Just announced by the Mises Institute:

Let’s Abolish Government

Lysander Spooner (1808–1887) is the American individualist anarchist and legal theorist, known mainly for setting up a commercial post office in competition with the government and thereby being shut down. But he was also the author of some of the most radical political and economic writings of the 19th century, and continues to have a huge influence on libertarian thinkers today. He was both a dedicated opponent of slavery in all its form, even going so far as to advocate guerrilla war to stop it, but also a dedicated opponent of the federal invasion of the South and its postwar reconstruction.

This collection was selected personally by Murray Rothbard as his best work. It includes “Trial by Jury,” which argues for the idea of jury nullification, that is, the right of the jury to reject the law under which a defendant is tried. It also includes his “Letter to Grover Cleveland,” which remains one of the most rigorous pieces of political argument ever penned. Finally, it includes his classic work “No Treason,” which argues that the US Constitution is not a social contract at all and that it cannot bind the current generation.

Spooner was obviously a great dissident — and one of the most brilliant thinkers of the 19th century and an American original. His influence has been quiet but very long and pervasive.

The title here is of Rothbard’s own choosing, but it sums up the theme of his best work.

419 pages, paperback, 2008

A friend who knows I was recently reading medieval history as part of my ongoing remedial self-education just pointed me to this great passage from today’s LRC:

French historian Marc Bloch noted that, during the Middle Ages, “the notion arose that freedom was lost when free choice could not be exercised at least once in a lifetime.” The only freedom many people sought was to pick whose “man” they would become. Medieval times included elaborate ceremonies in which the fealty was consecrated. With current elections, people are permitted to choose whose pawns they will be. Voting is becoming more like a medieval act of fealty — with voters bowing down their heads and promising obedience to whoever is proclaimed the winner.

– James Bovard,
“Do Elections Guarantee Freedom?”