Book Hints

There are now a number of institutions with a free-market or libertarian orientation that are bringing out books and monographs of interest.

The Institute for Humane Studies (1177 University Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025) has a monograph series begun more than ten years ago that includes studies in economics, social theory, history and philosophy, law, and education. Recent releases include Liberty and Law, by Giovanni Sartori (1976); The New Despotism, by Robert Nisbet (1976); and The Political Economy of Public School Legislation, by E.G. West (1977). In addition, the Institute sponsors the publication of books in several series: Principles of Freedom, Economic Theory, Revisionist History, and General. Brand new in the last category are Planning without Prices, ed. Bernard Siegan (1977), and a 2nd ed. of Murray Rothbard's Power and Market (1977). The economics series consists of six books brought out in the past three years explicating and developing Austrian economics. Allied with the Institute is the Center for Independent Education (Box 2256, Wichita, KS 67201), which publishes books and pamphlets on public vs. private education. They range from how-to (start your own school, or get a competitive school system implemented in the United States) works to legal and economic analyses of court decisions and present and proposed educational arrangements.

The Institute for Contemporary Studies (260 California St., San Francisco, CA 94111) has since 1975 been publishing or sponsoring paperback collections of essays—studies by experts in various fields concerned. Among them are: No Land Is an Island: Individual Rights and Government Control of Land Use (1975); No Time To Confuse (1975)—a critique of the much-touted report from the Ford Foundation's Energy Policy Project; New Directions in Public Health Care (1976); Public Employee Unions (1977); and Social Security: Problems and Opportunities.

On a smaller scale are the monographs put out by the Committee for Monetary Research and Education (Box 1630, Greenwich, CT 06830) and the International Institute for Economic Research (Los Angeles; publications distributed by Green Hill Publishers, Box 738, Ottawa, IL 61350). The former has a Monetary Tract series covering inflation, the gold standard, gold-clause contracts, indexation, exchange rates, etc. The latter publishes short original papers—so far by such scholars as Milton Friedman (Adam Smith's Relevance for 1976, 1976) and Allan H. Melzer (Why Government Grows, 1976)—reprints, for example, Two Essays on Income Distribution and the Open Society, by Irving Kristol and Peter T. Bauer (1977).

In embattled England there's the Institute of Economic Affairs (books distributed by Transatlantic Arts, Levittown, NY 11756), which this year celebrated an anniversary with Not from Benevolence…Twenty Years of Economic Dissent, a summary and tying together of the Institute's publications. Recently these have included: Denationalisation of Money and its more meaty follow-up, Choice in Currency, both by F.A. Hayek (1976); From Galbraith to Economic Freedom, by Milton Friedman (1977); and The Credibility of Liberal Economics, by Alan Peacock (1976).

Then there is the American Enterprise Institute (1150 17th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036), perhaps becoming in economics a free-market counterpart to the influential Brookings Institution. Its publications are numerous, ranging from AEI Studies (in Government Regulation, Foreign Policy, Advertising, Economic Policy, etc.) to Round Table discussions (for example, between Ralph Nader, Ronald Reagan, and Hubert Humphrey on FDA regulation) and now to bimonthly magazines—AEI Defense Review and Regulation. The latter has a potentially useful section in which scholarly journal articles relating to government regulation are summarized and reviewed. It will be interesting to see which way Regulation drifts, however, in light of Irving Kristol's "Opinion" lead-off in its first issue: "No reasonable person is in principle opposed to all government regulation."