I bought this book to help in my research on a masters thesis...I think it is excellent. The book moves between (overly) scholarly erudition at times to almost poetic prose at others. You will defiantly feel where the action picks up and where it drops off...but it is understandable when you are trying to build a scholarly case on this subject.



Essentially he argues that liberalism (free markets, limited government, and individual rights) lost the battle in the 20th century, but had been on a decline since the late 1800s in some areas. The result was a century of warfare, massacres, and sustained poverty.



The scholarly work and assumptions made in this book are not the work of childish or child like intelligence. It is quite the opposite. Have you ever heard a free market advocate arguing "Look even a child understands it, it must be true!" Never, such are the arguments of communists and socialists. The real childish assumptions come overwhelmingly from the global left. The belief that poverty can be solved simply be re-distributing wealth shows painful ignorance of the economics involved. (though Lindsey is not hostile to "saftey nets"...I don't believe in the free market long run saftey nets will be needed at all...politically I recognize they would be necessary to get anything accomplished, but only if they are made more effecient like a negative tax proposed by Milton Friedman) Further ignorance is demonstrated through their assumptions that free markets exploit. Free markets are based on voluntary transactions, and as a voluntary transaction IT CANNOT BE EXPLOITIVE.



I agree with Lindsey that the leftist assumptions are the results of years of fallacious reasoning...intentionally or unintentionally; they are wrong on almost all accounts. I however find their love for their fellow human and desire to increase the welfare of society to be admirable, their solutions however are the causes to the problems they address. They don't understand history, politics, or economics. And they always blame the market for problems that the market often did not cause by conveniently forgetting or ignoring the government involvement in the creation of said problem (example, the Asian Financial Crisis of the late 1990s...always blamed on free market capitalism when in fact fixed exchange rates, policies of the government not free trade, were a major cause of the crisis).



Current empirical evidence suggests, as Lindsey agrees, that economic freedom is strongly connected to civil and political freedom. That is, the more economically free a country is the more civil and political freedom the citizens enjoy...what we now call democracy is realized.



It is no coincidence that the forces who tried the hardest to suppress economic freedom also killed off vast portions of their populations...these are the Fascist and Communist governments that the Left have confused as polar opposites...they are not, both hate economic freedom and as a result both hate civil and political freedom.



Lindsey goes through great detail to list the conditions in the rise of liberalism and its decline. With the help of Hayek and Friedman he shows how government intervention and anti liberal policies helped bring about WWI, the great depression and WWII. The results of all of these were a belief that markets don't work and governments do. In the end, we live in a world that still fears globalization and free markets...a world that conflates free markets with mercantilism and continues to argue that free markets don't work in fact its their very own policy preferences that continue to cause global problems.



Example: protectionism (tariffs and quotas) protect the wealth of the first world capital owners at the expense of the first world consumers (who pay higher prices) and third world laborers (who have more difficulty finding employment) and third world capital owners (who find difficulty in creating and maintaining an export industry). PROTECTIONISM IS A WEALTH TRANSFER FROM POOR TO RICH, that ironically most leftists seem to accept ignorantly unaware that in no way are workers actually protected. Free trade is the opposite of this. Barriers are removed, jobs are created between both first and third world countries, trade ensues, both sides are lifted up through increasing prosperity and wealth creation.



Free markets are not the end all for the debate in this book. Lindsey recognizes that the forces that destroyed liberalism once before are still at work. Their arguments, assumptions, and ignorance still lives and has the potential to again mobilize a mass movement against liberalism...and ironically for totalitarianism. That being said, the summary of his book is that globalization and free markets are not inevitable nor invinsible.



No hard core leftist will read this book and suddenly be converted. They will likely throw confused fits of frustration and show little ability to counter the arguments found inside. Classic Liberals and those more favorable to the free market will find themselves with a highly compelling argument in this book that will strengthen their own understanding of globalization. Those who find themselves in the center will find a book that challenges many of the major assumptions that most of society accepts...it may leave you wondering exactly how you went through your entire education and were never presented with any of these arguments or facts.



But the sad state of public education is another book altogether... :P

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