Taking a Stand Reflections on Life, Liberty, and the Economy

In his academic work, Robert Higgs has dissected the government’s shrewd secret excesses that lead to the Welfare State, the Warfare State, and the Administrative State. For several decades he has unstintingly chronicled the federal, state, and local governments’ malfeasance in these many areas of life that all levels of government have intruded upon without Constitutional mandate. In this book, however, are essays that show a whimsical, introspective, and personal side of this world renowned scholar. From the myth that the government has derived its powers from the consent of the governed to the role of independent experts in formulating monetary and fiscal policy; from the government’s duplicity in announcing the unemployment rate in a given month to how the state entraps us, if you want to see a true polymath at work, these lofty, serious, sad, and illuminating essays will educate you beyond what you had thought possible about life, liberty, and the economy.

Robert Higgs is senior fellow in political economy for the Independent Institute and the editor of the Institute’s quarterly journal, the Independent Review. He is also the author of several books, including Against Leviathan, Competition and Coercion, Delusions of Power, Neither Liberty Nor Safety, Resurgence of the Warfare State, and The Transformation of the American Economy 1865–1914, and the recipient of numerous awards, such as the Gary Schlarbaum Award for Lifetime Defense of Liberty and the Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty. He lives in Lafayette, Louisiana. Judge Andrew P. Napolitano currently serves as the senior judicial analyst Fox News Channel (FNC) and provides legal analysis on both FNC and Fox Business Network (FBN). He is the author of five books: Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws; The Constitution in Exile, a New York Times bestseller; Dred Scott's Revenge; Lies the Government Told You, also a New York Times bestseller; and A Nation of Sheep. His writings have been published in several newspapers, including the Baltimore Sun, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in New York City.