Book Reviews

Book Review: Economic Freedom and Interventionalism

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 1991

Economic Freedom and Interventionism: An Anthology of Articles and Essays by Ludwig von Mises (Irvington-on-Hudson, New York: The Foundation for Economic Education, 1990); 250 pages; $29.95-cloth; $14.95-paper. Ludwig von Mises is quite possibly the greatest economist of the 20th century. He was one of a handful of important thinkers in our time who consistently and incessantly warned of the dangers of ...

Book Review: Russia’s Last Capitalists

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 1991

Russia's Last Capitalists: The Nepmen, 1921-1929 by Alan M. Ball (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990); 226 pages; $11.95. In 1921, Russia was in a state of economic and social collapse. The country had undergone three years of the First world war — between 1914 and 1917. In November 1917, the Bolsheviks, under Lenin's leadership, overthrew the Provisional Government that had ruled ...

Book Review: The Hidden Nations

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 1991

The Hidden Nations: The People Challenge the Soviet Union by Nadia Diuk and Adrian Karatnycky (New York: William Morrow and Co., Inc. 1990); 284 pages; $22.95. Many of the "captive nations" of central and eastern Europe reclaimed their freedom in 1989 and 1990. Non-communist democratic governments were elected in Poland, Czechoslovakia ...

Book Review: Soviet Civilization

by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 1991

Soviet Civilization: A Cultural History by Andrei Sinyavsky (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1990); 291 pages; $24.95. At the height of the great purges in the Soviet Union during the 1930s, Stalin personally sent instructions to the Soviet secret police which stated that in obtaining confessions from the accused, "the NKVD was given permission by the Central Committee ...

Book Review: The Hemisphere of Liberty

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 1991

This Hemisphere of Liberty: A Philosophy of the Americas by Michael Novak (Washington, D.C.: The American Enterprise Institute Press, 1990) 152 pages; $18.95. Michael Novak is one of the most eloquent Christian advocates of capitalism in the United States. His 1982 volume The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism demonstrated that rather than suffering ...

Book Review: The Economics of Plunder

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 1991

Government: Whose Obedient Servant? A Primer in Public Choice by Gordon Tullock, Arthur Seldon, and Gordon L. Brady (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 2000); 184 pages; $15. IN SPITE OF THE COLOSSAL DISASTER of socialism throughout the world and the corrupt inefficiencies and distortions caused by the interventionist-welfare state, virtually every country in the ...

Book Reviews: Economics on Trial

by Richard M. Ebeling April 1, 1991

Economics on Trial: Lies, Myths, and Realities by Mark Skousen (Homewood, Illinois: Business One Irwin, 1990) 314 pp.; $21.95 (h). For 150 years after Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, most economists started from a ...

Book Review: Unfinished Business

by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 1991

Unfinished Business: A Civil Rights Strategy for America's Third Century by Clint Bolick (San Francisco: Pacific Research Institute, 1990) 159 PP; $19.95. At a time in world history when the demand for human rights has become almost universal, little or no attention has been paid to the importance of economic liberty. If a man is to have a right ...

Book Review: Capitalism

by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 1991

Capitalism by Arthur Seldon (New York: Basil Blackwell, 1990) 419 pp; $29.95. Arthur Seldon has been one of the most influential economists of the post-World War II era. He studied with Friedrich A. Hayek at the London School of Economics in the 1930s. After the war, he worked as an economic consultant in the ...

Book Review: Free Market Morality

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 1991

Free Market Morality: The Political Economy of the Austrian School by Alexander H. Shand ( New York: Routledge, 1990) 228 pp.; $16.95 (h). The global collapse of socialism and central planning have left a large ideological vacuum on the world stage. What shall replace them remains uncertain. Declarations in support of ...

Book Review: The Ethics of Redistribution

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 1990

The Ethics of Redistribution by Bertrand de Jouvenel (Indianapolis: Liberty press, 1990) 118 pp.; $12 (h);$5 (p). In the 20th century, governments increasingly have become great engines for the redistribution of wealth. Indeed, most of the activity of modern governments centers around taking ...

Book Review: Rock Around the Bloc

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 1990

Rock Around the Bloc: A History of Rock Music in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union by Timothy W. Ryback (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) 272 pp., $21.95. My own taste in music runs along classical lines: Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi and Haydn. And in 20th-century music, I prefer the "Cotton Club" rhythm of Duke Ellington and the sound of ...