The Political Economy Blog: May 2020

Friday, May 15, 2020

L. Frank Baum & Bimetallism on This Day in History

This Day in History: Author L. Frank Baum was born on this day in 1856, and he is best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. While a children's classic, the book was actually an allegory for the politics and economics of the 1890's, with a special interest in bimetallism (a monetary standard where money is backed by gold and silver). The Yellow Brick Road represented the gold standard, and Ruby slippers were originally silver and Oz got its name from the abbreviation of ounces "Oz" in which gold and silver are measured. The Scarecrow represented the American farmers, the Tin Man represented the steel factory workers and the Cowardly Lion was a metaphor for politician William Jennings Bryan. The Wicked Witch of the West represented the American West, and the Winged Monkeys represented the Native Americans. The King of the Winged Monkeys tells Dorothy, "Once we were a free people, living happily in the great forest, flying from tree to tree, eating nuts and fruit and doing just as we pleased without calling anybody master. ... This was many years ago, long before Oz came out of the clouds to rule over this land."

See also 200 Books on Fantasy and Science Fiction on DVDrom

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Robert Owen on This Day in History

Buy my book: The Folly of Socialism (40 Chapters) for 99 cents on Amazon

Visit a local listing for this here

This Day in History: Welsh textile manufacturer Robert Owen was born on this day in 1771. While a successful businessman, he was also a believer in Socialism, and may have even coined the term. About 200 years ago Robert Owen bought land in Ohio to set up a Socialist community. While American may be thought of as a Laissez-Faire country back then, it was also a hotbed of Socialist experimentation, particularly in Ohio. Owen called his community "New Harmony" but like all such Socialist communities, they all failed...usually within 2 years. As Alexander Winston wrote: "They couldn’t run anything properly—flour mill, saw mill, tannery or smithy—and their only solution to problems of production was to write another constitution or make another speech. The industrious soon tired of supporting the idle. From the Nashoba, Tennessee Owenite settlement, leader Frances Wright informed Owen that 'cooperation has nigh killed us all,' and departed. Within two years every Owenite venture, fourteen in all, disintegrated."

Historic Failures of Applied Socialism in Ohio by Daniel J Ryan 1920

https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2016/04/historic-failures-of-applied-socialism.html

Early American Communism, 1910 Article

https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2016/08/early-american-communism-1910-article.html

The Early Failures of Socialism

https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-early-failures-of-socialism.html

Friday, May 8, 2020

Friedrich Hayek on This Day in History

Road to Serfdom Audiobook

This Day in History: Economist Friedrich Hayek was born on this day in 1899. He is best known for writing The Road to Serfdom which went on to sell 2 million copies, an outstanding achievement for an economics book.

Milton Friedman once said of Hayek: "There is no figure who had more of an influence, no person had more of an influence on the intellectuals behind the Iron Curtain than Friedrich Hayek. His books were translated and published by the underground and black market editions, read widely, and undoubtedly influenced the climate of opinion that ultimately brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union."

President Ronald Reagan listed Hayek as among the two or three people who most influenced his philosophy, and Margaret Thatcher often carried one of his books into Parliament with her.

Download the book here:

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.218162/page/n3/mode/2up

Monday, May 4, 2020

Anti-Socialist Capitalist Books You Won't Believe Are Online for FREE

Buy: The Folly of Socialism (40 Chapters) for 99 cents on Amazon

Visit a local listing for this here

Many Books you won't believe are online for free...but you may have to hurry before they are taken down. I did not post any of these books, these are simply books I found in my online travels.

For a list of all of my digital books and books on disk click here