WEBVTT NOTE New Books You Can't Miss 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000 Ladies and gentlemen, I'm in a rather unaccustomed position that I'm actually going to be talking about books that I like 2 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:19.000 rather than ones that I don't like. This is very hard for me to do, but I'll try it anyway. 3 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:26.000 The first book that I want to mention, I unfortunately don't have a copy to show you, 4 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:34.000 by Tom Woods called The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History 5 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:47.000 What Tom Woods argues in this book is that there's been a trend toward centralization in American history 6 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:49.000 that's been very hostile to liberty 7 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:55.880 and Liberty. There's a continued trend toward increasing centralization of power in the 8 00:00:55.880 --> 00:01:02.880 federal government, increasing power for the government. And he points out that he emphasized 9 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:09.160 a counter trend in constitutional history. As you know, at the time the Constitution 10 00:01:09.160 --> 00:01:16.160 was adopted in 1787, the people in favor of the Constitution were those promoting central 11 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:22.160 were those promoting central government as opposed to the anti-Federalists who feared 12 00:01:22.160 --> 00:01:27.840 that the Constitution would promote an overly powerful government. 13 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:37.000 But Woods points out that even the centralizers of that time, the proponents of the Constitution, 14 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:41.240 were themselves very anxious to limit the government. 15 00:01:41.240 --> 00:01:48.960 By comparison with later developments, they were in favor of limited government. 16 00:01:48.960 --> 00:01:56.680 He stresses particularly the importance of the Jeffersonian tradition. 17 00:01:56.680 --> 00:02:03.200 Jefferson believed, as shown in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, that the states 18 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:13.280 had the right to nullify or interpose if the laws were passed by Congress that they thought 19 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:14.280 were unconstitutional. 20 00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:17.680 They had ways of protesting. 21 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:21.960 They would just hold that the law couldn't be applied in that state. 22 00:02:21.960 --> 00:02:28.560 This wasn't, would point out, an extremist idea just promoted later by a few Southern 23 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:33.520 and Firebrands, but it was basic to the whole Jeffersonian tradition. 24 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:36.800 He contrasts this with the Hamiltonian tradition. 25 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:42.440 Remember, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were both members of the first cabinet of 26 00:02:42.440 --> 00:02:48.240 George Washington, whereas Hamilton favored a central, more of a nationalistic trend where 27 00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:54.080 economic, particularly economic policy would be under the control of the government, the 28 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:55.080 central government. 29 00:02:55.080 --> 00:03:08.080 The Jeffersonian tradition was one of opposition to such power and that liberty could be promoted only by having power dispersed among the states and local communities. 30 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:18.080 What goes on in the book to emphasize the importance of the war between the states, sometimes referred to as the Civil War, 31 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:22.680 for Consolidating the Power of the Central Government. 32 00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:32.080 In the conflict, this was the first time that direct military action was taken against civilians 33 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:38.600 under some of the generals, such as General Sherman and others, there was direct action 34 00:03:38.600 --> 00:03:47.640 taken against civilians, and this has been a very bad precedent since then. 35 00:03:47.640 --> 00:03:55.220 Wood's continues his account of American history, again stressing this theme of the centralizing 36 00:03:55.220 --> 00:04:01.240 state versus opposition to it, especially emphasizing the role of the New Deal under 37 00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:05.640 Franklin Roosevelt in consolidating government power. 38 00:04:05.640 --> 00:04:14.900 I think a good book to read along with Tom Wood's book is a book called How Capitalism 39 00:04:14.900 --> 00:04:21.540 From Saved America, this is one you can get on sale today. 40 00:04:21.540 --> 00:04:27.580 This is by Tom DiLorenzo, who's an economist and also a historian. 41 00:04:27.580 --> 00:04:33.860 Like Woods, this is the reason I say the two fit together, Woods stresses this basic split 42 00:04:33.860 --> 00:04:41.780 in American history between the Hamiltonian centralizers and the Jeffersonian decentralizers 43 00:05:11.780 --> 00:05:21.140 But Clay had what he called the American system, which was one in which the government would 44 00:05:21.140 --> 00:05:27.620 promote economic development through high tariffs, internal improvements, which would 45 00:05:27.620 --> 00:05:37.820 be building canals and other roads and various measures that he thought the free market wasn't 46 00:05:37.820 --> 00:05:53.520 DeLorenzo points out, and this is what he's best known for as an American historian, Clay's 47 00:05:53.520 --> 00:05:59.640 leading follower was Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln, throughout his career, emphasized 48 00:05:59.640 --> 00:06:06.540 that he was a disciple of Clay, and DeLorenzo holds that what was fundamental in causing 49 00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:12.980 During the Civil War was Lincoln's plan to centralize the government and the opposition 50 00:06:12.980 --> 00:06:20.100 to the high tariff policies he pursued by the southern states. 51 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:28.140 Lincoln said at the time secession was contemplated, he wasn't going to interfere with slavery 52 00:06:28.140 --> 00:06:35.540 in the states where it existed, but if the southern states refused to remit the tariffs 53 00:06:35.540 --> 00:06:40.740 to the Government, then he would go right ahead and go in and enforce this. So this was 54 00:06:40.740 --> 00:06:51.740 the key issue for Lincoln, is how could economic power be centralized in the national government. 55 00:06:51.740 --> 00:06:58.940 The same policies again were continued after the war, and one thing that both DeLorenzo 56 00:06:58.940 --> 00:07:04.900 and Woods are very good on is emphasizing how the Reconstruction period right after 57 00:07:04.900 --> 00:07:12.540 to the Civil War, which lasted from 1865 to 1876, was one of growth of government power, 58 00:07:12.540 --> 00:07:19.820 and de Lorenzo goes on to emphasize how this continued under Woodrow Wilson and Franklin 59 00:07:19.820 --> 00:07:26.260 Roosevelt, and he draws some very interesting parallels between the New Deal of Franklin 60 00:07:26.260 --> 00:07:53.400 In 1920s and early 30s, Mussolini was very well regarded by large sections of the American 61 00:07:53.400 --> 00:08:07.400 and Public Opinion, and that Lorenzo points out that in many ways, certain aspects of the New Deal, such as the National Industrial Recovery Act, were modeled on Mussolini's system. 62 00:08:07.400 --> 00:08:17.400 Now if we ask, both these authors have stressed the growth of centralized power as a threat to liberty. 63 00:08:17.400 --> 00:08:33.400 Now, if we ask what has been the main way in which central power has increased, what has been the main mechanism by which the state has increased its power throughout American history, 64 00:08:33.400 --> 00:08:40.400 I think the answer is clearly in war, in preparation for war. 65 00:08:40.400 --> 00:08:52.400 In this connection, I want to mention two books, one of which I have here by the American historian and economist Robert Higgs. 66 00:08:52.400 --> 00:09:03.400 Higgs, one is called Against Leviathan. This again is, if you allow me, the hint is one you can buy afterwards at the table outside. 67 00:09:03.400 --> 00:09:11.400 I don't have a copy of another book by Higgs called The Resurgence of the Warfare State. 68 00:09:11.400 --> 00:09:22.400 Many of you are probably familiar with Higgs' basic thesis that during a war the government increases its power. 69 00:09:22.400 --> 00:09:32.520 And then even though once war ends, the government will reduce to a certain extent and the wartime 70 00:09:32.520 --> 00:09:39.600 emergency regulations will no longer be enforced, the government never goes back to the previous 71 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:40.600 level. 72 00:09:40.600 --> 00:09:47.280 There's always what he calls a ratchet effect by which government power continually increases 73 00:09:47.280 --> 00:09:53.960 so that each war is meant that the government becomes more and more powerful. 74 00:09:53.960 --> 00:10:05.300 And one point that Higgs is very good on in stressing is the role of the judiciary in this 75 00:10:05.300 --> 00:10:09.280 whole process of increasing government power. 76 00:10:09.280 --> 00:10:17.100 During World War I, for example, the Supreme Court rejected out of hand all challenges 77 00:10:17.100 --> 00:10:23.500 to the Constitutionality of the Draft, that they said, even though this isn't the Constitution, 78 00:10:23.500 --> 00:10:30.820 no word gives the government the power to draft people. This didn't matter to the Supreme 79 00:10:30.820 --> 00:10:35.580 Court, of course, there was a draft under Lincoln as well. 80 00:10:35.580 --> 00:10:42.940 And now, one point that Higgs emphasizes is a statement by Oliver Wendell Holmes, who was 81 00:11:12.940 --> 00:11:42.940 and I'm going to talk a little bit about how the government can protest against economic regulations and infringement of liberty because if the government has the power to draft people, then can't it do, say, the government say, I think the case, the particular case where he said this involved the government closing off a national park to people, said they didn't want people going into this area, so Holmes said, well look, if the government can say, can draft you into the army, surely it can say to you, you can't go into a certain 82 00:11:42.940 --> 00:11:53.940 The government can really, because of the power to draft people during the war, can really do anything it wants. 83 00:11:53.940 --> 00:12:02.940 Another point Higgs stresses in his newest book, which is this one, Resurgence of the Warfare State, 84 00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:10.940 is that the prevalence of a certain mentality in the government in dealing with foreign affairs, 85 00:12:10.940 --> 00:12:20.940 and Foreign Affairs, and here he follows the sociologist C. Wright Mills and he calls this crackpot realism. 86 00:12:20.940 --> 00:12:33.940 And what this concept involves is that the people in charge of the government will say only they are capable of handling the realities of power politics. 87 00:12:33.940 --> 00:12:41.700 The people as a whole are too idealistic or too unwilling to confront the hard realities 88 00:12:41.700 --> 00:12:49.380 of the situation, and only the people who are still to the nature of emergencies can 89 00:12:49.380 --> 00:12:52.020 really handle the situation. 90 00:12:52.020 --> 00:12:58.980 And the reason Seawright Mills and Higgs call this crackpot realism is that it doesn't consider 91 00:12:58.980 --> 00:13:01.740 any options other than military ones. 92 00:13:01.740 --> 00:13:18.740 Simply, if say possibly a certain country is building up arms, well then the thing to do is to go in and drop a nuclear bomb on them in case to prevent the possibility that they might develop nuclear weapons. 93 00:13:18.740 --> 00:13:30.740 So we have to go in and say let Iran or other countries have it first, and there's no willingness to consider any other ways of dealing with the situation than strictly military ones. 94 00:13:30.740 --> 00:13:39.800 So Higgs, I think, very strongly argues that this is a way in which centralized power has 95 00:13:39.800 --> 00:13:44.100 developed through this constant use of war. 96 00:13:44.100 --> 00:13:52.440 Now one question one might ask is, why has there not been very effective opposition to 97 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:56.740 this centralizing policy that's emphasizing war? 98 00:13:56.740 --> 00:14:07.980 And one place we might look to such opposition usually has been the American right-wing forces, 99 00:14:07.980 --> 00:14:10.500 the American conservative movement. 100 00:14:10.500 --> 00:14:17.700 Certainly during the period leading up to World War II, what Murray Rothbard used to 101 00:14:17.700 --> 00:14:26.700 call the old right was very strongly in opposition to Bellicose foreign policy and was emphasized 102 00:14:26.700 --> 00:14:36.060 emphasize the need for peaceful policy and realize that warlike policy is one that will 103 00:14:36.060 --> 00:14:38.260 only enhance the growth of the state. 104 00:14:38.260 --> 00:14:47.780 So the question comes up, why is current American conservatism unable to mount such a stand? 105 00:14:47.780 --> 00:14:54.220 And here I want to refer to a book by Lew Rockwell called Speaking of Liberty, which 106 00:14:54.220 --> 00:15:00.220 which is a very good book. It's a collection of various columns and speeches that he's given. 107 00:15:00.220 --> 00:15:04.220 It's a very substantial volume of well over 400 pages. 108 00:15:04.220 --> 00:15:10.220 There are many different themes in the book, but one that I particularly want to stress in this connection 109 00:15:10.220 --> 00:15:20.220 is that according to Lew Rockwell, one reason the American conservative movement has failed to respond adequately 110 00:15:20.220 --> 00:15:45.220 to the challenge, if we can use Toynbee's famous terms of a challenge in response, why American conservatives not responded adequately to the challenge of militarism, is that there's been an emphasis in post-World War II conservatism on conservatism just as a state of mind or tradition rather than a system of principles. 111 00:15:45.220 --> 00:15:52.460 We don't, as in the old right, before have a consistent set of principles opposing the 112 00:15:52.460 --> 00:15:59.260 growth of state power, but we just have a trend, a sort of a frame of mind in which people 113 00:15:59.260 --> 00:16:06.740 say, are opposed to too much change or like things the way they've been, as they've known 114 00:16:06.740 --> 00:16:11.860 them, say, the way they were growing up, they don't want things to be changed much. 115 00:16:11.860 --> 00:16:21.020 And such a disposition isn't a real substitute for an ideological set of beliefs, and Lew 116 00:16:21.020 --> 00:16:27.600 particularly emphasizes the role of Russell Kirk's very influential book, The Conservative 117 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:38.080 Mind in this connection, that Kirk stressed very much that conservatism has a disposition 118 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:46.720 And he opposed ideology, thus he could at one point say that both Ludwig von Mises and 119 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:54.200 Karl Marx were equally ideologists, which of course in his terms is a very bad thing 120 00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:55.200 to be. 121 00:16:55.200 --> 00:17:01.360 According to Kirk, one doesn't want to have a system of ideas. 122 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:06.040 We could also think, for example, Michael Oakeshott, who was a very influential conservative 123 00:17:06.040 --> 00:17:36.000 of Philosophy once reviewed Friedrich Hayek and said, well the trouble with Hayek is he doesn't believe in his right to oppose economic planning, but he has a plan to get rid of planning, and this is no good, we can't have a plan to get rid of planning, we just have to go according to how things develop without any fixed principles. 124 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:42.300 So we have here an example of, I think, the same sort of mentality Lew Rockwell is rightly 125 00:17:42.300 --> 00:17:44.520 combating in his book. 126 00:17:44.520 --> 00:17:53.900 Now if we agree that with Lew Rockwell on the need for an ideological system, one based 127 00:17:53.900 --> 00:18:02.620 on reason, then the question comes up, how can reason, how can belief in reason or competence 128 00:18:02.620 --> 00:18:07.620 be adequately defended philosophically. 129 00:18:07.620 --> 00:18:15.620 Here I want to mention that the last of the books, one by Hans Hoppe who spoke earlier today, 130 00:18:15.620 --> 00:18:24.620 this again you can get for sale here, is called The Economics and Ethics of Private Property. 131 00:18:24.620 --> 00:18:45.620 One theme that Hans Hoppe brings out in this book, I think very effectively, is that one way in which opponents of the free market have attempted to combat the arguments in favor of the market is simply to reject reason altogether. 132 00:18:45.620 --> 00:18:52.820 This fits in with what the Rockwell is saying in certain trends in American conservatism. 133 00:18:52.820 --> 00:19:00.740 They tended to say, well, if arguments show that socialism won't work, then we have to 134 00:19:00.740 --> 00:19:05.660 just go by feeling and get rid of reason altogether. 135 00:19:05.660 --> 00:19:11.940 We would just say everything is contextual or relative and we would reject the need for 136 00:19:11.940 --> 00:19:13.020 fixed principles. 137 00:19:13.020 --> 00:19:22.340 And I think what Hans does very effectively in the book is to say that this kind of view 138 00:19:22.340 --> 00:19:34.700 is really in a certain way self-contradictory, that say people who say that don't believe 139 00:19:34.700 --> 00:19:40.340 in reason intend their own views to be, they think their own views are true. 140 00:19:40.340 --> 00:19:45.620 They think that it's true that there are no truths or so. 141 00:19:45.620 --> 00:19:50.240 What Hans develops in several of the essays in the book, I think very effectively, is 142 00:19:50.240 --> 00:20:00.300 to show how our very engagement in any kind of action or argument has certain presuppositions 143 00:20:00.300 --> 00:20:07.660 to it and that to deny these presuppositions, say, to say that change just takes place randomly 144 00:20:07.660 --> 00:20:20.060 is really contradicting our own making statements, that the very fact that we're able to make 145 00:20:20.060 --> 00:20:28.380 certain statements or act in ways presupposes certain things about the world, and Hans goes 146 00:20:28.380 --> 00:20:35.660 argues or claims that we can get an entire ethical system and theory of knowledge based 147 00:20:35.660 --> 00:20:42.220 on this Fundamental Fact. So, as you can see, I've managed to come up with at least a few 148 00:20:42.220 --> 00:20:51.620 books that I like. Certainly, it's much easier to come up with books that I don't like, but 149 00:20:51.620 --> 00:20:57.780 I'm always happy to find ones that I recommend. These are six books that I recommend very 150 00:20:57.780 --> 00:20:59.780 highly to you. Thanks very much. 151 00:21:05.660 --> 00:21:07.660 Thank you very much.