Customer Reviews

Neither Liberty nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government (Independent Studies in Political Economy)

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I get the feeling that the word "ideology" is becoming more and more popular these days. Even Obama keeps bringing it up to refer to Bush's war. This is a good thing because ideologies become the sort of lemons out of which our minds can make lemonade with, and the more we focus on ideology the more we focus on the root of the problems instead of just labeling people as good or evil and killing them which still seems to be the usual solution to so many problems. I mention this because chapter 3 "The Complex Course of Ideological Change" provides an insightful discussion on the subject.

This book seems to be a condensed and bite-sized version of Dr. Higgs' many contributions to political economy.

Chapter 5 "What Got Us Into and Out of the Great Depression" is worth the price of the book by itself.

The one thing I did not like was the title and cover. It gives off this conspiracy theory "the government is out to get us" type of feel which I think turns some people off.

I can't think of that many other books that do a great job of discussing so many important concepts and bits of history in so short a time. Highly recommended.

I also recommend Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society and Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government (A Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy Book) by the same author.

Robert Higgs tells it like it is. If you are wondering what's wrong with our country just pick up something Higgs has written and you get a lot of answers. This is not an easy read. It has a lot of detail and is well crafted. Another good book by Higgs!