Auberon Herbert (1838â1906) is an eloquent, forceful, and uncompromising defender of libertyâindeed, in the judgment of Richard M. Ebeling he is "one of the most important and articulate advocates of liberty in the last two hundred years." Herbert was a major participant in the profound and wide-ranging intellectual ferment of the late Victorian age. He formulated a system of "thorough" individualism that he described as "voluntaryism." To Herbert, "you will not make people wiser and better by taking liberty of action from them. A man can learn only when he is free to act." As Eric Mack writes, "Carrying natural rights theory to its logical limits, Herbert demanded complete social and economic freedom for all noncoercive individuals and the radical restriction of the use of force to the role of protecting those freedomsâincluding the freedom of peaceful persons to withhold support from any or all state activities." There are ten essays.
SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 27 ESSAY ONE
The Choices between Personal Freedom and State Protection 33 ESSAY TWO
State Education: A Help or Hindrance? 53 ESSAY THREE
A Politician in Sight of Haven 81 ESSAY FOUR
The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State 123 ESSAY FIVE
The Ethics of Dynamite 191 ESSAY SIX
Salvation by Force 227 ESSAY SEVEN
Lost in the Region of Phrases 241 ESSAY EIGHT
Mr. Spencer and the Great Machine 259 ESSAY NINE
A Plea for Voluntaryism 325 ESSAY TEN
The Principles of Voluntaryism and Free Life 369 INDEX 417