The Market for Liberty - Read Jim Fulner

Library Binding, 169 pages

English language

Published Oct. 3, 1993 by Fox and Wilkes.

ISBN:: 978-0-930073-08-4

ome great books are the product of a lifetime of research, reflection, and labored discipline. But other classics are written in a white heat during the moment of discovery, with prose that shines forth like the sun pouring into the window of a time when a new understanding brings in the world into focus for the first time. "The Market for Liberty" is that second type of classic, and what a treasure it is. Written by two authors-Morris and Linda Tannehill-just following a period of intense study of the writings of both Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard, it has the pace, energy, and rigor you would expect from an evening's discussion with either of these two giants. More than that, these authors put pen to paper at precisely the right time in their intellectual development, that period rhapsodic freshness when a great truth had been revealed, and they had to …

ome great books are the product of a lifetime of research, reflection, and labored discipline. But other classics are written in a white heat during the moment of discovery, with prose that shines forth like the sun pouring into the window of a time when a new understanding brings in the world into focus for the first time. "The Market for Liberty" is that second type of classic, and what a treasure it is. Written by two authors-Morris and Linda Tannehill-just following a period of intense study of the writings of both Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard, it has the pace, energy, and rigor you would expect from an evening's discussion with either of these two giants. More than that, these authors put pen to paper at precisely the right time in their intellectual development, that period rhapsodic freshness when a great truth had been revealed, and they had to share it with the world. Clearly, the authors fell in love with liberty and the free market, and wrote an engaging, book-length sonnet to these ideas. This book is very radical in the true sense of that term: it gets to the root of the problem of government and provides a rethinking of the whole organization of society. They start at the beginning with the idea of the individual and his rights, work their way through exchange and the market, expose government as the great enemy of mankind, and then-and here is the great surprise-they offer a dramatic expansion of market logic into areas of security and defense provision. Their discussion of this controversial topic is integrated into their libertarian theoretical apparatus. It deals with private arbitration agencies in managing with disputes and criminality, the role of insurers in providing profitable incentives for security, and private agencies in their capacity as protection services. It's for this reason that Hoppe calls this book an "outstanding yet much neglected analysis of the operation of competition."

1 edition

Jim Fulner reviewed The Market for Liberty by Morris Tannehill

4 stars

This book was different than what it was sold to me as. It was sold to me as a pathway, a map, for how to get to a completely libertarian society. While there is some of that, it was onl in "Section III" which made up significantly less than 1/3 of the book. returnreturnThe majority of this book was a step by step guide about how a lassie-fare society would operate, particularly how it would operate without government intervention. While this was very fine writing, had fairly clear thought out points, it wasn't knew for me so it was less valuable than it could be. returnreturnThere were two piont when I highly disagreed with Tannehill on. One was the idea that once we eliminated the FED, everyone would certainly turn to gold as the medium of exchange as "only gold is REAL money" yet he gives almost no reasoning to …

This book was different than what it was sold to me as. It was sold to me as a pathway, a map, for how to get to a completely libertarian society. While there is some of that, it was onl in "Section III" which made up significantly less than 1/3 of the book. returnreturnThe majority of this book was a step by step guide about how a lassie-fare society would operate, particularly how it would operate without government intervention. While this was very fine writing, had fairly clear thought out points, it wasn't knew for me so it was less valuable than it could be. returnreturnThere were two piont when I highly disagreed with Tannehill on. One was the idea that once we eliminated the FED, everyone would certainly turn to gold as the medium of exchange as "only gold is REAL money" yet he gives almost no reasoning to back up such an outlandish claim. The second was far worse, though it was discussed much less in the book, and that was Tannehill's idea that so-called intellectual property is rightfully property, and that somehow this would still exist in a state free society, managed and protected by private Databanks. Not only would such continue stifle intervention, it leads me to believe that such a society would be filled with time consing insurance claims and arbitration and a society not significantly better than we have today. returnreturnAll in all I recommend this book, particularly if you are new to the ideas of living within a completely libertarian society, and even for the old hats it will be useful for section III alone. Even with the two down sides to the writing mentioned above its worth a look.