Month: December 1978
Science Standing on Tiptoes
What is futurism? Who's doing it? How will it affect you? What if it included the libertarian vision?
Money: 1979
Year of the dollar?
Meeting of the (Free) Minds
The Mont Pelerin Society's 1978 gathering in Hong Kong brought news of encouraging intellectual trends.
Sorting Out the New Economics Texts
Which books provide a solid free-market introduction to economics?
Promethean Lives
A self-help book with substance
Explaining Scientific Genius
Clark's flawed lives of Edison and Einstein can reveal what scientific biography should be.
The Genesis of "The Invisible Hand"
Even before Adam Smith, political philosophers elevated self-interest to the key principle of social order.
A Plague on All Your Houses
Three new books identify government as the culprit in our serious housing problems but fail utterly to offer appropriate solutions.
The Detective As Truth-Seeker
A Ross MacDonald novel is more than a thriller.
Choosing an "Ism": Two Flawed Views
Like Hilaire Belloc in 1913, Jean-François Revel considers the options but gives up on the free society without careful investigation.
The Language of Interminable Introspection
R.D. Rosen singles out the weirdest of the new humanistic therapies. Offering instant happiness, they perpetuate a jargon that short-circuits understanding and intimacy.
Tax-Revolt Bible
Kemp-Roth, Steiger, Jarvis…all gain intellectual support from this innovative view of taxes in history.
Hard Thoughts About Warfare
Total war, nuclear deterrence, terrorism, reprisals-drawing some moral lines.
Truth as Bestseller
William Simon's diagnosis is well argued, well supported, and well received.