Book Reviews

Book Review: Bad Neighbor Policy

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 2003

Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington’s Futile War on Drugs in Latin America by Ten Galen Carpenter (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003); 282 pages; $24.95. The U.S. government’s war on drugs has been going on since 1914, when new federal regulations were imposed making many narcotics illegal. Through most of the 19th century, opium and cocaine were obtainable legally from pharmacies with few ...

Book Review: Economic Freedom and Development

by Richard M. Ebeling April 1, 2003

Economic Freedom and Development: An Essay about Property Rights, Competition, and Prosperity by Wolfgang Kasper (New Delhi, India: Centre for Civil Society, 2002); 132 pages; $12.95. The Centre for Civil Society, headquartered in New Delhi, India, was founded in 1997, with the purpose of advancing the cause of classical liberalism, economic freedom, and the rule of law under limited government. Its ...

Book Review: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 2003

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges (New York: Public Affairs, 2002); 211 pages; $23. During the Second World War, my mother worked for the Department of the Navy in Washington, D.C. When I was growing up, she would sometimes look back at those war years with a great degree of nostalgia. She would say that in ...

Book Review: Creative Destruction

by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 2003

Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the World’s Culture by Tyler Cowen (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002); 179 pages; $24.95. Most people can understand the common-sense logic and benefits from division of labor and international trade. After all, most people understand that there are some things that they are not able to provide for themselves, so they either buy them ...

Book Review: Misguided Virtue

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 2003

Misguided Virtue: False Notions of Corporate Social Responsibility by David Henderson (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 2002); 169 pages; $19.95. In spite of the end of Sovietstyle communism, the introduction of more market-oriented policies in many previously socialist societies, and the further integration of many of the world’s economic activities through the process of globalization, the ideology and policies of anti-capitalism ...

Book Review: The Myth of Ownership

by George Leef December 1, 2002

The Myth of Ownership — Taxes and Justice by Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel (Oxford University Press, 2002); 190 pages; $25. During the Vietnam War, a popular protest slogan went “Fighting for peace is like drinking for sobriety.” After reading The Myth of Ownership, I feel like making a sign reading, “Taxing for justice is like fighting for peace and drinking ...

Book Review: Rethinking the Great Depression

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 2002

Rethinking the Great Depression by Gene Smiley (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002); 179 pages; $24.95. The Great Depression of the early 1930s has left a deep and lasting mark on the United States. For many in the general public the Great Depression still conjures up the image of mass unemployment caused by the failure of unregulated capitalism. For many in the ...

Book Review: Economics for Real People

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2002

Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School by Gene Callahan (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2002); 349 pages; $19.95. Back in 1932 an economist named Broadus Mitchell wrote an introductory principles textbook entitled A Preface to Economics. When he came to the discussion of supply and demand, he stated, “I hate graphs, anyhow. They are the only pictures economics books ...

Book Review: Should We Have Faith in Central Banks?

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 2002

Should We Have Faith in Central Banks? by Otmar Issing (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 2002); 53 pages; $12. One of the momentous events of the new century has been the establishment of a single, common currency for many of the member nations of the European Union. The German mark, the French franc, the Austrian schilling, the Italian lira, the Irish ...

Book Review: Liberating the Land

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2002

Liberating the Land: The Case for Private Land-Use Planning by Mark Pennington (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 2002); 114 pages; $15. Over the last 20 years there have been a variety of strong reactions against the idea of government planning. But one of the areas in which most people still take for granted the necessity of government planning and regulation is ...

Book Review: By Order of the President

by George Leef August 1, 2002

By Order of the President by Greg Robinson (Harvard University Press, 2001); 322 pages; $27.95. If you go to the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C., you will see numerous statues, including one depicting men standing in a bread line. But you won’t see any statue showing Americans of Japanese ancestry staring out from behind barbed wire in one ...

Book Review: The Real Lincoln

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2002

The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War by Thomas DiLorenzo (Roseville, Calf.; Prima Publishing, 2002); 333 pages; $24.95. In his books Race and Economics (1975) and Markets and Minorities (1981), free-market economist Thomas Sowell explained and analyzed the nature and workings of the slave economy in the pre-Civil War American South. He emphasized ...