The title of this book has become one of the most recognizable shorthand expressions for the fundamental ideas of classical liberalism and free markets. Read, the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, wrote a number of books and essays over his career, but this is in many ways his summation of his beliefs. He lays out a defense of the free market against all forms of interventionism and socialism, defending the proposition in the title that humans should be free to engage in anything that is peaceful. Read’s analysis of the way the state is the source of, and not the solution to, social strife is particularly important and very relevant to our own time in which debates over what government should do have become even more feverish. It also contains a version of Read’s classic essay “I, Pencil,” which illustrates the power of markets to create undesigned order.
Also from the FEE Library
Cliches of Socialism Number 55 by Willis H. Hall
“I’m for free enterprise-but!”
Letter from Leonard Read to F. A. Hayek October 9, 1974 by Leonard E. Read
Letter from Leonard E. Read to F. A. Hayek October 9, 1974, where Read Congratulates Hayek on his Nobel Prize win.
Letter from John Wayne to Leonard Read on January 30, 1978 by John Wayne
Letter from John Wayne to Leonard Read on January 30, 1978 discussing the Panama Canal Treatises.
The Rebirth of Liberty by Clarence B. Carson
This Clarence Carson book covers the history of the American Revoution and the formation on the American Republic.
Cliches of Socialism Number 42 by Thomas J. Shelly
“From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”
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