Liberty in Peril Power and Democracy in American History

When the United States was born in 1776, Americans viewed the role of government as the protection of their individual rights, or liberty. At that time, and now again 200+ years later, the enemy of individual liberty is an intrusive and regulation obsessed government. Over time, the ideology of democracy—the idea that the role of government is to carry out the will of the people, has displaced the ideology of liberty. Holcombe narrates an account of the political history that transformed the fundamental principle of American government form liberty to democracy. And why that shift from the protection of liberty to democratic collectivism has serious and negative economic and political consequences.

Randall G. Holcombe is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and DeVoe Moore Professor of Economics at Florida State University and is author of twelve books, a contributing author to forty volumes and the author of more than 100 articles in academic and professional journals. Dr. Holcombe as served as past President of the Public Choice Society, and past President of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech, and has taught at Texas A&M His primary areas of research are public finance and the economic analysis of public policy issues.