Property

A classic work on the history of law by one of the great English jurists of the 19th century. Another great English jurist, Sir Frederick Pollock wrote an introduction and extensive notes.

Vol. 2 of the 33 vol. Collected Works contains Part 1 of Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.

Vol. 5 of the 33 vol. Collected Works contains a number of Mill’s essays on economic topics, including the Chapters on Socialism.

Vol. 10 of The Collected Works. In his foreword, Robert D. Tollison identifies the main objective of Geoffrey Brennan and James M. Buchanan’s The Reason of Rules: ” . . a book-length attempt to focus the energies of economists and… more

Vol. 1 of a 2 volume textbook on classical liberal political economy written by one of the leaders of the French laissez-faire school. It was written when Molinari was in exile in Belgium following the 1848 Revolution.

Vol. III of a massive 3 volume, 3,000 page compendium of nearly every aspect of 19th century American economics and political institutions. An additional bonus are the numerous translation of articles written for the French-language… more

This is the translation by the Foundation for Economic Education of Bastiat’s longest and best known work Economic Harmonies. A new translation of this work by Liberty Fund is in progress. See the Summary of the Bastiat Project for… more

Godwin’s best known work of political theory. Written in the early years of the French Revolution before the Terror had begun, Godwin provides a devastating critique of unjust government institutions and optimistically proposes that… more

A pioneering work of the Scottish Enlightenment in the field of “philosophical history”, or what we would today call sociology. It deals with the social, political, economic, intellectual, and legal changes which accompanied… more

In the foreword to Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, Mises explains complex market phenomena as “the outcomes of countless conscious, purposive actions, choices, and preferences of individuals, each of whom was trying as best as… more

Donisthorpe provides a theory of politics from the individualist standpoint in the tradition of Herbert Spencer and Auberon Herbert. He also attacks the rise of socialism which he regards as the greatest threat to social progress.

An edition with Latin, English translations, and extensive editorial commentary. The Institutes of Roman Law is Gaius’ best known work which became the authoritative legal text during the late Roman Empire. It was the first… more

The translation by the Foundation of Economic Education of one of Bastiat’s most famous pamphlets, written as part of his opposition to the growth of socialism in France in the 1840s and where he states that “the state is the great… more

Although this is entitled volume 1 and a proposed list of contents for a volume 2 was appended to the work, no volume 2 ever appeared. Spooner takes a strong position on the property right of an author to his ideas in perpetuity with… more

Millar continues his critique of the war against France with letters to the Earl of Lauderdale.

The 1909 edition of Hobbe’s best known work of political philosophy is the edition used by Michael Oakeshott in his discussion of Hobbe’s ideas in Hobbes on Civil Association (1937, 1975 Liberty Fund).

The great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises provides a concise and tightly-argued one volume defense of classical liberalism, focusing on the core concepts of private property, limited government, peace, and the free market.

In this series of letters to Lord Braugham, Hodgskin distinguishes between the natural right of property (based upon Lockean principles of natural law) and the artificial right of property (which is decreed by parliament). He… more

Originally published in German in 1936, The Natural Law is the first work to clarify the differences between traditional natural law as represented in the writings of Cicero, Aquinas, and Hooker and the revolutionary doctrines of… more

Carmichael was a Scottish jurist and philosopher who became the first Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow in 1727. His writings on natural rights theory, theology, and logic were very influential.

Towards the end of the 19th century the doyen of laissez-faire economic thought in France evaluates the successes and failures of the liberal reform agenda.

Lieber discusses the nature of civil iberty, its history, the rule of law, parliament, the independence of the judiciary, and includes a nuber of English, American, and French constitutinal documents.

This 1887 translation contains Kant’s General Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals and both parts of The Science of Right.

Spencer considered The Principles of Ethics to be his finest work. In the second volume he covers the ethics of social life (or justice), negative beneficence, positive beneficence, and a number of topics in several appendices (such… more

This classic work by William Paley was one of the most popular books in England and America in the early nineteenth century. Its significance lies in the fact that it marks an important point at which eighteenth century “whiggism”… more

In Principles of Politics, Constant “explores many subjects: law, sovereignty, and representation; power and accountability; government, property and taxation; wealth and poverty; war, peace, and the maintenance of public order; and… more

Perhaps Henry George’s best known work in which he examines the casuses of poverty and, among other things, blames it on the monopoly of land ownership.

An 1898 edition of one of the more important works on economics before Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. It covers a broad range of topics including money, exchange, value, and capital investment in agriculture. Turgot discussed… more

Grotius’s Rights of War and Peace is a classic of modern public international law which lays the foundation for a universal code of law and which strongly defends the rights of individual agents - states as well as private persons -… more

This 1913 edition of Rousseau’s works includes the famous Social Contract as well as 3 discourses on Arts and Sciences, the Origin of Inequality, and Political Economy. Rousseau’s writings inspired liberals and non-liberals alike… more

Spencer’s first major work of political philosophy in which he attempts to lay the basis for a limited state on a rigorous development of a doctrine of natural rights. He begins with a defense of his “first principle” ’that every… more

This is a newly annotated edition of the classic first published in German in 1922. It is the definitive refutation of nearly every type of socialism ever devised. Mises presents a wide-ranging analysis of society, comparing the… more

Guyot wrote sseveral books attacking socialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Here he provides a brief history of socialist ideas, especially utopian thinking from Plato to Paraguay, and an extensive critique of modern… more

Following the rise of socialism in France during the 1840s and the 1848 Revolution, Molinari wrote this fictitious “dialogue” between an economist, a conservative, and a socialist, to expose the folly of socialism, demonstrate how… more

Written for the layman as well as the attorney, The Story of Law is the only complete outline history of the law ever published. Zane lucidly describes the growth and improvement of the law over thousands of years, and he points out… more

Hume’s first major work of philosophy published in 1739 when he was just 29 yeas old. It is made up of three books entitled “Of the Understanding”, “Of the Passions”, and “Of Morals”. In the book he uses his sceptical rationalism to… more

One of the most influential works on Political Economy in the 19thC. It set the stage for the development of the study of political economy in France and an early translation into English helped make it become the most used economics… more

Locke’s most famous work of political philosophy began as a reply to Filmer’s defense of the idea of the divine right of kings and ended up becoming a defense of natural rights, especially property rights, and of government limited… more

One of several books Guyot wrote attacking socialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this volume, drawing upon his experience as the French Minister for Public Works, Guyot discusses the differences between public and… more

The Whole Duty of Man (first published in Latin in 1673), was among the first works to suggest a purely conventional basis for natural law. Rejecting scholasticism’s metaphysical theories, Pufendorf found the source of natural law in… more

An 11 volume collection of the works of Jeremy Bentham edited by the philosophic radical and political reformer John Bowring.

Vol. 3 of a 4 vol. collection of the works of Thomas Paine. Vol. 3 (1791-1804) contains various letters and articles on the French Revolution, Paine’s draft of the French Declaration of Rights, Agrarian Justice, and To the Citizens… more