Anything That's Peaceful: The Case for the Free Market

by Leonard Edward Read

"My thesis," Leonard Read informs us in this remarkable book, "in simplest terms, is: Let anyone do anything he pleases, so long as it is peaceful; the role of government, then, is to keep the peace." Just so. This book is a classic, compelling statement of the political philosophy of libertarianism and statement of the guiding principles of the Foundation for Economic Education.

Genres: Economics, Politics, Nonfiction, Philosophy

254 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1964

About the author

1898-

Liberty does not and cannot include any action, regardless of sponsorship, which lessens the liberty of a single human being.
Leonard E. Read was the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education — the first modern libertarian think tank in the United States — and was largely responsible for the revival of the liberal tradition in post–World War II America.

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leonard Read’s Anything That’s Peaceful, first published in 1964 and currently available for free from the Foundation for Economic Education, should be more widely read than it is (but, of course, keeping with its tenets, all should be free to choose whether to read it or not). Read identified problems, and challenged widely-held but questionable assumptions, about the nature and role of our government, that continue today, because we have not followed the solutions he offered. (One of the best things about this book is that there are solutions, both for the individual and for the nation.) We in the United States believe ourselves free, but often do not see where and how we have ceded our liberty, and even then we do not see how the ceding of that liberty harms us by inhibiting our creative energies. We think we need the government to do big things other than keep the peace, such as deliver the mail and educate our children. But we ignore the examples of the many big things private enterprise has done, among them creating a lead pencil (Read’s most famous essay, “I, Pencil”, is included in this book), creating air travel, and spiritual development. And we miss how the loss of our liberty inhibits us from finding better ways and creates an imbalance between know-how and wisdom. Read wrote this in an engaging, easy-to-understand, and persuasive manner. I cannot recommend it enough.

[Furbjr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was selected by people participating in http://freedombookclub.com as the Book of the Month for April 2012.

This was a great read. I really enjoyed it.

I will add a more thoughtful review as soon as I am able. There are many things I want to share in this review which time does not allow me to add at present. Sufficeth it to say that the ability to excercize ones volition will allow for an ascendency of the natural aristocracy. This natural aristocracy will allow the human race to reach its full potential. This is, in a nutshell, what happens when sapient beings are unencumbered from coercive restrictions on their behavior (besides those that are not peaceful).