Quote of the Month: May, 2007

From Robert Nisbet, "Foreword" to The Present Age: Progress and Anarchy in Modern America (1988, 2003). In 1988 Nisbet gave a series of lectures to celebrate the bicentennial of the American Constitution. He reflected on what the Framers would be most struck by in America today and concluded that they would be incredulous at the staggering size of the military establishment and the Leviathan-like size of the national government:

"A Scholar Reading," from Holbein's illustrations to Erasmus's In Praise of Folly (1511)

What would the Framers (of the U.S. Constitution) be most struck by in America today? ... Three aspects of the present age in America would surely draw their immediate, concerned, and perhaps incredulous attention. First, the prominence of war in American life since 1914, amounting to a virtual Seventy-Five Years War, and with this the staggering size of the American military establishment since World War II. ... Second, the Leviathan-like presence of the national government in the affairs of states, towns, and cities, and in the lives, cradle to grave, of individuals. For more information about Robert Nisbet. [See other authors from the 20th Century.] [See the full list of works on War and Peace.] [See a longer version of this quote and previous quotes of the week]

Most Recent Additions to the OLL

The following are the most recent additions to the OLL:     Albert Venn Dicey, Lectures on the Relation between Law and Public Opinion in England during the Nineteenth Century (1905).   Albert Venn Dicey, Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885).   Various Authors, The Old Testament (KJV) (1611).   Various Authors, The Parallel New Testament (1611).   Various Authors, The Parallel Old Testament (1611).   Various Authors, The Parallel Bible. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments (1611).   Moses, The First Book of Moses, called Genesis (Parallel ed.) (1611).   Moses, The Second Book of Moses, called Exodus (Parallel ed.) (1611).   Moses, The Third Book of Moses, called Leviticus (Parallel ed.) (1611).   Moses, The Fourth Book of Moses, called Numbers (Parallel ed.) (1611).   The adjacent image is a title page or table of contents page taken at random from our collection.

New to the Liberty Fund Book Catalog

The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks; or, An Inquiry into the Circumstances which give rise to Influence and Authority in the Different Members of Society, edited and with an Introduction by Aaron Garrett (1771, 2006).

The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks is one of the major products of the Scottish Enlightenment and a masterpiece of jurisprudence and social theory. Building on David Hume, Adam Smith, and their respective natural histories of man, John Millar developed a progressive account of the nature of authority in society by analyzing changes in subsistence, agriculture, arts, and manufacture. The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks is perhaps the most precise and compact development of the abiding themes of the liberal wing of the Scottish Enlightenment. Drawing on Smith’s four-stages theory of history and the natural law’s traditional division of domestic duties into those toward servants, children, and women, Millar provides a rich historical analysis of the ways in which progressive economic change transforms the nature of authority. In particular, he argues that, with the progress of arts and manufacture, authority tends to become less violent and concentrated, and ranks tend to diversify. Millar’s analysis of this historical progress is nuanced and sophisticated; for example, his discussion of servants is perhaps the best developed of the “economic” arguments against slavery.

A copy of the book can be ordered from Liberty Fund's online catalog.

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From the Backlist of the Liberty Fund Catalog

William Edward Hartpole Lecky, Democracy and Liberty, edited and with an Introduction by William Murchison, 2 vols. (1896, 1981).

Democracy and Liberty is the most thorough manual of conservative politics produced during the nineteenth century.

— Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind

When democracy turns, as it often does, into a corrupt plutocracy, both national decadence and social revolution are being prepared." So wrote the Irish-born historian, W. E. H. Lecky (1838–1903) in this devastating assault on mass democracy. Lecky spoke for the landed gentry and the upper middle classes of late Victorian England when he warned his countrymen that an unfettered democracy would destroy the balance of interests in the community and thereby undermine the Constitution." A tendency to democracy," said Lecky, "does not mean a tendency to parliamentary government, or even a tendency toward greater liberty." Indeed, the type of democracy emerging in Britain seemed to be the rudiment of socialism.

A copy of the book can be ordered from Liberty Fund's online catalog.

[More on William Edward Hartpole Lecky]

View the book online.

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