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Store: An Independent Institute Book
1 Figures • 3 Tables
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NEITHER LIBERTY NOR SAFETY
Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government
By
Robert Higgs
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety,” wrote Benjamin Franklin. Attempting to gain security by sacrificing liberty is also a foolish action because it only increases the potential for harm.
In Neither Liberty Nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government, economist and historian Robert Higgs illustrates the false trade-off between freedom and security by showing how the U.S. government’s economic and military interventions reduced the civil and economic liberties, prosperity, and genuine security of Americans in the 20th century. Extending the theme of Higgs’s earlier books, Neither Liberty Nor Safety stresses the role of misguided ideas in the expansion of government power at the expense of individual liberty. Higgs illuminates not only many underappreciated aspects of the Great Depression, the two world wars, and the postwar era, but also the government’s manipulation of public opinion and the role that ideologies play in influencing political outcomes and economic performance.
Detailed Summary |
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Table of Contents Introduction
1. Fear: The Foundation of Every Government’s Power
2. Eighteen Problematic Propositions in the Analysis of the Growth of Government
3. The Complex Course of Ideological Change
4. Crisis and Leviathan: Review and Response
5. What Got Us Into and Out of the Great Depression?
6. The United States Won the World Wars, but Americans Lost
7. Government and the Economy in the United States since World War II
8. The Ongoing Growth of Government in the Economically Advanced Countries
Index
About the Author Praise for Neither Liberty nor Safety “Higgs’s thesis is as persuasive as it is chilling: an increasing and unthinking reliance on government has made us look to politicians and bureaucrats to solve all our problems. It was only a matter of time until those politicians and bureaucrats realized that new threats, and more visceral fears, would make those ‘problems’ seem even larger. Neither Liberty Nor Safety is required reading for anyone interested in the history of government or in the future of America.”
—Michael C. Munger, Professor of Political Science, Duke University
“Robert Higgs’s insightful new book, Neither Liberty Nor Safety, strips away the cant from our assumptions about the past. His account of how fear is manipulated to produce political objectives is both stimulating and deeply troubling.”
—Lloyd C. Gardner, Charles and Mary Beard Professor of History, Rutgers University
“Neither Liberty Nor Safety is an important addition to Robert Higgs’s systematic analysis of the political uses of fear-mongering. The cancerous growth of the modern ‘guardian’ state—uncontrolled by a ‘higher power’—is our generation’s legacy: future generations will have to control it, submit to it, or escape from it.”
—Thomas S. Szasz, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, SUNY Health Science Center, Syracuse
“Neither Liberty Nor Safety marshals extensive historical and modern evidence to show how purposeful fear-mongering—of economic insecurity, of vulnerability to enemies within and without, and of environmental catastrophe—is used to expand government intrusiveness. This insightful book secures Robert Higgs’s place as the major authority on the growth of government power.”
—William F. Shughart II, F.A.P. Barnard Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of Mississippi
“Throughout the 20th century, we witnessed a steady growth in the size and reach of the federal government, justified by supposed economic necessities, by the Cold War, and most recently by the fear provoked by terror attacks and the supposed demands of ‘the long war.’ Robert Higgs’s Neither Liberty Nor Safety is a provocative account of the forces that drive that expansion. His analysis is thoroughly historically informed and engaging and is distinct from most political orthodoxies of all stripes.”
—Martin L. Cook, Professor of Philosophy, U.S. Air Force Academy
“Neither Liberty Nor Safety is a profound contemplation on the nature of the growth of government in the modern era. In the elegant chapters that comprise the book, Higgs develops new insights into the political economy of the growth of the state, insights founded on an enormous breadth of scholarly interests and research. Higgs may, as he says, stand on the shoulders of giants, but he has very much established himself as a giant in his own right.”
—T. Hunt Tooley, Professor of History, Austin College
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