World at War

For classical liberals and libertarians, there is no issue more important than war. In the nineteenth century, the English Manchester School and the French Laissez-Faire School taught humanity that free trade at home and abroad is the surest way to eliminate war. Ralph Raico’s lecture The World at War is a masterful yet tragic case study on this existential point. With unrivaled scope and wit, Raico shows how government intervention in the free market economy leads to war. He illustrates that modern wars make everyone worse off—the victors as well as the losers. The chief lesson of this masterpiece is that the free market economy, at home and abroad, is the key to abolishing war and maintaining durable world peace.

Recorded in 1983, Ralph Raico’s lecture “The World at War” remains perhaps the best introduction to the classical-liberal interpretation of the two world wars of the twentieth century. Raico touched on many of the topics he discussed in this lecture in his other writings, but he never wove them all together as concisely as he does here. Raico’s interpretation and insights into the causes of perpetual war are much needed today in light of the war-hungry, interventionist politicians that keep the economy on a warfare footing for their own political gain.

Raico was tutored by Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Murray Rothbard. All were economists and mentors of sorts, giving Raico his unique understanding of what causes war. Raico was the embodiment of Mises’s master historian, whose interpretation of the past is rooted in sound economic theory.