The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages (Paperback)

by Tom Bethell (Author) "IN THE SPRING OF 1990, the World Bank held a series of lunch-hour talks on subjects related to bank business but not normally on its..." (more)
Key Phrases: noblest triumph, coca growers, land reformers, United States, Soviet Union, Supreme Court (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The phenomenal success of Western civilization and the remarkable economic expansion fueled by modern capitalism, says Tom Bethell, depend chiefly on the institution of private property and the development of secure property rights, yet this simple, striking idea is misunderstood by elite opinion leaders in the United States and around the world. Bethell, a reporter for the American Spectator, offers a history of property as an idea and a reality around the world. His sweeping narrative will appeal to fans of David Landes's The Wealth and Poverty of Nations and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. Yet, in many crucial respects, The Noblest Triumph (the title comes from British philosopher Jeremy Bentham's line that property laws represent "the noblest triumph of humanity over itself") is better than both, displaying a keener understanding of human nature and of how incentives shape behavior. In a chapter sure to inspire controversy, Bethell argues that the Irish potato famines of the 1840s were due primarily to Ireland's lack of stable property rights in the 19th century. Full of astute observations and written with real clarity, The Noblest Triumph makes a unique and welcome contribution to the debate over why some countries thrive while others languish. --John J. Miller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Marx preached the abolition of private property; utopian William Godwin inveighed against property and marriage as evils; and British socialist Robert Owen, who subsidized a failed collectivist community in New Harmony, Ind., in the 1820s, taught that private property warped human character. In their wake, argues American Spectator Washington correspondent Bethell, the concept of private property has been tarnished. In a signal contribution to the debate over capitalism's future, he contends that economic prosperity and social justice are possible only when property rights are widespread?and protected by a legal system that holds all equal before the law. These factors, he maintains, explain the vast gulf separating the world's prosperous nations and underdeveloped economies. All over the Third World, he notes, most people are permanently at risk of eviction, seizure, squatters' or police-state depredations. It follows, he argues, that the solution to poverty is not expropriation of land and redistribution of wealth, but rather, creating an infrastructure that will secure title rights to land, homes and businesses, making private enterprise feasible. A shrewd analyst of the abortive Soviet experiment, Bethell offers a novel analysis of the mid-19th-century Irish famine, arguing that shortsighted Anglo-Irish landlords acted against their own best interests by denying tenant farmers long-term leases. Yet Bethell struggles unsuccessfully to fit undemocratic, economically booming China into his framework, and at times sounds like an apologist for China, disputing the U.S. State Department's designation of it as an authoritarian state.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (October 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312223374
• ISBN-13: 978-0312223373
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #214,605 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable achievement, February 12, 1999

By	Donald J. Boudreaux (Burke, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages (Hardcover)

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.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Lay-history of Struggle for Markets!, February 27, 2003

By	Kevin Currie-Knight "PhD Student in Education" (Newark, Delaware) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages (Hardcover)

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?

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I ever have read., November 2, 1999

By	Donn Weinberg (Owings Mills, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages (Hardcover)

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