Crisis and Leviathan

Crisis and Leviathan is a book by economist Robert Higgs. The text offers a coherent, multi-causal explanation for the historic growth of government.

Crisis examines how 20th-century national emergencies--mainly wars, depressions, and labor disturbances--have prompted federal officials to take over previously private rights and activities, and how when the crises passed, a residue of new governmental powers remained. To achieve this the book integrates the contributions of scholars in diverse disciplines, including history, law, political philosophy, and the social sciences, and attempts to offer an understanding of the transformation of America's political economy over the past century.

Links

 * Articles, essays and reviews
 * "Crisis and Leviathan" by Peter G. Klein, January 2009
 * "The Rise of Statism" by Murray Rothbard, 1987
 * Their Crisis, Our Leviathan by Gregory Bresiger, September 2004