Customer Reviews

The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

James Bovard comments rightly that no institution in modern society has received as much "intellectual charity" as has the state. With The Noblest Triumph, Tom Bethell helps in a big way to reverse the unfortunate effects of this misbegotten charity. Bethell's book bursts with sound history, first-rate economics, and a subtle and profound philosophical understanding of human society. His is one of the clearest explanations of why the rule of law -- the unbiased application of legal constraints to even the mightiest citizens -- is necessary for freedom and prosperity. Bethell also masterfully lands solid blows against the (sadly widespread) notion that majoritarian democracy is a sound means of making law. Bethell's lesson, in brief, is that a system of decentralized private property rights is far superior to any form of centralized government at ensuring peaceful and productive social relations. While explaining in a variety of ways the role of property rights, The Noblest Triumph is far more than a book about property rights. Read this book and enjoy a first-rate intellectual feast.

Honestly, I read this book about a year and a half ago. Since, though, I've reread several sections of it. Bethell gives a fascinating account of the history of market, and not-so-marketlike, ideas. Yes, this book is a polemic of sorts and Bethell provides a few chapters explaining (very well) market theories like the tragedy of the commons and even explaining Marx fairly accurately. So the book DOES have a bias, but the research and statements within are very accurate.

The two chapters that stood out to me were one near the beginning, showing us how America originated as a quasi-capitalist system of personal icentive. Second, and most interesting of all, was a full chapter devoted to the entirely strange story of Robert Owen and his New Melody utopia. Long and short, Owen was a millionare turned socialist (notice its only the very rich and very poor that are socialists?) who lost his bankrole on a bizzare utopian scheme, wherein he bought land in the U.S., got volunteers, and lost it all some years later because the workmen turned lazy. The reason I highlight this chapter is because as important as the facts of New Melody are, they are seldom collected in book form (at least not ones in print). Here, Bethell devotes AN ENTIRE CHAPTER to the catastrophe. Buy this book, if only for that.

Still, even without that chapter, this book is a goody. Marx and Mill are discussed, the soviet union experiment, even contemporary issues like property and the environment, and intellectual property rights are discussed. Overall, a good book that will get the unconvinced thinking and get the convinced even more convinced. Convinced?

The point in Tom Bethell's excellent book that struck me most was his discussion of experiments in abolishing private property. Well, yes, we all know that with the exception of religious orders, they have uniformly come to bad ends--from the Oneida community to the Israeli kibbutzim to the Soviet Union. The striking point was that these socialist utopian communities and theories also attempted to abolish religion and the family.

Now, you don't have to be an anthropologist or a theologian to suspect that these utopians were in their common hostility identifying fundamental elements of human nature, or as the Founders put it, that men are endowed by their creator with rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

As the discussion of utopian theories and communities indicates, the Noblest Triumph is an intellectual history of the idea of property as well as a history of the human consequences of the ways different societys have made it more or less secure. Bethell makes clear that the assault on property is far from over. In fact the age of private property has been in decline since about the time that Jeremy Benthem called it man's "noblest triumph", as theorist after theorist has tried to deconstruct it and separate it from its roots in human nature. Marx, of course, declared against historical evidence that the legal system was inevitably determined by economic relationships, and then proposed that economic relationships be reformed by changing the law.

In this respect Bethell is, especially for a writer, curiously soft on protecting intellectual property--a topic that is in the information age only in the early stages of development. Granted the difficulties in actually retaining control of intellectual property, it is surprising to find him arguing against giving it the same protections as any other forms of property. It is an argument that I find unpersuasive.

Aside from that, Bethell recreates how step by mendacious step our legal system has been changed to diminish the rights of ownership, through taxation, regulation, and tort law. It is a chilling story, but recommending it to public officials, elected or unelected, will do little good. They are the principal agents and beneficiaries of these changes; they would probably take the sad tale as a matter for self-congratulation.

This book focuses on the issue of Private Property, a concept that rarely recieves attention, even in pro-capitalist literature. That is the book's strength, a solid summary on the negatives of public ownership and the liberty that flows from private property. "Where private property is nonexistent, selfishness has free reign."

If there is a negative, it is that the book jumps around a bit. There are other books that I think do as good of a job (if not better stylistically) of addressing the failures of socialism (Re: Heaven on Earth by Muravchik) and there are other books that provide a positive prescription for world poverty via private property (Mystery of Capital by DeSoto). This book straddles those two, overlaps them, and thus is a fine companion piece.

This year (1999), I have been reading just about everything written by Ayn Rand of whom I have become a great fan. I read Bethell's book, as I was under the impression (correct, as it turns out) that it would provide further evidence in support of Rand's Objectivist view that each individual should pursue, and have legal protection for the pursuit of, his/her rational self-interest. Objectivism considers it to be human nature, in an important sense, to pursue one's rational self-interest. Pure Capitalism is the system required thereby. Tom Bethell's book is the most important contemporary source providing strong evidence in support of pure capitalism and the need for its legal protection.

Rather than repeat many of the same points made by other reviewers of this book, shown here, I simply will endorse all but the 10/3/99 one from Raleigh, North Carolina. I plan to purchase more copies of this book to give out as gifts. To those interested in the past, present, and future of the United States (and the world), this book is a "must read."

Too many people mindlessly accept the creeping socialism infecting our nation. So-called "good intentions" are not enough. Too many government policies, programs, and laws involve perverse incentives that result in a worsening of the problems that these policies, programs, and laws were "intended" to resolve. Perhaps socialist-minded people who read this book will begin to think differently. Capitalist-minded people will be heartened by this great book.

Donn Weinberg, Esq. * B.A., 1975, George Washington U. (Philosophy) * J.D., 1978, U. of Baltimore Law School

Nothing demonstrates the ignorance of the last generation of legal theorists about property than the Supreme Court decision of Kelo v. New London. That this decision could have been made after publication of Bethell's Noblest Triumph is surprising. Bethell does an outstanding job of explaining the history and theories of property in a very readable manner, even though his book is worthy of being required reading for college courses. To avoid the horrible results that Justice O'Conner correctly foresees from Kelo, this book should be required reading for all college students through summer reading programs, if colleges still have such programs.

Why, over the past few hundred years has the west done so much better than the rest? Why have some countries become modern while others lag behind, with only a few wealthy citizens and the largest part of the society mired in poverty? In his book "The Noblest Triumph" Tom Bethell argues that the incredible success of modern market capitalism rests upon the west's strong commitment to the institution of private property and the legal guarantees that make them secure. While he doesn't argue that this is the sole factor but he argues that it is a vital one as human nature dictates that people are more productive if their labor will reward them personally. We live in an ownership society and when a body of law backs the claim that the vast majority of citizens hold on their businesses and homes it gives The United States a stability that other societies lack. Bethell compares the strong property rights found in the western nations with the weakness of such rights in other lands. He makes a strong case for laws insuring property rights by showing that a lack of legal guarantees prevents foreign investment as investors fear having their investment seized at the capricious whim of a new leader or the nationalization of their assets. These sorts of occurrences which are so common in the third world,l retard foreign investment for decades. So, the vast amount of foreign capital invested here in the United States is a tribute to our rule of law.
Bethell's thesis is supported by the recent scholarship of Alvaro Vargas Llosa in his Mystery of Capital who maintains that there is indeed capital to be invested in many third world countries, but that it sits on the sidelines because of a lack of legal guarantees and the financial infrastructure that fosters safe and productive investment. The author argues that third world nations would be much better off creating an umbrella of property rights for landowners, homeowners and businessmen, insuring inside investment and rewarding their country with both stability and long term growth.
Bethell buttresses his case with examples drawn from the United States and a wide range of other nations and cultures. He looks at early American colonies, which attempted communal ownership, Robert Owen's experiment in property less society in New Harmony, Indiana and of course, the long, brutal Soviet experiment. He contrasts these examples with China, which while still authoritarian has put in place legal guarantees and encouraged foreign investment creating a new "ownership society" and a fast-growing economy, lifting millions out of poverty for the first time.
Bethell's work is wide-ranging, divided into a series of chapter essays where he examines failures and successes as well as the abstract philosophical arguments of Plato, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Ricardo, Engels, Marx and Keynes. Bethell supports his thesis - that economic prosperity depends on private property guarantees - well and has marshaled a wide range of examples in his concise and well-written tome. His case is logical as when all the citizens of a nation are subject to the same body of law, not the capriciousness of a ruler, an economy can prosper.

The Noblest Triumph is quite simply one of the most powerful, enjoyable nonfiction books I have read in quite some time. Mr. Bethell's account is exhaustively researched (including tracking the evolution of ideas through multiple printings of some of the classic texts)and presents a forceful case for the primacy of private property and the evolution of property rights through the ages. He demonstrates why many of the freedoms we cherish are either sharply curtailed if not eliminated outright if property rights are not adequately protected. His analysis provides insight into many economic and sociological events which on their surface may appear irrational, but in fact represent the "best" course of action given the lack of property rights.

This book should be required reading for anyone who believes that the government (or more properly public ownership) is always or even often the best solution to today's problems. In particular, environmentalists should read Mr. Bethell's thoughts very closely.

Mr. Bethell has written a thought-provoking, well researched powerful book that makes what could have been a very boring topic come to life.

How to bolster economies has become a hot topic. Will the euro really help Europe? How can Japan get back on its feet? What must Russia do to establish a real economy? What, in short, is needed for prosperity?

Last year David Landes wrote "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Others So Poor," but as more than one reviewer noted, he never answered the question. Now comes Tom Bethell with "The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity through the Ages." Bethell not only asks the right questions, he gives convincing answers from the Greeks and Romans to imperial Britain to China in 1998.

Why could the Romans afford to build an empire but not maintain it? Why did the Pilgrims and Ireland starve? What was wrong with the land reforms in Iran, Vietnam, and El Salvador that led to political upheaval? Why are Arab nations persistently underdeveloped? Conversely, what did Britain do right ahead of everyone else? What did America learn from Britain, and then forget to teach others? What is China doing right today and does it need democracy to prosper (did Hong Kong?)? What don't the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund understand?

The answers are given not in an abstract economic treatise but in the engaging stories of individuals and nations living and experimenting and, with surprising infrequency, finding the right formula for prosperity: security of private property, freedom of exchange, enforcement of contract, and equality before the law.

The book title comes from a remark by Jeremy Bentham, that the law that secures property rights is "the noblest triumph of humanity over itself." The society that can guarantee property rights to individuals, rather than yielding to the temptation to share equally by holding property in common, has in fact taken a crucial step in promoting the greatest benefits to all.

As Bethell demonstrates from history and reasons from common experiences we can all recognize, people respond to an innate sense of justice and act rationally in their own self-interest. If they have legal institutions that encourage property development by securing for them the benefitsof their labor and investment, then they will behave in ways that lead to economic prosperity. As William Bradford, governor of Plymouth Colony, pointed out more than 300 years ago, people object to working hard and getting no more benefit that those who do little. As long as all property in Plymouth was held in common, the Pilgrims were divided into selfish "free-riders" and disgruntled hard workers. All were starving. It took the Pilgrims only three or four years to realize they had to have individual property rights with each family responsible for its own welfare. Then the colony prospered.

Dr. Johnson said that to write a book, a man must turn over half a library. Bethell has done it, drawing on monumental research to multiply the examples across centuries, continents, and cultures. He is dealing with fundamental human nature. Circumstances may differ from Aristotle's Athens to Zemin's Beijing, but the human quality remains constant. We recognize ourselves in both the disgruntled hardworkers and the selfish free-riders. We have to admit that we all want to be the secure property owner.

Bethell argues convincingly that with the appropriate legal institutions, property owners will work to improve what they have and maximize its value by making it more productive and protecting it from harm. They need to be protected by the law from the predations of others, especially governments. They need a judicial system that will enforce contracts and treat all as equally subject to the same rule of law. With the incentive of reward, the freedom of exchange, the predictability of contracts, and the security of ownership, property of all kinds will flourish.

For these principles apply not only to the fundamental form of property, the land and its produce. They extend to livestock, housing, factories, air and water, forests and wildlife, and even that quintessential hallmark of the Information Age, intellectual property. Bethell addresses all these many aspects of property in modern life. The lessons are as immediate as the economic crisis in Asia and as practical as chicken soup for a cold.

Dr. Johnson also said that no one but a blockhead ever wrote except for money. Maybe Bethell did, but as his wife, I hope not. Buy the book.

Donna Fitzpatrick Bethell

The Noblest Triumph is one of the most illuminating and important books I have ever read. That may sound like an overstatement, but I don't think so. This book shows why a system of property law that is predictable, secure, transparent and protects the little guy's property as well as the rich guy's is a prerequisite for a prosperous society.

Tom Bethell analyzes history, and factually supports his thesis that good property rights and good law are the necessary foundation for prosperity in a society. He shows how the lack of good law leads to poverty and how the presence of good law leads to prosperity.

The book abounds with supporting facts and examples. The research is amazingly extensive and excellent. I found the book fascinating as all kinds of things I had wondered about for years became clear. It is like watching rugby, or some other game you don't know about, and feeling confused, and then watching it with someone who explains the rules of the game--suddenly you know what to look for, and it all starts to make sense. Bethell shows how many seemingly minor facets of life are attributable to the workings of property-law in a society--for example, how long-term insecurity about law leads people in some parts of the world to build their homes with backs to the street and enclosed courtyards, like little fortresses.

Bethell shows that when you are wondering how a nation becomes prosperous, one essential question is--do the people in that nation feel secure owning their property? If yes, they naturally work hard to own and enjoy property and they beqeath it to their children--things we take for granted in the United States. (Until the outrageous U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo, which, in my opinion, should be overturned.)

This book made it crystal clear why a dictatorship, whatever its ideology, will always lead to poverty for its people. Arbitrary decision-making by people in power, including the arbitrary taking of people's property, shuts down the natural desire of the people to work and earn and build, maybe even employ others. Prosperity doesn't have a chance to get started. The uncertainty of whether someone can unlawfully, arbitrarily come and take what you have worked for makes it too risky to build wealth. You don't want to be noticed; you don't want to be a target. You conceal your wealth. You keep it portable. People hunker down. Their behavior is perfectly rational. It's a game that's too dangerous to play.

The book makes it clear why Mexico, for example, with natural harbors, fertile soil, abundant natural resources and capable people, struggles with widespread poverty---it is because the Mexican government and Mexican laws do not protect the little guy's property rights, and many Mexican officials practice corruption. So in Mexico, little guys do not--cannot--build weath. In addition, international investors tend not to want to invest in Mexico for the same reasons. Whereas Australia, for example, with arguably a harsher climate, and farther to travel for international commerce, is prosperous. Australia has secure property-rights laws.

The book shows that many of the countries with secure property-rights laws have based their laws on those hammered out in England over many centuries. For example, Singapore. Secure property rights support prosperity in any country, no matter where in the world they are in place.

I gave a copy of this book to my son, who has a degree in economics. He loved it. He said it was an amazing, eye-opening book.

This is only the second review I have ever written--this book is so excellent that I really wanted to review it. The more of us who understand the principles Tom Bethell has written about in this book, the better we will be as a nation and as a member of the international community on our planet, and the more prosperity there will be for everyone. I want to thank Tom Bethell for his excellent work.

I wholeheartedly recommend The Noblest Triumph. My opinion is, buy it, read it. It will enlighten your comprehension and give you pleasure. Enjoy!