This weekend I carved out some time to read a good chunk of Ralph Raico’s excellent new book Great Wars and Great Leaders: A Libertarian Rebuttal, which brings together (often in expanded form) some of the author’s writings that have appeared in various outlets over the years.
When people ask me for living historians I admire, I always mention Ralph Raico, whom I first met at a seminar in 1992. His work reminds me why I am a historian: in a world of propaganda, I want to be a truth-teller. You will walk away from this book with the conviction that twentieth-century history is bound to be rewritten, and in a way that is not going to be flattering to the state.
One benefit of the Austrian renascence is that we now have more economists than the Austrian School has been able to boast in a long time. But as David Beito — who has some kind words for Raico’s book today — asked not long ago, where are our historians? I am convinced that it is books like this one, and the scholarly example of great mentors like Ralph Raico, that will inspire a new generation of libertarian historians determined to overturn the court history that flatters our rulers and glorifies the state.
1:12 am on April 4, 2011
