Free and Prosperous Commonwealth: An exposition of the ideasof Classical Liberalism / translated by Ralph Raico and edited by Arthur Goddard

IN THIS book, published originally in 1927, one of the most eminent contemporary champions of liberty presents a concise but comprehensive exposition of the fundamental principles of the philosophy of freedom and of the ideas and policies that in the nineteenth century were denoted by the term "liberalism." With masterful lucidity he clarifies all the issues involved in the practical application of these doctrines to both domestic affairs and international relations. Beginning with an examination of the foundation of human society--the division of lab or-the author demonstrates that private ownership of the means of production is the "only practicable arrangement of human cooperation" and, consequently,the indispensable recondition for modern industrial civilization. From this one principle he derives, with riqorcus logic. all the remaining demands of the liberal program: freedom of labor, peace among nations. equality before the law. religious toleration. and representative government. The solution of the problems gendered
by nationalism, colonialism, and imperialism is 10 be found in the advantages to be detrved by all nations from the intensification and elaboration of the international division vi lab or in a regime of economic freedom, Interventionism. the interference of govermnent with the market phenomena. on the other hand. is shown to aggravate national and racial antagonisms and to produce ',he very frictions that ultimately lead to war. Placed in its historic setting. as the out- growth of the rationalism of the eighteenth
century. and especially of the then new science of economics. nineteenth-century liberalism is seen as the most consistent
and systematic attempt in the history of . ideas to elucidate the principles on which '1 human cooperation is founded and as
the only political theory that constitutes a sound basis for the realization of world- wide peace and prosperity.