Publication of the week:

CLASSICAL LIBERALISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Monday 8 February 2010

Michael James (ed.), Classical Liberalism in the 21st Century; Essays in Honour of Norman Barry (Buckingham: University of Buckingham Press, 2010). 250 pp. ISBN: 978-0-9560716-4-4.

Liberty has underpinned the Judeo-Christian ideal for millennia, and it was the idea of liberty that moulded Europe. Britain, too, was forged by liberty, and British leadership in commerce and politics flowed out of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 which established the Bill of Rights and the rule of law. But liberty is constantly under threat from governments and their apologists who seek to over-tax and over-regulate.

This book started life as the papers produced for a conference in honour of the late Norman Barry, who was Professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Buckingham and one of the best known and most published and respected authorities on liberty in Britain. The book also includes a hitherto unpublished article by him entitled "Dworkin's unbounded legalism". Other pieces come from Sir Alan Peacock, Martin Ricketts, Charles Rowley, Terence Kealey, Mark Pennington, Julian Morris, Colin Robinson, Elaine Sternberg, David Henderson, Steven Davies, Nathanael Smith and Mustafa Erdogan, all well known and influential in the field.

The book was launched at the Institute of Economic Affairs on 3 February 2010. Copies are available from the University Bookshop (with a 20% discount) or via the University of Buckingham Press website (external link).