The Man Versus the State: With Six Essays on Government, Society, and Freedom

by Herbert Spencer

Overview

Spencer develops various specific disastrous ramifications of the wholesale substitution of the principle of compulsory cooperation—the statist principle—for the individualist principle of voluntary cooperation. His theme is that “there is in society . . . that beautiful self-adjusting principle which will keep all its elements in equilibrium. . . . The attempt to regulate all the actions of a community by legislation will entail little else but misery and compulsion.”

Herbert Spencer joined the staff of the London and Birmingham Railway as an engineer in 1837 and in 1848 took a position as editor of The Economist.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614872306
Publisher:	Liberty Fund, Incorporated
Publication date:	06/30/1982
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	550
File size:	792 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Publisher's Note vii
Foreword by Eric Mack ix
Introduction by Albert Jay Nock xxi
The Man Versus The State (1884) 1
Preface 3
The New Toryism 5
The Coming Slavery 31
The Sins of Legislators 71
The Great Political Superstition 123
Postscript 167
Six Essays on Government, Society, and Freedom 179
The Proper Sphere of Government (1843) 181
Over-Legislation (1853) 265
Representative Government--What Is It Good For? (1857) 331
The Social Organism (1860) 383
Specialized Administration (1871) 435
From Freedom to Bondage (1891) 487
Index 519