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The History of Liberty
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  • B.K. Marcus

Our Nestor Taken From Us May 28, 2015

Eulogy for Lysander Spooner by Benjamin R. Tucker From Liberty, issue of May 28, 1887 On almost any day except Sunday, for as many years back as the present writer can remember, a visitor at the Boston Athenaeum Library between the hours of nine and three might have noticed, as nearly all did notice, in one of the alcoves overlooking Tremont Street across the Old Granary burying ground, the stooping figure of an aged man, bending over a desk piled high with dusty volumes of history, jurisprudence, political science, and constitutional law, and busily absorbed in studying and writing. Had...

By B.K. Marcus Vote9 1

Defending the Dishonest Cop Jan 28, 2015

Walter Block defends the undefendable: dishonest cops.

By B.K. Marcus Vote8 1

“Vices Are Not Crimes” by Lysander Spooner Aug 19, 2014

Vices Are Not Crimes A Vindication Of Moral Liberty I. Vices are those acts by which a man harms himself or his property. Crimes are those acts by which one man harms the person or property of another. Vices are simply the errors which a man makes in his search after his own happiness. Unlike crimes, they imply no malice toward others, and no interference with their persons or property. In vices, the very essence of crime — that is, the design to injure the person or property of another — is wanting. It is a maxim of the law...

By B.K. Marcus Vote18 1

Robin Hood Revisionism by Karl Hess Jun 4, 2014

Politicians make their money by using their office; by, in an ethical sense, stealing advantages which lead to gains. I would say that such gains also are stolen. So, apparently, did Robin Hood.

By B.K. Marcus Vote4 1

The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers Jun 3, 2014

Dorothy Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, and medievalist. In this famous 1947 lecture at Oxford, Sayers explains what was lost in the move to "progressive education": how to learn how to learn.

By B.K. Marcus Vote1 0

The Economic Organization of a POW Camp May 22, 2014

Just 6 months after being liberated by the US Army, former prisoner of war R.A. Radford published this famous article in the journal Economica, describing how he and his compatriots had used cigarettes as a medium of exchange.

By B.K. Marcus Vote3 2

Puzzling Questions of Vital Concern to 2,155,000,000 Individuals May 13, 2014

[Chapter 1 of The Mainspring of Human Progress (1953) by Henry Grady Weaver] For 60 known centuries, this planet that we call Earth has been inhabited by human beings not much different from ourselves. Their desire to live has been just as strong as ours. They have had at least as much physical strength as the average person of today, and among them have been men and women of great intelligence. But down through the ages, most human beings have gone hungry, and many have always starved. The ancient Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians, and Greeks were intelligent people; but in spite...

By B.K. Marcus Vote0 0

Clarence Darrow on the Nature of the State May 10, 2014

Clarence Darrow, in his 1902 book Resist Not Evil, seems to imagine a different origin for the state than we learn from the tradition of Oppenheimer, Nock, Chodorov, and Rothbard. For Darrow, the state begins when a local thug takes over his tribe...

By B.K. Marcus Vote8 1

Against Godwin’s Law: In Defense of Referencing Hitler Apr 30, 2014

The moment the words Hitler, Holocaust, or Nazi come up, the assumption is that the speaker has left the bounds of good taste and rationality and slipped into the realm of hyperbole and name-calling.

By B.K. Marcus Vote2 0

Was Joan of Arc a nationalist? Apr 29, 2014

Are the right-wing French nationalists wrong to claim Saint Joan as one of their own?

By B.K. Marcus Vote4 0

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