Robert Higgs

Renowned economist and historian Robert Higgs has pioneered a whole new understanding of the causes, means, and effects of government power and the need to deconstruct statism and re-establish institutions that protect and advance liberty, prosperity, and peace.In the course of his work, he has completed seminal work on such issues as health care, the environment, law and economics, urban development, race discrimination, agriculture, immigration, war and peace, economic development, government spending and debt, welfare, money and banking, presidential power, civil liberties, the Great Depression, science, unemployment, and far more.Now Taking a Stand offers the grand opportunity to make his vast insights available to general readers by combining his keen analysis with his engaging wit, humility and compassion in order to charm, educate and inspire people on the moral and practical imperative of individual liberty, entrepreneurship and innovation, peace, economic growth, personal responsibility, civic virtue, and the rule of law. Taking a Stand is organized into 99 short, accessible chapters to present a powerful and uplifting vision for the future.

Is Classical Liberalism Still Vital?The quest for freedom has always been as much a battle of ideas as it is a popular struggle. Classical liberal pioneers such as John Locke and Adam Smith stressed the inherent worth of the individual, inalienable rights, and the benevolent consequences of the cooperative, peaceful pursuit of ones own happiness. These ideas became the intellectual scaffolding for much of the Wests most fundamental institutions and achievements. Yet after its 19th-century high-water mark, classical liberalism lost much of its passion, focus, and popular support. Intellectual trends increasingly began to support coercive egalitarianism, empire, and central planning at the expense of individual liberty, personal responsibility, private property, natural law, and free institutions.But the eclipse of classical liberalism by contemporary liberalism and conservatism is passing. The Challenge of Liberty restores the ideas and ideals of classical liberalism and shows how its contemporary exponents defend such pillars of free societies as individual rights, human dignity, market processes, and the rule of law.

Environmental quality has been a major public concern since the first Earth Day in 1970, yet the maze of environmental laws and regulations enacted since then has fostered huge government bureaucracies better known for waste and failure than for innovation and success.Can we do better than this failed environmental bureaucracy? The noted contributors to this volume answer with a resounding "yes."Re-Thinking Green exposes the myths that have contributed to failed environmental policies and proposes bold alternatives that recognize the power of incentives and the limitations of political and regulatory processes. It addresses some of the most hotly debated environmental issues and shows how entrepreneurship and property rights can be utilized to promote environmental quality and economic growth.Re-Thinking Green will challenge readers with new paradigms for resolving environmental problems, stimulate discussion on how best to "humanize" environmental policy, and inspire policymakers to seek effective alternatives to environmental bureaucracy.

What is fundamentally wrong with government today? In Against Leviathan, economist and historian Robert Higgs, offers an unflinching critical analysis of government power.Against Leviathan combines an economists analytical scrutiny, an historians respect for the facts, and a refusal to accept the standard excuses and cruelties of government officialdom. Topics include Social Security, the paternalism of the FDA, the War on Drugs, the nature of political leadership, civil liberties, the conduct of the national surveillance state, and governmental responses to a continuing stream of crises, including domestic economic busts and foreign wars both hot and cold.Against Leviathan is a thorough and penetrating critique, and a significant contribution in this current time of crisis and unchecked expansion of government power.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety," wrote Benjamin Franklin. Attempting to gain security by sacrificing liberty is also a foolish action because it only increases the potential for harm.In Neither Liberty Nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government, economist and historian Robert Higgs illustrates the false trade-off between freedom and security by showing how the U.S. governments economic and military interventions reduced the civil and economic liberties, prosperity, and genuine security of Americans in the 20th century.Extending the theme of Higgss earlier books, Neither Liberty Nor Safety stresses the role of misguided ideas in the expansion of government power at the expense of individual liberty. Higgs illuminates not only many underappreciated aspects of the Great Depression, the two world wars, and the postwar era, but also the governments manipulation of public opinion and the role that ideologies play in influencing political outcomes and economic performance.

In Delusions of Power, economic historian Robert Higgs calls into question our ingrained notions concerning the nature of the state and democracy. Higgs uproots the foundation stone upon which the states powers have rested and grown unchecked by the public.Beginning with the Founding Fathers and moving forward, Higgs reassesses the world wars, the Great Depression and the New Deal, and the financial debacle that began in 2008 with the view of demonstrating Americans loss of liberties. He brings together the crisis in policymaking; key political actors and events; and the impact of war on the economy and civil liberties. For Higgs, war and its costs have had a major impact on American life and freedom. Through reading Higgss work, one will gain a new understanding of the states power, democracy, and the issues threatening the pursuit of liberty.Taking a close look at the dense fabric that our government weaves between war, state power, and economics, this collection of essays reveals the growing authorityand corruptionof the American state. Covering topics from the Lyndon Johnson presidency to the provocatively titled article Military-Economic Fascism on the military-industrial-congressional complex, it argues that the U.S. government consistently exploits national crises and then invents timely rhetoric that limits the rights and liberties of all citizens for the benefit of the few, be they political leaders or various industrialists in the areas of defense and security.As its title suggests, this book presents a clear narrative of trends and eventsfrom the United States entry into World War II to the origins of income taxcausing individuals to question whether those in power are truly blind to the effects and causes of their policies.

Exploring the politics and morality that pulled the United States into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, this collection of essays, stories, and satirical pieces lambasts the highest officials in the executive branch for incompetence and moral blindness.Immediately after 9/11, government officials and commentators claimed that the terrorist attacks had "changed everything." In contrast, economist and historian Robert Higgs warned that history would likely repeat itself in one key respect: the governments hasty reactions would resemble its responses to previous crises, providing little more than opportunities for special interests to feather their nests and for the government itself to expand its powers at the expense of the publics wealth and civil liberties.Resurgence of the Warfare State is Robert Higgss real-time analysis of the U.S. governments tragic but predictable response: the quick enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act, the federal takeover of airport security, the massive increase in defense and other government spending, and the carnage in Afghanistan and Iraq wrought by leaders unaccountable for their costly and deadly mistakes. Governmental responses to crises have beenand will likely continue to bea bonanza for political, corporate, and even religious opportunists who seek power and ?nancial gain by exploiting the fears of the American public.

A sweeping celebration of one of the most original and fearless voices in modern political thought.Best known for his landmark work Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, Robert Higgs has repeatedly reshaped how scholars and citizens understand the relationship among government expansion, economic crises, and individual liberty. This carefully curated volume brings together his most influential writings, offering readers an unparalleled look at a career that spans civil rights, wartime political economy, the military-industrial complex, the regulatory state, the Food and Drug Administration, and the long-run growth of government power. Higgss scholarship stands out not only for its range, but for its intellectual craftsmanship. He boldly challenged conventional economic analysis by probing the reliability of official dataquestioning how statistics are gathered, what they omit, and how they shape public understanding. Refusing to treat numbers as inherently authoritative, Higgs incorporated historical evidence, institutional analysis, and human experience to illuminate the complex forces shaping political and economic life. At its core, Higgss work centers on the human stakes of political economy: freedom, coercion, and the conditions necessary for human flourishing. The Indispensable Robert Higgsintroduces new readers to his groundbreaking insights while providing longtime admirers with a powerful reminder of his lasting influence. Timely, provocative, and deeply insightful, this collection showcases a scholar whose work continues to shape debates about power, policy, and liberty today.

Opposing the Crusader State: Alternatives to Global Interventionism, edited by Robert Higgs and Carl Close, examines the history of American noninterventionism and its relevance in todays world.For more than a century U.S. foreign policywhether conducted by Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservativeshas been based on the assumption that Americans interests are served best by intervening abroad to secure open markets for U.S. exports, fight potential enemies far from American shores, or engage in democratic nation building. Before the twentieth century, however, a foreign policy of nonintervention was widely considered more desirable, and Washingtons and Jeffersons advice that the republic avoid foreign entanglements was largely heeded.Arguing that interventionism is not an appropriate default setting for U.S. foreign policy, the books contributors clarify widespread misunderstandings about noninterventionism, question the wisdom of nation building, debate the validity of democratic-peace theory, and make the case for pursuing a peace strategy based on private-property rights and free trade."Readers will come away from this book with a richer understanding of the noninterventionist movements in U.S. history," write Higgs and Close in the books introduction. "Most important, perhaps, they will have a firmer understanding of why many classical liberals embrace the strengthening of commercial ties between all countries as a means of avoiding war."

Crisis and Leviathan is Higgs masterwork on how government grows in size, scope, and power in response to real or imagined "crises." From war to economic upheavals, government overreach endures long after each crisis has passed, impinging on civil liberties and fostering extensive corporate welfare.Few topics are as timely as the growth of government. To understand why government has grown, Robert Higgs asserts, one must understand how it has grown. This book offers a coherent, multi-causal explanation, guided by a novel analytical framework firmly grounded in historical evidence.More than a study of trends in governmental spending, taxation, and employment, Crisis and Leviathan is a thorough analysis of the actual occasions when and the specific means by which Big Government developed in the United States. More than an abstract account, it names names and highlights the actions of significant individuals.The author examines how 20th-century national emergencies--mainly wars, depressions, and labor disturbances--have prompted federal officials to take over previously private rights and activities. When the crises passed, a residue of new governmental powers remained. Even more significantly, each great crisis and the subsequent governmental measures went hand in hand with reinforcing shifts in public beliefs and attitudes toward the governments proper role in American life.Integrating the contributions of scholars in diverse disciplines, including history, law, political philosophy, and the social sciences, Crisis and Leviathan makes compelling reading for all those who seek to understand the transformation of Americas political economy over the past century.

Para entender por qué el tamaño de los Estados no para de crecer, hay que comprender cómo se produce esa expansión. ¿Cuándo tiene lugar? ¿A qué se debe? ¿Es nuestro destino que el Estado asuma cada vez mas funciones y gastos? ¿Por que nos resignamos a que sea asi? En este libro ya clasico, que aporta una original perspectiva sobre uno de los grandes problemas de nuestro tiempo, el historiador de la economia Robert Higgs da una explicacion coherente del fenomeno y crea un marco analitico basado en hechos historicos. Gracias a el descubrimos que los gobiernos estadounidenses han utilizado las grandes emergencias nacionales las guerras, las depresiones o los conflictos laborales, pero tambien otras crisis imaginarias para asumir actividades que antes llevaban a cabo los individuos y las organizaciones privadas. Igual de significativo es que, una vez terminadas esas crisis, el Estado abandona algunas de esas competencias, pero mantiene otras. Y gracias a este proceso reiterado, ademas de aumentar su tamaño, produce cambios en la opinion y las actitudes de los ciudadanos con respecto al Estado. Integrando las aportaciones de diversas disciplinas como la historia, el derecho, la filosofia y las ciencias sociales, Crisis y Leviatan cuenta una historia reveladora que no solo afecta a Estados Unidos, sino que se ha convertido en una tendencia que amenaza la autonomia y las libertades de todas las sociedades.

Los episodios clave en la expansión del Estado en Estados UnidosPara entender por qué el tamaño de los Estados no para de crecer, hay que comprender cómo se produce esa expansión. ¿Cuándo tiene lugar? ¿A que se debe? ¿Es nuestro destino que el Estado asuma cada vez mas funciones y gastos? ¿Por que nos resignamos a que sea asi?En este libro ya clasico, que aporta una original perspectiva sobre uno de los grandes problemas de nuestro tiempo, el historiador de la economia Robert Higgs da una explicacion coherente del fenomeno y crea un marco analitico basado en hechos historicos.Gracias a el descubrimos que los gobiernos estadounidenses han utilizado las grandes emergencias nacionaleslas guerras, las depresiones o los conflictos laborales, pero tambien otras crisis imaginariaspara asumir actividades que antes llevaban a cabo los individuos y las organizaciones privadas. Igual de significativo es que, una vez terminadas esas crisis, el Estado abandona algunas de esas competencias, pero mantiene otras. Y gracias a este proceso reiterado, ademas de aumentar su tamaño, produce cambios en la opinion y las actitudes de los ciudadanos con respecto al Estado.Integrando las aportaciones de diversas disciplinas como la historia, el derecho, la filosofia y las ciencias sociales,Crisis y Leviatan cuenta una historia reveladora que no solo afecta a Estados Unidos, sino que se ha convertido en una tendencia que amenaza la autonomia y las libertades de todas las sociedades.