Tibor Machan edited this outstanding collection of writings, which came to print in 1982. It was one of my first introductions to libertarian thought and it remains immensely valuable. The writers are all twentieth century thinkers. All the big names in contemporary libertarianism (with the exception of Ayn Rand) are present: Rothbard, von Mises, Hayek, Friedman, Nozick and Hospers. While Rand herself isn't included, there are essays by semi-Randians. (I'm sure Prof. Machan would have included an essay by Rand if he had been able to get permission.) The one gap in this book is the complete exclusion on any discussion of libertarian foreign policy (non-interventionism).

A couple essays stand out. First, there is Rothbard's "Society without State." Rothbard was an anarcho-capitalist. If you think anarchy is unworkable, read this essay. There is also John Hosper's "Libertarianism and Legal Paternalism," a discussion of the limits of libertarianism when applied to children and other thorny issues. It garnered a fair amount of attention when it originally came out.

No doubt there has been important work done in libertarian thought since 1982, but this is still a great place to start if you want to get the basics of libertarianism. I haven't read David Boas' collection of the same name, but based on the index it covers writings from a much broader time span (starting with the Bible), so they would complement each other quite well.

This book was for many years the first and only reader on a variety of Libertarian ideas. The colorful Hungarian American Philosopher Machan understands precisely what questions intelligent people have when confronted with Libertarian concepts as he has spent quite a lot of effort thinking about them from several angles and trying to subvert them from many different perspectives. His sure hand selects a strong array of essays that display the range of Libertarian concerns.

"Liberty for All? 1820-1860" is the fifth volume in Joy Hakim's "A History of US," and focuses on the question of how slavery could exist in the land of the free. While this book clearly sets up the next volume, "War, Terrible War 1855-1865," which covers the Civil War, it also has some significant overlap with the previous volume, "The New Nation 1780-1850," which ends with the Compromise of 1850 that put off the coming war for a decade. There is not a neat and simple way of dividing up American history when covering the first half of the 19th-century, so it is not like there is an obvious solution to Hakim's problems of deciding where to end one book and begin the next.

Whereas "The New Nation" looks primarily at the on going political experiment that saw the creation of parties and the peaceful transition from Federalists to Democratic-Republicans, "Liberty for All?" is more about the slavery question in the context of the young nation's expansion. The volume begins with the story of Westward expansion along the Santa Fe Trail and other routes and ends with the story of the Underground Railroad. In between Hakim tells young readers about Mormons moving to Utah, Texas joining the Union, and gold being discovered in California. Opening up Japan to American trade and the Seneca Falls conference on the Rights of Women are also part of this period of American history.

This volume covers a lot of different topics from this time period. "The New Nation" has a much clearer sense of structure because it follows the administrations of the first presidents, but I think you can see four significant units in this book. The first (Chapters 1-20) deals with all the myriad aspects of western expansion, from the Mississippi to the west coast and beyond to Japan. The second (Chapters 21-26) focuses on the conditions faced by women and children during this time. The third (Chapters 27-31) focuses on the impact of the transcendentalists on philosophy and literature, from Thoreau and Melville to Whitman and Dickinson (including some choice poems) as well as Audubon and Caitlin. The final section (Chapters 32-38) is rather powerful dealing with the "Amistad" case, the Compromise of 1850, Stephen Douglas's "popular sovereignty" solution, the Dred Scott decision, and the idea that the entire issue of slavery was coming to head.

These books are all richly illustrated, almost exclusively with historic paintings, etching, drawings, cartoons, and the like. The margins are crammed with mini-biographies, definitions, lines of poetry, and suggestions for places where young readers can find more information about a topic. This series has a deserved reputation among parents who are home schooling their children because not only is it very informative, but Hakim makes a concerted effort to engage her young readers. She is constantly asking them to put themselves in the perspective of the people being written about, whether they are pioneers heading over the Rocky Mountains or slaves trying to find their way North to freedom. More importantly, Hakim has an innate ability to anticipate questions from her readers; you can count on her to explain "why" at the point where a student in class would be raising their hand to ask that very question.

This highest praise I can give to this wonderful series by Joy Hakim is that my 11-year old son asks me every night, "Can we read some history?"

The books work magic in making history engaging. The well-written text, the illustrations, the text boxes with small but fascinating anecdotes -- all contribute to draw readers' interest. I have learned many new pieces of United States history from these books.

One small aspect of the books won me over from the start. In the introduction, Ms. Hakim tells readers that the Puritans, the founding fathers, the Native Americans are a part of every American, no matter how or when your family came to the United States - a "history of us." My children are binational, and reside overseas. I could tell when we read this part that the author's words spoke to them in a way few history books do.

Joy Hakim's entire series is a homeschoolers dream. The books are written so well and the pictures are so nice that interest is kept by both student and teacher.

A. Jay Cristol obviously knows his facts; and his use of de-classified material displays that the "support" behind the conspiracy theories regarding the Libert Incident are completely false. Cristol employs hard facts to expose the lies of blatant anti-Semites and anti-Israel slanderers.
There were a few things in this book that really allowed me to understand the true nature behind this "controversy." First of all, the fact that the interpreters aboard the Liberty only spoke Russian and Arabic blatantly reveals that the conspiracy theorists' argument that the Liberty was there to moniter Israeli communications. It makes the lies behind these conspiracy theorists look absolutely ridiculous: how could they be there to mointer Israeli communications if they don't even speak Hebrew?
Crsitol also exposes that there is no way that the IDF would knowingly fire upon a US ship. Historically noted, the US had agreed with the United Nations that no ships would enter the "war zone." Therefore, when a ship that was not visibly marked enterd the war zone, the IDF had no way of knowing it was an ally and justly assumed that it was an enemy ship.
This book had recently been proven correct on a much larger scale: it is now public knowledge that the Liberty incident was a mistake; and anyone who makes up false and illogical conspiaracy theories obviously doesn't know the difference between truth and lies. This was an excellent book!

Recent American military history is replete with accidents, each of which cost dozens of lives. In May 1987, an Iraqi Entendard jet fired Exocet missiles into the destroyer Stark, killing 37 U.S. Navy men. Other disasters included the 1968 Pueblo, 1969 U.S. Navy EC-131 and 1975 Mayaguez incidents--and of course the Black Hawk in 1994. In each case, the U.S. was at peace. These incidents were mostly soon forgotten.

But for 35 years, the USS Liberty has been a festering wound. More than 100 books were written about the incident, which still routinely figures in news and magazine articles.

In 1986, a professor suggested to A. Jay Cristol that his U.S. Navy, international law and judicial backgrounds uniquely qualified him to examine the facts of the case. He then began an investigation that spanned 14 years.

A retired U.S. Navy Captain A. Jay Cristol, accessed every living and written source he could locate, including more than 500 witnesses he interviewed in four nations. He reviewed five television productions, more than 100 books, hundreds of articles, and more than 3,087 documents--including all those from at least ten official U.S. investigations and three official Israeli ones.

Throughout, Cristol focused on the one (right) question--whether the attacking Israelis knew that their target was an U.S. ship. In 1986, Cristol did not know the answer. Nor did he, like many discredited conspiracy theorists, assume that Israel maliciously premeditated the attack against a vessel they knew to be American.

Every official investigation had concluded that while intentional, the attack was also clearly a case of mistaken identity. After conducting the most extensive research ever on this topic--Cristol agreed. Several Israeli and American mistakes caused Israeli forces to mistake the USS Liberty for an Egyptian vessel.

Cristol admirably establishes the peak Cold War context in which the incident occurred. Only five years earlier, the U.S. had humiliated the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis, forcing it with the threat of superior nuclear and naval power to back down. Nikita Khrushchev, who was deposed in 1964, consequently had accelerated warship construction to try to gain Soviet command of the high seas.

Superpower naval confrontations naturally followed. Soviet vessels would follow U.S. warships and intentionally interfere with their operations, particularly in the Mediterranean. Often, Soviet or U.S. destroyers would steer on a collision course for their adversaries in high-stakes naval games of "chicken." Ships bumped in many instances. The escalation eventually led to the 1972 Incidents at Sea Agreement, but in 1967, incidents still occurred regularly.

The Vietnam conflict was also in full swing. In fact on June 2, 1967, U.S. Air Force fighter-bombers accidentally attacked the Soviet merchant ship Turkestan in Cam Pha Harbor in North Vietnam--just when Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin's was set to arrive to deliver a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The rapidly deteriorating situation described at length in Michael Oren's new book, Six Days of War , became full-scale war on June 5, 1967 when Israel sent its entire airforce to destroy Egypt's Air Force in less than 80 minutes. Many Arab leaders vocally (and falsely) charged the U.S. and Britain with supplying the attack aircraft to Israel, even when they knew otherwise.

Within the Israeli forces there were frictions as well. When the war broke out, Israel's Air Force had 76 state-of-the-art Mirage fighter jets, plus Super Mystere B-2s, Mystere IV's and a cadre of well-trained pilots. By contrast, the Israeli Navy had only three obsolete destroyers, nine motor torpedo boats (three then deployed in the Red Sea) and some miscellaneous small craft. Israeli inter-service rivalries were palpable.

On May 23, the Liberty, an U.S. National Security Agency intelligence vessel, was ordered to take a position 13 miles off Port Said, Egypt. Such ships often sailed off various coasts to listen, record signal emissions, chart their sources' locations, and gather any data of political or military use in the Cold War. NSA civilian employee Frank Raven protested sending the Liberty into a potential war zone. But his lone voice of dissension was overruled.

On May 24, when the Liberty began steaming 3,000 nautical miles from the Ivory Coast to the Straits of Gibraltar, the Cairo newspapers reported that Egypt had mined the Straits of Tiran.

On May 27, U.S. Admiral John S. McCain, Jr. ordered U.S. Sixth Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Martin not to operate aircraft within 100 nautical miles of Egypt's coast. When the Liberty arrived in Rota, Spain, linguists trained in Arabic and Russian reported aboard. None assigned to the ship spoke Hebrew.

On June 6, Israel destroyed more than 150 Egyptian tanks in the Sinai and captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan. Nasser broke diplomatic relations with the U.S. and closed the Suez Canal. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously for a cease-fire. Among the warring nations of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Israel, Jordan alone accepted it. Six Israeli demolition team divers were captured in Port Alexandria. Syria shelled a number of communities on Israel's northern border.

Into this active war zone sailed the Liberty , not knowing that on June 7, the NSA and Joint Chiefs of Staff had ordered the ship to withdraw 100 miles off the Sinai coast. The orders had been cabled--but all five messages were sent via the Philippines and arrived the day after the attack.

Cristol spells out precisely how and why the Liberty was mistaken. The attack was not pre-planned or covered up. None of the seamen aboard the USS Liberty could have known all the facts surrounding the case.

He also shows that, had Israel and the U.S. played up their extensive investigations, they could have long since silenced false charges of a conspiracy and cover-up.

For all reasonable human beings, this superb piece of investigative reportage and scholarship should resolve the myriad mysteries of this sad event once and for all.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

the best hour i've ever spent reading a book! incredibly insightful. elliot asks great questions... what does it mean to be godly or worldly? how does a christian discern the will of God? for those of us who sometimes fall prey to legalism and merely "following the rules" of christianity, this is a must-read. short but very wise. i will read it again and again to remind myself.

The book impacted me in the following way: checking my motives as a Christian and challenging me to live to please and be motivated by God. It contained biblical insight into some difficult issues as to what it means to be a Christian. It is very short, but definitely worth the read.

This is a great book. It was one of the first books I bought after reading Locke's second treatise on government and I would not sell it for anything. It gives the history, philosophy and vision of a liberty oriented society. It also shows how giving up liberty for security has made life much less enjoyable. Plus, It has lots of great quotes from C.S. Lewis and Ayn Rand to Mao Tse Tung and Washington. I have used the book extensively in writing papers, articles and in my pursuit of more knowledge. It even contains a reading list of books and pamphlets to continue your study, some of which are printed on the Internet. This one is worth buying at almost any price and now that it is out of print, it's probably worth more than you would pay for it. Happy reading!

This is an information and quote packed, readable and often inspirational first formulation of the modern Libertarian approach. Published in 1981 with the blessings of the Society for Individual Liberty, it systematically and surgically subverts major justifications for government policies and the very moral coherence of the idea of government itself, and ends with a valuable strategic overview. It was used for several years as a primer for Libertarian ideas in University courses, no doubt due to its provocative and well organized study guide at the end with numerous questions. One hopes that it will be soon re-issued.

Prof. (Dr.) Yaffe,

Your words have been inspirational to both my peers and I. Thank you for your insight and help in this complex philosophical world. Everyone should read this book. Dr. Yaffe has accompished the impossible and has answered the unanswerable. We're all waiting for the next one.

Do I have free will? And if I have her and I call her "Liberty," is she worth the name? To professor Gideon Yaffe of the University of Southern California, the answers are 'yes' and 'you bet, Huckleberry!' In Yaffe's latest tour-de-force, he offers up the intellectual key to open the door to the shoddy basement where Free Will has lain dormant in the philosophy mansion on Important Problems street. But although the key fits the Locke and the basement sorely needs cleaning, the door will not budge easily. Yaffe points out early on that this stubbornness is due to the rust brought on by decades of stagnant contemporary philosophy. In order to facilitate entry into this dark cellar of festering potential, Yaffe says we must anoint its door-hinges with a hefty dose of the old-school grease of John Locke. And here, in the greasing, is where Yaffe shines. As I, the reader, accepted the gentle overtures of Yaffe and Locke and descended arm in arm with these men into the darkness of Free Will, I could not help but feel I was being guided by docents of unusual perspicuity--perhaps even of the caliber of those at Graceland. As Yaffe flicked on his many lamps of insight, Locke pointed out the cracked walls of volition, the musty sweaters of self-consciousness, and the urine-stained mattresses of good conduct. Yaffe and Locke seemed to organize the room right before my eyes, their taut muscles rippling under the weights of their efforts.

The book includes most of the standard Yaffian literary tricks aficionados have come to expect--the inappropriate (yet deliciously naughty!) introduction of profanity to underscore a critical point, the thinly-veiled references to the author's ample manhood--but unlike in his other recent works (Yaffe's titillating but philosophically unsatisfying 'I Gets Mine' comes to mind) these ploys are not incorporated gratuitously. Many times I would bristle at Yaffe's use of the f-word to make a point, when a simple line drawing or mathematical equation would seem to have sufficed. But my discomfort would gradually melt into recognition, and then understanding, and, finally, I would become aroused. "Oh yes," I would sigh contentedly, "I am experiencing Yaffe."

Yaffe wields old man Locke like a jedi light saber against the modern philosophical Darth Vaders who would trivialize or oversimplify Locke's conception of free will. But, in the final assessment, is Yaffe the triumphant Luke Skywalker or the beaten, bodyless robe of Obi-Wan Kenobi? This reviewer unreservedly calls him Skywalker. All hail Gideon Yaffe, the Jedi Master who cleaned up the basement.

Liberty, Justice, and F'rall is a fun historical novel about the dog heroes of the Republic of Texas. Liberty is the soft-spoken golden retriever/narrator owned by Sam Houston; Justice is a handsome, black labrador who faithfully attends Jim Bowie; and F'rall is their mutt of a pup. Liberty gives a dog's eye view of life with Sam Houston, from the time she was given to Sam by President Andrew Jackson, through the war with Mexico. I read parts of this book aloud to third, fourth, and fifth graders during their library storytime. My Texas accent finally came in handy! The waiting list for this book is longer than the number of weeks left in school, so I will be buying two additional copies. It's a fun, energetic look at the war for Texas independence, which, by the way, took only 18 minutes to vanquish Santa Anna's army.

If you want your children to get into history this is a good start.

The author is familiar with all the aspects of the fall of the Alamo and puts the story from the view of the dogs (named Liberty, Justice and Furall) that were owned by the main characters of the hitorical incident.

The characters are easy and fun to follow for every adult that may read this wonderful and heartwarming story to their children. There is no political overtone, only a pivital hitorical event told from a different aspect.

This book has been chosen by the Daughter's of the Texas Revolution to be sold AT the Alamo book shop!

A well thought out and researched work on the intent of the constiutional framers concerning religion and state. We hear so much nonsense these days from ACLU and others which would make one think our country has just recently invented this need to let religion coexist without government constraint and interference. These jurists have well researched and well presented the case for contemporary jurisprudence to return to its founding roots concerning the separation and establishment clauses. Particulary ringing in my reading will be this quote: "The Constitution, the nation's fundamental law, cannot be legimately be construed to afford redress to every citizen who takes offense at public expressions, whether religious or secular in content. Although the establishment clause forbids the state from sponsoring religiously coercive symbols and practices, it does not require the state to excise public symbols and practices merely because they may be offensive to some."

Charles Emmerich and Arlin Adams use an unbiased approach to document the original goals of our founding fathers: A Nation that can only function properly as a righteous one. The book is a must read for anyone interested in First Amendment Law or anyone who needs a fresh focus on the rights we have as Americans.

This is an excellent book.

Mr. Young devotes only a few pages of this thick volume to his own opinions, mostly just allowing those alive back in Constitution-making days to speak for themselves about the Second Amendment. And speak they do. Truthfully, I've never read the whole book straight through, but every time I crack it open to some random page I am amazed at the attitudes people had back then. How different from our modern sheep-like mentality, or the version of history we're fed by today's pop culture.

This book ought to be in every public library and on every citizen's bookshelf.

The book reprints approximately 500 documents from the period surrounding the introduction and ratification of the Second Amendment. Included are newspaper articles, pamphlets, letters to the editor, debates from the federal Constitutional convention, debates from the state ratifying conventions, and Congressional debates.

Author David Young has brought together, for the first time, all of the original source material regarding what the Second Amendment meant to the nation which enacted it. The book opens in the summer of 1787 with the federal Constitutional Convention debating Congressional powers regarding the militia.

One of the final major documents of the book is a January 29, 1791 article in the Independent Gazetteer (a Philadelphia newspaper), in which the author, who identifies himself only as "A Farmer" warns: "Under every government the dernier [last] resort of the people, is an appeal to the sword; whether to defend themselves against the open attacks of a foreign enemy, or to check the insidious encroachments of domestic foes."

In between the first and last documents are a treasure trove of American history. Leafing through these pages, you encounter the great men who founded our Republic, and whose words speak to us today. Wrote Tench Coxe, James Madison's friend, in the Feb. 20, 1778 Freeman's Journal: "Who are the militia? are they not our selves...Their swords, and ever other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American."

Hear Patrick Henry thundering from the June 5, 1788 Virginia ratifying convention: "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force you are inevitably ruined."

The men who speak to us through The Origin of the Second Amendment harbor no fear that government would interfere with "sporting" guns or hunting. They express the greatest apprehension of select, uniformed military forces, such as the standing army.

As The Origin of the Second Amendment makes unmistakably clear, the great object of the Second Amendment was to preserve liberty by ensuring that the American people would have in their individual hands the weapons with which to resist federal tyranny. The "well-regulated militia" included almost every able-bodied free male.

In addition to collecting an excellent selection of documents, author David Young also provides a good introductory essay summarizing the historical context of the debate and ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as well as an appendix giving the full text of all state Bill of Rights from 1787-89, and a very detailed index.

Besides supplying many hours of pleasure to anyone interested in American history, the book would also make an excellent gift to a local library

"Paine and Jefferson on Liberty" is a true treasure for the general reader interested in the foundations of our nation and for the collector as well. Edited by Lloyd S. Kramer this small volume brings out the greatness of both Paine and Jefferson, in their own words. From Jefferson we have his "Summary View of the Rights of British America", a document as radical and important as his other great work the Declaration of Independence. Also his "Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom" is fully documented, a awesome epistle to the right of free thought. Jefferson's letters to James Madison attacking the right of monarchs and generations to eat up the substance of future generations by large public debt. Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, a monumental statement on free government, is documented completely.

Thomas Paine's great works "Common Sense", which spurred the fledgling colonies to independence, and his "American Crisis" articles were invaluable to the war effort. Next his "Rights of Man" , a brilliant and biting indictment of monarchy and aristocracy refuting Edmund Burke's earlier denuciation of the French Revolution. In Rights of Man Paine shows the idiocy and folly of hereditary government, and the oppressions it places on mankind. Paine is also the hearty exponent of republican government. He proposes a plan for a republican government in Great Britian, causing the English government to indict him for treason. Paine here shows himself the true advocate for republicanism and liberty. Overall a fantastic work. Anyone intersted in freedom and liberty should buy this small, beautiful volume.

This book contains excellent selections from the writings of Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. Professor Kramer notes that these two men had very similar political views in spite of their very dissimilar backgrounds.

The three selections from Paine in this book are from Common Sense, The American Crisis and Rights of Man. A recurring theme with Paine was the absurdity of monarchies and hereditary ones in particular. He points out that a child or an idiot can rule over a nation with the flawed hereditary system of Great Britain. And he writes about the illegitimate nature of the British monarchy in its origins. He believes the ones who started the monarchy were ruffians and robbers.

This book has several selections from Jefferson. "A Summary View of the Rights of British America" and "The Declaration of Independence" cover similar themes. Namely, the terrible treatment of the American colonies by the British kings and Parliament is described.

In the "Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia", Jefferson well makes the case for religious freedom. To coerce belief or punish opposing views is evil and foolish.

This book also includes various of Jefferson's letters to James Madison. A grateful letter to Thomas Paine from Thomas Jefferson is featured here. And Jefferson's eloquent yet humble first Inaugural Address appears.

In summary, this book well demonstrates why Jefferson and Paine are given credit for so influencing the thinking of colonial Americans. These two men helped produce the courage to act against tyranny.