The Independent Review: The Best of the First 30 Years

Celebrate 30 years of The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy with the acclaimed magazine's highest caliber scholarship by some of the world's leading experts.

For over thirty years, The Independent Review has been a beacon of clear, fearless, and wide-ranging scholarship—bringing together some of the sharpest minds in economics, history, law, philosophy, and political thought. Now, for the first time, the most influential and enduring essays from the first 30 years are collected in one volume, offering readers a guided tour of the ideas that continue to shape debates on liberty, markets, and the role of government.

Edited by Robert Whaples (Wake Forest University) with contributions from a distinguished team of co-editors, this anthology highlights groundbreaking works from Nobel laureates, renowned scholars, and unorthodox, trailblazing thinkers. From Robert Higgs’s seminal essay on “Regime Uncertainty” to James Buchanan’s “The Soul of Classical Liberalism,” this book boldly tackles timeless questions about human flourishing, political economy, and the struggle between state power and civil society.

Whether you are a student discovering these ideas for the first time, a teacher seeking to inspire your classroom, or a lifelong reader of The Independent Review, this collection provides a front-row seat to three decades of intellectual innovation.

Robert M. Whaples is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute, Co-Editor and Managing Editor of The Independent Review, Professor of Economics at Wake Forest University, Director and Book Review Editor for EH.NET, and a member of the Board of Advisors for the Center on Culture and Civil Society at the Independent Institute. He is the co-editor of the Independent Institute books Is Social Justice Just?, In All Fairness, and Pope Francis and the Caring Society. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He has also served as Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Associate Editor of the Business Library Review, Chair of the Cliometric Society, and editor of EH.Net's Encyclopedia of Economic and Business History.