The Free Man's Library (FML)

Recently, I had the good fortune of stumbling across Henry Hazlitt's The Free Man's Library in a used bookstore. I have checked, and the book is in the public domain. In Hazlitt's own words:

"This book is a descriptive and critical bibliography of works n the philosophy of individualism. I have applied the term "individualism" in a broad sense. The bibliography includes books which explain the process and advantages of free trade, free enterprise and free markets; which recognize the evils of excessive state power; and which champion the cause of individual freedom of worship, speech and thought" (p. 1).

Twice a week I will publish a few of the entries just as they are in the book. All entries will be archived under the heading "FML".

I love this book. It's starting point is W.H. Hutt's The Philosophy of Individualism: A Bibliography, published in 1927, with Hazlitt adding references to works published up until the mid 1950s. While many titles are familiar, many more are not. That's what I like. Hazlitt's bibliography provides a treasure map, if you will, to works that are in danger of being forgotten. No doubt, some books are better forgotten but these forgotten works perhaps deserve a second look before being relegated to the dustbin of history.

The first two entries, however, are by no means obscure:

Acton, Lord. Essays on Freedom and Power, Beacon Press. 1948. 452 pp.

Lord Acton (1834-1902) is chiefly remembered today through a single quotation: "All power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." But he was one of the most deeply learned men of his time, and recognized as few have ever done the true nature and value of liberty. It is, he declared, "not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end."
His lifelong object was to write a great "History of Liberty," but he immersed himself so deeply in reading and research that he never lived to complete it. Only two essays resulted from all this laborious preparation: "The History of Freedom in Antiquity" and "The History of Freedom in Christianity." Both are included in this collection selected by Gertrude Himmelfarb, who contributes an excellent introduction. In the opinion of F.A. Hayek, the tradition of true individualism is most perfectly represented in the nineteenth century in the work of Alexis de Tocqueville in France and Lord Acton in England.

Acton, Lord. The History of Freedom and Other Essays. Macmillan. 1907. 638 pp.

An earlier collection of Acton's essays.


Tomorrow's question: Would Lord Acton have had a blog?