Libertarian research paper

[Lbcpunk]

Hello everyone,

I'm starting a research paper on Libertarianism. I need solid information on the origins, the pioneers, the ideals, the offshoots of ideas, how it's affecting politics today, etc.

I already have a good understanding, but I need more quality sources to get a lot of information from.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

nt

 

[StilesBC]

Here's some things to research:

School of Salamanca
Carl Menger
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AustrianSchoolofEconomics.html - the 10 topics discussed here should give you a good start.

And of course mises.org has lectures, papers, free e-books and journals. If you don't want to cite mises.org as your source, a lot of it is cross posted from elsewhere.

Good Luck!

 

[mczerone]

Hello everyone,

I'm starting a research paper on Libertarianism. I need solid information on the origins, the pioneers, the ideals, the offshoots of ideas, how it's affecting politics today, etc.

I already have a good understanding, but I need more quality sources to get a lot of information from.

Anyone have any ideas?

Get a copy of Radicals for Capitalism. Amazon's Link.

It goes into the 1900's development of libertarianism, all branches, from personal accounts of the people that worked together. It has everyone from Rothbard to Milton Friedman.

 

[Dreamofunity]

Get a copy of Radicals for Capitalism. Amazon's Link.

It goes into the 1900's development of libertarianism, all branches, from personal accounts of the people that worked together. It has everyone from Rothbard to Milton Friedman.

I was going to suggest this.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Jeff Riggenbach has an excellent series of works on the history of libertarian thought on Mises.org. Here are the podcast recordings of "The Libertarian Tradition"-http://mises.org/media/category/208The-Libertarian-Tradition

ETA: Here's Block's autobiography of contemporary libertarians-

http://mises.org/resources/6073/I-Chose-Liberty-Autobiographies-of-Contemporary-Libertarians

mises.org has pretty much everything you could need on this subject.

 

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

Are you going for your PhD? Otherwise, it is going to be a very long laborous work. You have to start all the way back with Lao Tzu and work your way to today. John of Paris, Richard Overton and the Levellers, Cicero, early Roman Republican thought, Renassiance Italy, Pre-Unification Germany, Physiocrats, Scholastics, I mean I can name about fifty other pre-cursors and off-shoots and from whence they derived. If you do, do something like this I'd imagine it would have to be a volume with like seven sets or something.

 

[Brent Pierce]

Cicero is an excellent source. Very republican libertarian writings. Classical Liberalism is an easy link as well. Think Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and "The Rights of Man."

 

[libertybrewcity]

wikipedia sources at the bottom. library...journal databases...

 

[Lbcpunk]

Are you going for your PhD? Otherwise, it is going to be a very long laborous work. You have to start all the way back with Lao Tzu and work your way to today. John of Paris, Richard Overton and the Levellers, Cicero, early Roman Republican thought, Renassiance Italy, Pre-Unification Germany, Physiocrats, Scholastics, I mean I can name about fifty other pre-cursors and off-shoots and from whence they derived. If you do, do something like this I'd imagine it would have to be a volume with like seven sets or something.

No, my paper is for an introduction to government class at a 2-year college. And although I'd love to go through ancient times in detail, I'm writing an 8-10 page double-spaced paper. I don't have a whole lot of room, but these are a good place to start.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

No, my paper is for an introduction to government class at a 2-year college. And although I'd love to go through ancient times in detail, I'm writing an 8-10 page double-spaced paper. I don't have a whole lot of room, but these are a good place to start.

Your teacher waited this late in the semester to assign an 8-10 page paper? That's just cruel!

 

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

No, my paper is for an introduction to government class at a 2-year college. And although I'd love to go through ancient times in detail, I'm writing an 8-10 page double-spaced paper. I don't have a whole lot of room, but these are a good place to start.

Not much has changed. The 'Ancients' put forth the basic libertarian argument -- the same we have today. We have made many improvements over the ages, but the methodological individualism and moral absolutism strain has been around for thousands of years.

 

[Conza88]

Here's some things to research:

School of Salamanca
Carl Menger
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AustrianSchoolofEconomics.html - the 10 topics discussed here should give you a good start.

And of course mises.org has lectures, papers, free e-books and journals. If you don't want to cite mises.org as your source, a lot of it is cross posted from elsewhere.

Good Luck!

This is Austrian Economics. It has nothing directly to do with Libertarianism which is a political philosophy.

Good responses from others.

 

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

Sorry if I only critiqued. OLL has excellent resources. http://oll.libertyfund.org/ (Of course Mises.org too)

Since its such a short paper, I would recommend covering something like the contrast between the Thomist Natural Law tradition, and the Mises/David Friedman Consequentialist / Utilitarian tradition (it goes much further back..., but this is pretty good starting point for contemporary thought)...and you could even distinguish between Act and Rule utilitarianism with people like Hume and Hazlitt on the Rule-Utilitarian side. Anthony de Jasay has some good works on this, as does Sheldon Richmann for example: http://www.thefreemanonline.org/uncategorized/the-goal-is-freedom-what-nearly-killed-liberalism/

Anyways, hope this helps.

My personal opinion is that we will not see liberty sustained until we understand the dangers to liberty that utilitarianism imposes. In this regard, I find John of Paris and Thomas Aquinas superior to Hume and Locke. You will find that the opponents of Natural Law, Natural Rights, and the Thomist tradition tend to ad-hominem their arguments saying we are dogmatic...Yes, I am dogmatic. There is but nought to remove from my thought the inerrancy that we are as born as free persons with rights that are as natural as my heartbeat.

 

[Lbcpunk]

Thanks for all the input everyone. I'm having a lot of fun with this paper already!

 

[randolphfuller]

Most works begin with Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu. First book in English was by William Godwin, father of Mary Shelley.

 

[Aldanga]

An Enemy of the State by Justin Raimondo is a good resource. It gives a significant amount of background information on libertarianism in the US during the 20th century.

 

[StilesBC]

This is Austrian Economics. It has nothing directly to do with Libertarianism which is a political philosophy.

Good responses from others.

OP also asked about offshoots of ideas and its relevance today. Mises.org has lots of political philosophy stuff too.

 

[Imperial]

No, my paper is for an introduction to government class at a 2-year college. And although I'd love to go through ancient times in detail, I'm writing an 8-10 page double-spaced paper. I don't have a whole lot of room, but these are a good place to start.

I think you could divide it into two sections: Philosophical foundations and modern resurgence.

You do not have to go as far back as others suggested. I would suggest beginning with classical liberalism for a few pages. FA Hayek would be the go-to guy on this in The Constitution of Liberty. You basically have the English liberals, continental liberals, and American Founding Fathers as the big groups. Then you have American libertarianism which rose as a synthesis of the anti-establishment flavor of the New Left and the anti-collectivism of the Old Right. Radicals for Capitalism by Brian Doherty is definitely the go-to work for this.

For your intro/conclusion you can talk about the libertarian surge with Ron Paul, Atlas Shrugged, Tea Party rhetoric, 14% of voters who are libertarian, etc.

One last note: Do not get too big. Pick and choose what you cover thoroughly, since you are constructing a political concept that may be quite ambiguous for your professor. You are more than likely teaching them, as has happened to me a few times with my libertarianism at college. So make sure to explain in the most direct way possible what you are saying.
[Note: I wrote a couple term papers dealing very much with libertarianism this semester, so feel free to contact me for help]

 

[Lbcpunk]

I think you could divide it into two sections: Philosophical foundations and modern resurgence.

You do not have to go as far back as others suggested. I would suggest beginning with classical liberalism for a few pages. FA Hayek would be the go-to guy on this in The Constitution of Liberty. You basically have the English liberals, continental liberals, and American Founding Fathers as the big groups. Then you have American libertarianism which rose as a synthesis of the anti-establishment flavor of the New Left and the anti-collectivism of the Old Right. Radicals for Capitalism by Brian Doherty is definitely the go-to work for this.

For your intro/conclusion you can talk about the libertarian surge with Ron Paul, Atlas Shrugged, Tea Party rhetoric, 14% of voters who are libertarian, etc.

One last note: Do not get too big. Pick and choose what you cover thoroughly, since you are constructing a political concept that may be quite ambiguous for your professor. You are more than likely teaching them, as has happened to me a few times with my libertarianism at college. So make sure to explain in the most direct way possible what you are saying.
[Note: I wrote a couple term papers dealing very much with libertarianism this semester, so feel free to contact me for help]

This was more or less what I was shooting for. However I would like to go as far back as possible to at least lay out a foundation for the rest of the paper. I should be able to cover the origins without going too in depth though.

Anyway, thanks again for all the help everyone.

and I appreciate the offer Imperial, I'll come to you if I get stumped on something.