[This article is the introduction to The Struggle for Liberty: A Libertarian History of Political Thought, by Ralph Raico, now available in the Mises Book Store, online at mises.org, and at Amazon.com.]
It is appropriate, unfortunately, that Ralph Raico (1936–2016) begins this series of lectures with an anecdote about Lord Acton. Acton, as Raico notes, was an exceptionally erudite historian and a proponent of radical laissez-faire liberalism—also known as libertarianism. For all his extensive work as a historian, however—and although he had intended to do so—Acton did not leave behind a panoramic text detailing the history of the fight for freedom.
Similarly, Raico, who was himself a proponent of laissez-faire, and one of the great historians of freedom and free markets, did not complete any comprehensive historical tome of his own. Like Acton, however, Raico did produce many essays and lectures of note during a long career.
Raico was born in Italian Harlem in New York City in 1936 before moving to the Bronx where he attended the Bronx High School of Science. He attended Ludwig von Mises’s New York University seminar, first in high school in 1953, and then for several years while pursuing undergraduate studies at the City University of New York. After completing his undergraduate work in 1959, he attended the University of Chicago, where he received his PhD in 1970. His dissertation committee was chaired by Friedrich Hayek, and his dissertation, titled “The Place of Religion in the Liberal Philosophy of Constant, Tocqueville, and Lord Acton,” was an early example of Raico’s penetrating interest in the history of political thought in Europe and the West. He translated Ludwig von Mises’s 1927 German work, Liberalismus, into English in 1962, as well as various articles by Friedrich Hayek. Raico became a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, senior editor of Inquiry magazine, associate editor of the Independent Review, and senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Raico was a professor of history at Buffalo State University for thirty-nine years until his retirement.
In 2003, Raico began to assemble these ten lectures at the urging of Mises Institute founder Lew Rockwell. Rockwell conceived of these lectures as part of a larger project to compile audio and video footage of the Institute’s best scholars. Rockwell regretted the lack of audio and video recordings of the Institute’s leading scholar, Murray Rothbard, who died in 1995. Determined to not repeat the mistake, Rockwell arranged for lectures by the Institute’s faculty that were to be recorded and permanently preserved.
Raico chose as his topic “History: The Struggle for Liberty,” and he set to work researching and arranging more than ten hours of material into a detailed analysis of the history of political thought. The lectures cover more than five centuries and explain the origins, the rise, the enemies, and the failures of the ideological movement known widely today as classical liberalism. Delivered at the Mises Institute in June of 2004, these lectures are likely the closest thing we will have to a cohesive single historical narrative from Raico himself.
In these pages, readers will find a wide-ranging look at the history of the West, which draws upon ideological trends that began in late antiquity and developed in the Middle Ages. Raico highlights important characteristics of Western history, such as the tension between secular power and church power and how this fostered political decentralization and economic development in the West.
Raico outlines how the laissez-faire liberals led the fight against absolutism in the seventeenth century and how they revolutionized European and American politics in the eighteenth century. He goes on to cover in detail the works and insights of the radical liberals in the nineteenth century who won important battles against protectionism, socialism, imperialism, and militarism.
Raico also examines the critics and competitors of the laissez faire liberals. These are the antagonists of the narrative: Marx, Lenin, Woodrow Wilson, Otto von Bismarck, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many other proponents of greater state power across the centuries.
Moreover, Raico draws upon the insights of theorists who are now often forgotten but were influential in their times across many different countries and in many different languages. These theorists include Richard Cobden, Gustave de Molinari, William Leggett, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Vilfredo Pareto, and many others.
Modern readers looking to broaden their knowledge of political history beyond the usual, often-repeated narratives will likely find many refreshing new details here. Beginners may also find this book to be a fruitful starting point for studying the history of Western political thought.
Why create a written text of the lectures now? For nearly twenty years, laypeople and scholars alike have found the audio recordings of these lectures engaging, informative, and helpful in accessing a broader and deeper history of political ideologies. As an academic product, however, audio recordings have their shortcomings. With spoken lectures, information on sources usually lacks the precision of written footnotes and citations. This presents a difficulty for scholars who might seek to delve more deeply into the research and sources that undergird these lectures. Moreover, lectures are more difficult to cite with precision due to a lack of page numbers and written text.
In an effort to overcome these shortcomings, I have edited Raico’s lectures here with an eye toward translating his spoken words into a readable, searchable text. I have annotated the text with hundreds of footnotes so that scholars and other readers can easily engage with Raico’s sources. These notes provide precise quotations, page numbers, and bibliographical material that were not available in the original lectures. Where I thought the reader might benefit from additional historical context or supporting material, I have added that as well.
In a small number of places, as is often unavoidable in lectures like these, Raico has misstated a source or paraphrased texts. In these cases, I have added explanatory footnotes providing the correct source or original quotation.
While the added precision of a written text is helpful, I recommend that readers of this volume also listen to the original lecture audio itself. It is only through listening to the lectures that the intended audience can fully experience Raico’s wit and passion for the material. These lectures in their original form can be found at the Mises Institute’s website, mises.org/struggle!.
On the other hand, for those who are seeking to approach the material on a more academic level, this written text provides a resource that is easier to search, analyze, and cite. In the process, I have also removed some asides and some sarcastic jokes that do not translate well to a written text. Some of Raico’s syntax, which works well in lecture form—but not in text form—has been modified here.
Nevertheless, the informal style of an oral presentation has been generally preserved here, and the reader will encounter some repetition or casual language of the sort one tends to encounter with lectures.
Those who are already familiar with Raico’s work will also note that in some places he draws heavily upon previously published material.
Some quotations and textual passages in this book have already appeared in Raico’s two volumes of essays made available through the Mises Institute and edited by Raico himself. The first of these is Great Wars and Great Leaders: A Libertarian Rebuttal (2010), in which Raico primarily examines war, international relations, and state building. A second key volume is Classical Liberalism and the Austrian School (2012), which provides a broader view of Raico’s historical work, covering topics from French liberalism to Marxism.
What is new here in this volume, however, is how Raico often provides “connective tissue” not provided elsewhere that ties together ideas and historical periods. We also find new insights on topics such as the Middle Ages, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the Industrial Revolution. Moreover, Raico’s chronological ordering of the material allows him to more methodically build upon concepts as the text progresses through time.
Finally, Raico here offers many interesting speculative remarks about the modern welfare state, immigration, political correctness, and more. In these pages, Raico has assembled what he apparently viewed as the most essential facts of the various historical periods he has already discussed elsewhere in greater detail. Those who wish to delve more deeply may elect to go on to his books mentioned above.
As with all his essays and lectures, Raico brings to this lecture series his usual extensive and erudite grasp of historiography and a wide array of theories and work offered by other historians. Throughout his career, Raico remained up-to-date on the state of historical scholarship covering a wide variety of topics ranging from the Soviet gulag to the economic history of industrialization. Raico draws our attention to the works of a wide variety of historians, and not just those who might be labeled free market or libertarian. Raico understood that good historical research and analysis can come from many different historians of The Struggle for Liberty 17 many different backgrounds. A consummate historian himself, Raico was always on the lookout for other solid historians, regardless of their ideological pedigrees.
Moreover, Raico was a historical revisionist in the best sense of the word. His lectures and sources here show an excellent command of historical facts that many modern historians—and nearly all politicians and media pundits—have ignored as a result of either negligence or ideological bias.
It is my hope that this written volume will help to expand the reach and influence—with both the lay reader and the scholar—of Raico’s scholarship for many years to come.
[This article is the introduction to The Struggle for Liberty: A Libertarian History of Political Thought, by Ralph Raico, now available in the Mises Book Store, online at mises.org, and at Amazon.com.]
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