Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice [Paperback]

Edward P. Stringham (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2007

Private-property anarchism, also known as anarchist libertarianism, individualist anarchism, and anarcho-capitalism, is a political philosophy and set of economic and legal arguments that maintains that markets and contracts should provide law and that the rule of law itself can only be understood as a private institution. Anarchist libertarians argue that, to check government against abuse, the state itself must be replaced by a social order of self-government based on contracts. Anarchy and the Law presents the most important essays explaining, debating, and examining historical examples of these stateless orders. Encyclopedic, Anarchy and the Law features the work of key figures in the libertarian canon: Murray Rothbard, Anthony de Jasay, Ayn Rand, Robert Noick, David Friedman, Edmund Burke, Gustave de Molinari, Lysander Spooner, Bruce Benson, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, Voltairine de Cleyre, Randy Barnett, Benjamin Tucker, and Tyler Cowen, among many others.

Product Details

• Paperback: 712 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers (January 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1412805791
• ISBN-13: 978-1412805797
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,905 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is it!, February 22, 2007

By 

Roderick T. Long (Auburn, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice (Paperback)

This nearly 700-page book is quite simply THE definitive collection on free-market anarchism. Its forty chapters include contributions from Randy Barnett, Bruce Benson, Bryan Caplan, Roy Childs, Anthony de Jasay, David Friedman, John Hasnas, Hans Hoppe, Jeff Hummel, Don Lavoie, Murray Rothbard, the Tannehills, and many more. (Full disclosure: it also contains a chapter by me.) In addition, it features historical classics by Voltairine de Cleyre, Gustave de Molinari, Lysander Spooner, and Benjamin Tucker, among others. It covers both moral arguments and economic ones; it ranges over both abstract theory and historical examples. It even includes important criticisms of market anarchism, like Tyler Cowen's and Robert Nozick's, along with anarchist replies.

Are there any regrettable omissions? Well, of course. Any self-respecting anarchist geek could easily cite another thousand pages' worth of "absolutely essential" additional material, additional authors, additional perspectives. But never mind: this, here and now, is it. Wonder no more what is the market anarchist book to recommend to the anarcho-curious or wave menacingly at the statist heathen; it's this one.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Boon to the Anarcho-Libertarian Literature, February 12, 2009

By 

Dr. Michael R. Edelstein "Author and Clinical... (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice (Paperback)

Stringham's compilation of articles and book chapters provides scholarly answers to virtually every question that can be asked about the theory, history, and practice of private property anarchism.

If a thorough reading fails to persuade the cynical reader, it at least will impel the greatest skeptic to respect the anarchic alternative as a serious challenge to the universal orthodoxy that humans are unable to function in civil society without a state. From Murray Rothbard's logic-tight, block-by-block construction of a competing legal system to Robert Ellickson's descripton of anarchic law in present-day Shasta County, CA, Anarchy and the Law delivers paradigm-shifting insights previously unavailable in any other single source. --Dr. Michael R. Edelstein, author, Three Minute Therapy: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life, [...]

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, this book is great!!, April 18, 2007

By 

Don Hansen - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice (Paperback)

This book should be read by all people who treasure truth, peace and freedom. It is enlightening and inspiring. Thank God there are still some smart academic pieces being made. Thomas Jefferson would be proud. Keep it up Stringham!