The state is not necessary for human development or governance. It is important that advocates of freedom and free markets publish scholarship that builds on this truly libertarian, or laissez-faire, view of the state. In this issue of The Misesian, Roberta Modugno does just that.
Jason Jewell is chief academic officer and vice chancellor for strategic initiatives of the State University System of Florida. He began attending Mises Institute events as a graduate student in 2002.
In “The Making of the State,” Prof. Modugno shows that even as the state was coming into being, historians and scholars understood that it was something new and different and that the state is central to what we now call “modernity,” which is defined by the overwhelming power of states.
Planet of the Abes
David Gordon Reviews: Prophetic Statesmanship: Harry Jaffa, Abraham Lincoln, and the Gettysburg Address
by Edward J. Erler
Prophetic Statesmanship is worth reading as an example of the misplaced ingenuity with which intelligent scholars can defend ridiculous views. Efforts to unify Americans in the worship of the godlike Abraham Lincoln cannot succeed.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of mises.org. In 1995, as soon as it became possible to purchase domain names and contract with private servers, we snapped up “mises.org,” and the rest is history.
