Bastiat for ’65

Economic Sophisms, by Frederic Bastiat. Translated and edited by Arthur Goddard. Van Nostrand, $6.75 Selected Essays on Political Economy, by Frédéric Bastiat. Translated by Seymour Cain and edited by George B. de Huszar. Van Nostrand, $7.50 Economic Harmonies, by Frederic Bastiat. Translated by W. Hayden Boyers and edited by George B. de Huszar. Van Nostrand, $11.50 There has long been an urgent need for a new English edition of Bastiat. It is not merely that the previous translation by P. J. Stirling was stiff and outmoded; even this had become unavailable except in a shabby physical form. Now, at last, we have freshly translated and carefully edited editions of the Sophisms, the Essays, and the Harmonies, presented in a physical garb worthy of their contents.

Why has Bastiat lain so long neglected, scornfully referred to by the overwhelming majority of academic economists? In part, no doubt, because of his shortcomings. He made no major contribution to economic theory. But most of the disdain of Bastiat, I am convinced, is precisely the result of his merits. He was one of the most brilliant advocates that ever lived of free trade, economic freedom and laissez-faire. And as these ideals have become more and more unfashionable among our present generation of interventionists, Keynesians, and socialists, Bastiat has become unfashionable with them.

HH

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Henry Hazlitt

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Economic Sophisms, by Frederic Bastiat. Translated and edited by Arthur Goddard. Van Nostrand, $6.75 Selected Essays on Political Economy, by Frédéric Bastiat. Translated by Seymour Cain and edited by George B. de Huszar. Van Nostrand, $7.50 Economic Harmonies, by Frederic Bastiat. Translated by W. Hayden Boyers and edited by George B. de Huszar. Van Nostrand, $11.50 There has long been an urgent need for a new English edition of Bastiat. It is not merely that the previous translation by P. J. Stirling was stiff and outmoded; even this had become unavailable except in a shabby physical form. Now, at last, we have freshly translated and carefully edited editions of the Sophisms, the Essays, and the Harmonies, presented in a physical garb worthy of their contents.

Why has Bastiat lain so long neglected, scornfully referred to by the overwhelming majority of academic economists? In part, no doubt, because of his shortcomings. He made no major contribution to economic theory. But most of the disdain of Bastiat, I am convinced, is precisely the result of his merits. He was one of the most brilliant advocates that ever lived of free trade, economic freedom and laissez-faire. And as these ideals have become more and more unfashionable among our present generation of interventionists, Keynesians, and socialists, Bastiat has become unfashionable with them.