Customer Reviews

Cato's Letters, Or, Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects (Vols. 1)

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Cato's Letters are a must have for any lover of liberty. They are filled with enough passion, wisdom, and wit to make them shining gems on any bookshelf. The philosophy expounded in these letters is that of radical liberty according to the laws of nature. It is made clear throughout that governments are the servants of people, not there masters. The only just role of government is to protect the life, liberty, and property of the governed, any other role being usurped and explicitly tyrannical. It was this radical philosophy that made Cato's Letters such a huge influence in America throughout the 18th century. Their influence on the Revolutionary generation is rivaled only by John Locke and his Second Treatise of Government. Above all, these letters are classics of reason and resistance. In my opinion, they are the best exposition of libertarian principles ever written.

If you are searching the source documents of the founding period to find what folks were saying about the role of government and this idea of "liberty", then this is a must have. Following the recent passage of the Patriot Act many citizens would be shocked about these wide rangeing essays concerning the value of liberty and the deligence by which the citizen must watch the workings of government(and institutions)to restrict this concept. This is a great edition and a great addition to a founding period library...both then and now.

Revolutionary writings on liberty, the sovereignty of the individual, and the dangers of government. I don't see how anyone could do without them.

The set I received was a duo of sturdily-bound and attractive hardcover volumes with brown cover boards and red spines. There are no dust jackets. Since what I received looked nothing like the picture provided here, I thought you might like to have a description of the actual books.

Anyone who adocates capitalism, liberty, freedom, etc. should read these letters. They inspired the American Revolutionaries. They inspired me. I'm willing to bet that they'll inspire you.