Occasional Papers – serie

This book discusses how 'wars of ideas' can be waged, using the author's extensive experience, both as Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and at other classical liberal think tanks.John Blundell begins his stimulating collection of published essays, reviews and introductions by showing how the founders of the IEA successfully fought the conventional 'state planning' wisdom of the 1960s and 1970s, providing the ideas which, by the 1980s and 1990s, had brought about increased freedom and a revival in the use of markets. He draws lessons from those days and then surveys the contemporary scene, showing how the anti-liberal ideas emerging now are different from those which prevailed in the early years of the IEA. As well as giving a valuable view of the IEA's development, these essays also offer advice on how to continue winning in the new circumstances of the present.Waging the War of Ideas has been constantly in demand since it was first published in 2001. This new and expanded edition has also been produced as a commemoration of the life of John Blundell, who passed away in 2014, and contains an obituary.

Governments throughout the Western world are spending at levels that could not have been imagined by pre-war economists - even by people such as Keynes. High levels of government spending have had a significant effect on economic growth and on economic freedom. In his 2013 Hayek lecture, Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, explains how the tide can be turned. He discusses both the political and economic mechanisms necessary to effect change. In three commentaries on the lecture, economists set the UK and European context and discuss how policy changes on this side of the Atlantic can make our economies more conducive to reform. Such reforms are necessary, argue all the authors, to ensure that we have dynamic economies in which governments serve the needs of their citizens rather than simply tax and spend more. This monograph is essential reading for students of political economy as well as all those interested in economic reform and the policy debates taking place in the United States.

This important book outlines the core principles that define a free society. It provides an accessible introduction to the institutions and policies necessary to preserve and enhance individual freedom. The author also sets out the wider benefits of free societies. A combination of small government, the rule of law, strong private property rights and free trade enables entrepreneurship to thrive, delivering large improvements in living standards and lifting people out of poverty. Furthermore, a society based on ordered liberty allows free associations and networks of cooperation to develop that deliver wider social as well as economic benefits. Attempts to expand the role of government to promote equality or security at the expense of liberty have tended to end in failure and oppression. With its clear language, concise arguments and persuasive real-world examples, this primer is essential reading for those attempting to bring freedom to countries where the foundations of a free society are absent, and for those defending liberty in places where traditional freedoms are under threat.

Whilst it is impossible to argue that the earth is flat without fearing ridicule, fallacies in economics are widespread. Such fallacies pervade the intellectual sphere and even influence policy. Professor Geoffrey Wood of the University of Buckingham exposes such popular economic fallacies in this revised edition of Fifty Economic Fallacies Exposed. Professor Wood looks at, for example, the supposed dangers of free trade, the abilities of governments to control the economy, the effects of government regulation and whether millions of jobs depend on our continued membership of the European Union. These lucid and stimulating articles are invaluable to students struggling to master some of the complexities of economic theory and its applications, who often find that the most effective way to learn economic analysis is to see such fallacies exposed. It is a text particularly suitable for first-year economics students, complementing existing textbooks as it does, and clarifying basic concepts in economics while demonstrating the practical uses of economic theory

An Exhibition of Early Photographs of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Greece and Iran, 1849-1893

This volume presents translations of essays by three German scholars who were preeminent in the social and natural science study of Central America in the early part of the twentieth century. Their research areas included ethnology, archaeology, geography, linguistics, and epigraphy. Their detailed observations of traditional cultures and archaeological remains provide important primary data. Because their writings have been available only in the original German-language journals, the work of these scholars is unfamiliar to many researchers. The chapters report on specific visits to parts of Central America but also include more synthetic coverage of topics such as the influence of Bartolome de las Casas on Indian life in Guatemala and food and drink as well as religion of the Q'eqchi' in Guatemala. The visited places include Pacific coastal and highland Guatemala, the Pech area of Honduras, and zones of Costa Rica inhabited by the Guatuso, Chirripo, and Talamanca Indians.