Liberalism

Appendix

appendix 1 On the Literature of Liberalism To prevent this book from becoming too long, I have tried to keep this bibliography short. This seems justified since I have already treated all the basic problems of liberalism thoroughly in a number of books and monographs. For the reader who wishes to acquire a more exhaustive understanding of these matters, I append the following compilation of the most important literature. Liberal ideas are already to be found in the works of many of the earlier writers. The great English and Scotch thinkers of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century were the first to formulate these ideas into a system. Whoever wants to familiarize himself with the liberal mind must return to them: David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, and Literary (1741 and 1742), and Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), but especially Jeremy Bentham, numerous writings, beginning with Defence of Usury (1787), up to the Deontology, or the Science of Morality, published after his death in 1834. All his writings, with the exception of the Deontology, were published in the complete edition edited by Bowring between 1838 and 1843. John Stuart Mill is an epigone of classical liberalism and, especially in his later years, under the influence of his wife, full of feeble compromises . He slips slowly into socialism and is the originator of the thoughtless confounding of liberal and socialist ideas that led to the decline of English liberalism and to the undermining of the living standards of the English people. Nevertheless—or perhaps precisely because of this— one must become acquainted with Mill’s principal writings: Principles of Political Economy (1848) On Liberty (1859) Utilitarianism (1862) Without a thorough study of Mill it is impossible to understand the events of the last two generations, for Mill is the great advocate of socialism . All the arguments that could be advanced in favor of socialism are elaborated by him with loving care. In comparison with Mill all other socialist writers—even Marx, Engels, and Lassalle—are scarcely of any importance. One cannot understand liberalism without a knowledge of economics . For liberalism is applied economics; it is social and political policy based on a scientific foundation. Here, besides the writings already mentioned, one must familiarize oneself with the great master of classical economics: David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817). The best introductions to the study of modern scientific economics are: H. Oswalt, Vorträge über wirtschaftliche Grundbegriffe (many editions) C. A. Verrijn Stuart, Die Grundlagen der Volkswirtschaft (1923). The German masterpieces of modern economics are: Carl Menger, Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre (first edition, 1871). [An English translation of this work was published as Principles of Economics (Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1950).] Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk: The Positive Theory of Capital (New York, 1923). [Published in a new English translation as Volume II of BöhmBawerk ’s 3-volume Capital and Interest (South Holland, Ill.: Libertarian Press, 1959). Also instructive is Böhm’s Karl Marx and the Close of His System (1896), available in English translation as “Unresolved Contradiction in the Marxian Economic System” in Shorter Classics of Böhm-Bawerk, Volume I. (Grove City, Pa.: Libertarian Press, 1962.)] The two most important contributions that Germany made to liberal literature suffered a misfortune no different from that which befell German liberalism itself. Wilhelm von Humboldt’s On the Sphere and 154  appendix Duties of Government (London, 1854) lay completed in 1792. In the same year Schiller published an excerpt in the Neuen Thalia, and other excerpts appeared in the Berliner Monatsschrift. Since, however, Humboldt ’s publisher feared to issue the book, it was set aside, forgotten, and, only after the death of the author, discovered and published. Hermann Heinrich Gossen’s work, Entwicklung der Gesetze des menschlichen Verkehrs und der daraus fliessenden Regeln für menschliches Handeln, found a publisher, to be sure, but when it appeared in 1854 it attracted no readers. The work and its author remained forgotten until the Englishman Adamson came upon a copy. Liberal thinking permeates German classical poetry, above all the works of Goethe and Schiller. The history of political liberalism in Germany is brief and marked by rather meager success. Modern Germany—and this includes the defenders of the Weimar Constitution no less than their opponents— is a world apart from the spirit...