Charles Moore’s three-volume biography of Margaret Thatcher presents a compelling and multifaceted portrait of the former Prime Minister. Despite her lack of humour and rigid ideology, Moore reveals Thatcher’s complexity, intelligence, and contradictions. His extensive research challenges popular caricatures, capturing Thatcher’s ascent and decline while highlighting the crucial relationships that shaped her political journey.
This essay critiques anarcho-capitalism, arguing that while it defends private property and voluntary cooperation, it lacks a comprehensive understanding of freedom. It emphasises the need for a moral framework that supports personal agency, social relationships, and an objective legal order without sovereign authority, promoting a dynamic, open constitutional order for continued human development.
Max Boot’s “Reagan: His Life and Legend” explores the duality of Ronald Reagan’s persona, juxtaposing his historical life with the mythology created by the conservative movement. Boot meticulously reconstructs Reagan’s presidency, revealing him as both ideological and pragmatic, while examining his contradictions and the complexities of his political legacy without succumbing to simplistic judgements.
Kevin A. Carson’s works explore the nuances between markets and capitalism, advocating for decentralised coordination and voluntary exchange. His writings, including Studies in Mutualist Political Economy and The Desktop Regulatory State, critique how political privilege shapes economic structures. Alongside Markets Not Capitalism, they prompt a re-evaluation of ownership legitimacy and economic organisation.
Marion Elizabeth Rodgers’s biography of H.L. Mencken explores the complexities of this influential figure, portraying him as both a fierce critic of American society and a product of his German-American background. The book delves into Mencken’s journalism, personal relationships, and contradictions, capturing his wit, prejudices, and enduring impact on American literature and culture.
Pax Economica by Marc-William Palen, 1873 by Liaquat Ahamed, and The Marginal Revolutionaries by Janek Wasserman each explore the critical distinctions between markets and capitalism. They highlight how free trade serves as a radical political cause linked with democracy and peace while critiquing the monopolistic practices that undermine true market freedom.
Marc Egnal’s Clash of Extremes and William C. Davis’s Look Away! and An Honorable Defeat provide a detailed exploration of the Confederacy’s rise and fall during the Civil War. Egnal focuses on the economic dynamics that provoked secession, while Davis examines the complexities of sustaining the Confederate state. Together, they illustrate the intertwined challenges of slavery, political power, and societal mobilisation.
The content discusses the political and economic transformations in early 20th-century America, focusing on Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the establishment of the Federal Reserve. It highlights Roosevelt’s innovative use of the presidency for reform, the challenges of congressional power dynamics, and the evolution of financial regulation through the Federal Reserve Act, illustrating a complex interplay between corporate power and federal authority.
Harvey C. Mansfield’s “The Rise and Fall of Rational Control” analyses modern political philosophy from Machiavelli to Nietzsche. It argues that attempts to govern human affairs through reason often overlook the complexities of human nature and society. Rather than mastering circumstances, political action is characterised by judgement and response to uncertainty.
István Hont’s posthumous collection, “Political Economy from Pufendorf to Marx,” edited by Lasse S. Andersen and others, comprises seven unpublished papers exploring Marxism through the lens of natural jurisprudence. The work examines property rights, human needs, and critiques Marx’s theories by emphasising the persistence of human dependency and political problems within developed commercial societies.
