Maria and Jo Ann Cavallo examine the individualist and entrepreneurial themes in Mira Nair's 1991 film Mississippi Masala ...

Some abolitionists saw the state as complicit in slavery and tried to fight slavery without its help. The antislavery movement, while extremely humble in its origins and slow in its growth, steadily ...

Adam Smith authorized the pursuit of honest income. But what should we do with that income? Max Laraia explores whether Peter Singer’s moral imperative to reduce suffering is consistent with Smith’s ...

Childs argues that Rand’s Objectivism logically implies support for anarchism, not for a single state that can exclude competitors within its territory. Dear Miss Rand: The purpose of this letter is ...

Left libertarianism is a fairly recently coined term for a fairly old idea. Those people who embrace this view agree with other libertarians in holding that individuals should be free. They regard ...

The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization—a think tank—dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace. Its scholars and analysts ...

Smith begins his exploration of self-interest and social order by explaining Shaftesbury’s theory of social psychology.

“All the Countries near the Sea side, which the King of Dahome could possibly get at, are not only conquered, but also turned into Desolation.” William Snelgrave traded slaves because it made him ...

The Hartford Wits were Federalists, but their arguments against democracy may ring familiar to modern libertarians.

As we continue to uncover more about the ancient African world, Anoba will highlight figures who had a profound impact on early Africa’s development.

Creative destruction is a theory about what drives economic innovation and the business cycle in a capitalist economy. The word ‘creative’ refers to the new innovations brought to market and ...

Thoreau develops a theory of the ethics of civil disobedience in the context of his tax resistance during the Mexican-American war. Thoreau describes his brief imprisonment and discusses the ...