MISES (Ludwig von).
The Free and Prosperous Commonwealth. An Exposition of the Ideas of Classical Liberalism.
A classic statement in defence of a free society and one of the last statements of the old liberal school, originally published in German in 1927 under the title ‘Liberalismus’. ‘In a century marked by accelerating statisticism and collectivism, Mises stood out among scholars as an uncompromising stalwart of laissez-faire’ (Murray N. Rothbard, in The New Palgrave).
‘It was written to address the burning question: if not socialism, and if not fascism or interventionism, what form of social arrangements are most conducive to human flourishing? Mises’s answer is summed up in the title, by which he meant classical liberalism. Mises did more than restate classical doctrine. He gave a thoroughly modern defence of freedom, one that corrected the errors of the old liberal school by rooting the idea of liberty in the institution of private property (a subject on which the classical school was sometimes unclear).’ (Mises Institute).
