This book, written by the celebrated nineteenth century French economist propagating free trade, reads as it was written yesterday.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bastiat triumphs...Deachman does okay,
This review is from: Economic Fallacies (Paperback)
This work could well have been titled the "Capitalist Manifesto," such was influence it and its author had on contemporary Europe. Unlike their communist counterparts, sadly, Bastiat and his "Economic Fallacies" have faded from the public eye. Nevertheless, Bastiat stands among the great advocates for free-trade that the West has ever known. Even though the battle against tariffs is largely won in principle, the war against protectionism goes on. His arguments are clear, simple, usually water-tight, and entirely relevant in the twenty-first century. His wit is exceptional and memorable, especially his classic "Candlemaker's Petition," which could very well have inspired an episode of "The Simpsons." Bastiat gets a five-star rating, but it's the translation that's on trial here.It's important to note that Deachman translated this work in Canada during the early Depression, so his English is occasionally a little odd to the eyes of this American. Where footnotes would suffice, Deachman takes some dubious liberties in excising portions of the original French that he deems irrelevant. His prose, while good on its own, is a little too clunky at points, whereas Bastiat's is usually very light and crisp. My biggest nit to pick is the inconsistency in his use of currency units: sometimes using francs, sometimes pounds, and other times dollars. But still, it's a good translation of a great work. Buy it. Read it. Love it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Contents clarification,
This review is from: Economic Fallacies (Paperback)
I noticed that this book seemed to be titled similarly to Bastiat's "Economic Sophisms", and felt that this fact might be misleading to the prospective buyer, because it turns out that the majority of this text, i.e. the first two series, are, in fact, just that, an alternate translation of "Economic Sophisms", by a Canadian, Robert J. Deachman.
After these first two series, this text also contains a final shorter third series, which reads like it is an abridged/condensed version of, or maybe simply selected chapters from, Bastiat's other well-known essay, "That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen". Based on the historical dates, "That Which Is Seen..." did come later in history than "Economic Sophisms", therefore, it might be plausible that there was originally a third series inside "Economic Sophisms" which later formed the basis of "That Which Is Seen...", of which this book translates, but sorting that out would be difficult. Furthermore, I am not privy to any situation of the sort, and the popular editions of "Economic Sophisms" do not contain a third series, so it could just as well have been the case that the editor felt it worthwhile to throw in a few sections from "That Which Is Seen..." at the end of this book, and title it as a "third series", misleading and confusing as it may have been. Since this third part in question is an almost verbatim alternate translation of respective parts of "That Which Is Seen..." one would probably be better off to just own a separate copy of the full edition of "That Which Is Seen...", along with a separate copy of "Economic Sophisms", unless you specifically find Deachman's translation and edition superior. One point to echo from the other reviewer is that the quality of some of the translations in this edition have been said to not carry the same strength as other translations, when read by people from the United States. One example of this might be Deachman's translation of the characterization "Mr. Protectionist" from the popular translation, is instead translated here as "Mr. Prohibitor", even though the section that contains this characterization is still entitled "The Fallacies of Protection". That being said, the text itself is still excellent in terms of the the works it documents and the theories it contains, so it might still be a worthwhile purchase.
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