In this volume Robert Higgs has compiled a set of his essays written over the last 20 years. They all present arguments against the growth and misuse of government power in the United States. A majority of the essays come from his column that he writes as editor of The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy. The rest were previously published in a wide range of publications from Critical Review to Reason Magazine. Although Higgs is a well known economic historian, he has explicitly chosen essays for this volume that are written more for the general public. He also promises a subsequent volume of his more scholarly writings.

Higgs takes on a wide range of government interventions that he considers inappropriate, ranging from the draft to income redistribution programs. He also criticizes the military and defense establishment for its inordinate power in American politics and even finds time to disagree with the rankings given the U.S. presidents by historians. Several essays are shortened and more-popularized versions of his major work on the growth of government, Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).

Higgs is a thoughtful and scholarly libertarian so, as one might expect, his essays are cogent critiques of government and defenses of a free society. Because this is a book of previously published editorials and essays, one does not find, nor should one expect, a sustained argument that builds from beginning to end. Instead, one finds a set of separate pieces, some quite polemic, others more subtle, but all aimed at disabusing the reader of the usefulness of government. Higgs is an excellent writer and one finds pithy insights, numerous well turned phrases, and telling arguments against government. Despite the brevity of each essay Higgs draws upon his background as an economic historian to present evidence from history and logic from Public Choice and Austrian economics.

At times, Higgs's language seems a bit strong, such as when he describes the United States as a “monstrous police state” (p. 308). However, it becomes clear that Higgs believes that such terminology accurately describes the society in which Americans live. He continually refers to government as fraudulent, unconstitutional, and all powerful. As one reads through the various essays one wonders if Higgs sees any positive role for government and eventually one discovers that the answer is no. In an essay (first published in 2002) a third of the way through the book, he says: “When I was younger and even more ignorant than I am today, I believed that government (understood conventionally as a monopoly of legitimately coercive force in a given territory) performs an essential function—namely the protection of individuals from the aggressions of others, …and that no other institution can perform this function successfully…. I am now more inclined to disbelieve the idea than to believe it. More and more, the proposition strikes me as almost preposterous.” (p. 101).

It might have been helpful for the reader if this essay had appeared at the beginning of the volume as it would have clarified Higgs's position earlier on. Nevertheless, it is useful to know that he is arguing against all functions of government and finds even the minimal protective functions defended by some libertarians as better performed by private agencies. Higgs does not develop a theory of nongovernment, and one is left wondering exactly how his world of anarchy would function. But it is clear that he opposes every modern use of government in societies such as the United States.

There is some repetition in the book because much of his work has concentrated on the role of economic and military crises as significant influences in the growth of government. However, Higgs also sees changes in ideology as foundational for explaining the growth of government. He ties his theory of ideological change to the desire by citizens to have government simply “do something” during periods of economic crisis and wartime. Higgs presents numerous examples from U.S. history where the desire for solutions from the body politic allowed special interests to capture and use government for their own ends.

If one wants a series of well written and carefully argued, but quite polemic criticisms of modern government, this is a volume to which one should turn. Because it is a set of independently composed essays, one does not have to read through the book from beginning to end. Each essay stands by itself, so one can selectively choose topics and issues as one wishes and not miss the major thrust of any of his arguments. My favorites were some of the longer ones, a critique of the Food and Drug Administration (chapter 9), and of special interest influence on defense spending (chapter 29). Both point out the difficulty of limiting bureaucrats and elected politicians to the provision of public goods, and are well argued and supported by numerous case studies. I found the form of argumentation less powerful in the shorter essays, but recognize the constraints of editorial columns from which most of these short pieces are drawn.