionist. The question ... [click for more]

Robbery and the Welfare State

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Stealing from Each Other: How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit by Edgar K. Browning (Praeger, 2008); 226 pages. In the Sherlock Holmes story “Silver Blaze,” the key to Holmes’s solution of the case rested on something that didn’t happen — the dog that didn’t bark in ... [click for more]

Hamilton’s Betrayal

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Hamilton’s Curse: How Jefferson’s Archenemy Betrayed the American Revolution — and What It Means for America Today by Thomas J. DiLorenzo (Crown Forum 2008); 232 pages. There is a tendency among Americans to think of the nation’s Founders as a group of wealthy white men who owned property, didn’t like ... [click for more]

A Free Market in Labor

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Labor Economics from a Free Market Perspective: Employing the Unemployable by Walter Block (World Scientific, 2008); 393 pages. The first time I ever heard of Walter Block was in 1980, when a faculty colleague showed me his copy of Block’s book Defending the Undefendable. Knowing of my anarcho-capitalist views, my colleague said ... [click for more]

Was the “Good War” Unnecessary? Part 3

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World by Patrick J. Buchanan (New York: Crown Publishers, 2008); 518 pages. Buchanan’s main thesis: Had Britain kept itself armed and neutral instead of giving a guarantee to Poland it couldn’t meaningfully fulfill, it could ... [click for more]
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