Customer Reviews

Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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, [...]

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!

Anarchy?! You are advocating chaos and lawlessness!... what about the roads?!?!?

This book addresses these common misconceptions and concerns, and has a great chance of changing the mind of an unconvinced but open minded individual.''

This is a collection of some of the most important papers to come from the anarcho-capitalistic scholars.
It's a large and thorough volume, exceeding 700 pages, 650 or so of which is actual content.

Almost all the authors are either economists, professors of business, or law professors as noted on pages 680-682 titled "About the Contributors".

A little about the editor, clippings from "About the Editor", page 680:

"Edward P. Stringham holds the the Hackley Endowed Chair for Capitalism and Free Enterprise Studies at Fayetteville State University and is a research fellow at the Independent Institute. He is president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education...author of many articles written in scholarly journals...Journal of Institutional & Theoretical Economics...Journal of Labor Research..Journal of Libertarian Studies.. Stringham earned his Ph.D from George Mason University in 2002...won...Distinguished Young Scholar award from the Liberalni Institut and the Prague School of Economics"

As for thorough, the book is divided into four parts: The Theory of Private Property of Anarchism, The Debate, History of Anarchist Thought, and Historical Case Studies of Non-Government Law Enforcement.

I've always felt that the privatization of police was a "no-brainer", however, I wasn't so sure about the idea of private courts and private law.
After reading many of the articles, some of my skepticism has been washed away. As a principled libertarian, I prefer the Rothbardian approach, but I believe David Friedman illustrates the true nature of possibilities. I do believe that anarcho-capitalism will only work if the people are ready, and I don't know if that time will ever come. However, I'm an anarcho-capitalist on principle.

I thought it was great that the author added the debates between the scholars, as all the important arguments in opposition to anarcho-capitalism are presented, the reader can then learn more and avoid being led astray with bias.

After the theory, what really set the ideas in stone, is their applicability in historical context: Iceland, ancient Ireland, private law in medieval England, the anarchist movements in the North American colonies, and the Wild West in the U.S..

My three favorite articles were:

"The Myth of the Rule of Law" - John Hasnas, Associate Professor, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University
Published in the Wisconsin Law Review. [...]

"Individualist Anarchism in the U.S.: Origins" - Murray Rothbard, S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics at University of Nevada
[...]

"An American Experiment in Anarcho-Capitalism: The Not So Wild Wild West" - Terry Anderson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Standford University and professor emeritus at Montana State University, and P.J. Hill, George F. Benett Professor of Business and Economics at Wheaton College, Published in the Journal of Libertarian Studies, [...]

I am already familiar with the popular works of Rothbard, so I excluded his excerpt from "For A New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto", the first presentation in the book, which I think is absolutely excellent.

I do not think that all the articles in the book are easy to read, in fact, I had a hard time comprehending some of the economic arguments. However, I believe this is to be expected from someone who does not have an academic background in the social sciences.

I don't see how the collection could warrant less than 5 stars, the editor chose some of the brightest and most important material. The book is also laid out very well, detailed citations and a nice index included.

A short review like this one could never do justice to such a massive collection of important essays and book-excerpts as Anarchy and the Law. This impressive volume speaks for itself. We have here nearly 700(!) interesting pages by a long array of advocates and critics of individualist anarchism. The advocates rightly dominate the proceedings as they very rarely get to voice their opinion elsewhere.

The book is divided into four main parts: (I). Theory of Private Property Anarchism, (II). Debate, (III). History of Anarchist Thought and (IV). Historical Case Studies of Non-Government Law Enforcement. In the first two parts we get to read independent essays and excerpts from books by such luminaries of the subject as Murray Rothbard, David Friedman, Robert Nozick, Anthony de Jasay and many more. In part three Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker were expected, but Edmund Burke was a surprise. Gustave de Molinari was a new discovery for me as well as several other writers past and present. This book is a goldmine even for those who thought they knew everything worth knowing about individualist anarchism. The final part provides a powerful reply to the common objection that "anarchy has never been tried". The obvious reply that "just because it has never been tried, it does not mean that it would not work if it was" is here supplemented with a much more interesting argument. It is maybe true that full-blown anarchy of the form that the writers sampled in this book are advocating has never been tried, but aspects of present and historical societies are anarchical in interesting ways. We can learn much from studying these aspects.

Very highly recommended!

A good companion is Jan Narveson's & John T. Sanders' For and Against the State

Fritz- Anton Fritzson
Lund University,
Sweden