Liberty Fund's new six-volume The Collected Works of Frédéric
Bastiat series, of which
The Man and the Statesman is the first volume, may be
considered the most complete edition of Bastiat's works published to
date, in any country, and in any language. The main source for this
translation is the seven-volume Oeuvres complètes de Frédéric
Bastiat, published in the 1850s and 1860s.
The present volume, most of which has never before been
translated into English, includes Bastiat's complete correspondence:
207 letters Bastiat wrote between 1819, when he was only 18 years
old, until just a few days before his untimely death in 1850 at the
age of 49. For contemporary classical liberals, Bastiat's
correspondence will provide a unique window into a long-forgotten
world where opposition to war and colonialism went hand-in-hand with
support for free trade and deregulation. Bastiat's numerous letters
to Richard Cobden, a Member of Parliament and best known today as
the leader of the British Anti-Corn Law League, chronicle the
profound effect the Anti-Corn League had on Bastiat. The League's
success in mobilizing a popular movement in England to pressure the
British government into abolishing the very protectionist "corn
laws," in 1846, inspired Bastiat to emulate the League's
success in France by starting his own free-trade movement.
The Man and the Statesman also includes articles and
other writings on politics and current events that showcase
Bastiat's talent as a theoretician, a pamphleteer, a journalist, and
a deputy (Member of Parliament) of the nascent French Second
Republic. Together with the correspondence, the writings in this
volume fill an important gap in our understanding of the
lesser-known Bastiat, who, in just a few short years, made a
profound impact on French intellectual and political life in Paris.
Forthcoming titles in The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat
series include:
"The Law," "The State," and Other Political
Writings, 1843-1850
Economic Sophisms and "What is Seen and What is Not Seen"
Miscellaneous Works on Economics: From
"Jacques-Bonhomme" to Le Journal des
Économistes
Economic Harmonies
The Struggle Against Protectionism: The English and French
Free-Trade Movements
Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) was born in the French port city
of Bayonne and became one of the leading advocates of free markets
and free trade in the mid-nineteenth century. A theorist of
classical liberal political economy and an elected member of various
French political bodies, he opposed both protectionism and the rise
of socialist ideas.
Jacques de Guenin is president of the Cercle Frédéric
Bastiat. He is a graduate of the École des Mines in Paris and holds
a Master of Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley.
Jean-Claude Paul-Dejean is a historian from the University of
Bordeaux and a Bastiat scholar.
Dennis O'Keeffe is Professor of Social Science at the
University of Buckingham, Buckingham, England, and is Senior
Research Fellow in Education at the Institute of Economic Affairs, London.
David M. Hart received a Ph. D. in history from King's
College, Cambridge, and is the Director of Liberty Fund's Online
Library of Liberty Project.
