Crisis and Leviathan

in

In 1987, when Little George and his band of thugs were only an ugly speck on the horizon, Robert Higgs wound up his great book Crisis and Leviathan by writing, in part:

". . . Assuming that our luck holds and our society survives, we do know something -- at least abstractly -- about the future. We know that other great crises will come. Whether they will be occasioned by foreign wars, economic collapse, or rampant terrorism, no one can predict with assurance. Yet in one form or another, great crises will surely come again . . . . When they do, governments almost certainly will gain new powers over economic and social affairs. Everything that I have argued and documented in the preceding chapters points toward this conclusion. For those who cherish individual liberty and a free society, the prospect is deeply disheartening.

"Can such an outcome be avoided? I think not, but I hope I am wrong." (p. 262)

Higgs was, of course, right. I suppose the pain of being a libertarian prophet in our time is assuaged somewhat by the proof that one's analysis is sound.

Robert Higgs, CRISIS AND LEVIATHAN: CRITICAL EPISODES IN THE GROWTH OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987)

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