CV OF DR. DAVID M. HART

[Created: 17 November, 2025]
[Updated: 17 November, 2025]

 

Contents

 

 

PERSONAL PROFILE

 

Date and place of birth: 22 June, 1957, Sydney N.S.W.

David M. Hart is a retired academic historian, editor, translator, and website designer and curator who has spent several decades working in the university and non-profit educational sectors in Australia, the U.K., and the United States. He is currently an Adjunct Research Fellow with the University of Western Australia Business School.

His research interests are primarily in the history of the classical liberal and libertarian traditions, the "Great Books" of the Western Tradition, the history of economic thought, and the theory of class analysis, on which he has published academic papers, edited and put online hundreds of classic texts in these fields, and written scores of introductions, commentaries, and other study guides.

Before retiring at the end of 2019 he was the Director of Liberty Fund’s award winning Online Library of Liberty Project (2001-2019) which was recognised by the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the British Arts and Humanities Research Council, for its contributions to the humanities and to education. In 2019 the site had online 1,778 books by 489 authors, had 1.8 million users, 4 million page views, and 216,000 books were downloaded.

He has spoken regularly across the U.S., the U.K., and Australia about the history of ideas and the classical liberal tradition to think tanks, research institutes, college economics departments, academic associations, and private groups, including the Cato Institute, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Libertarian Scholars Conference, the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University, the Southern Economic Association, the American Philosophical Society, the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia, the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom at the University of Arizona, the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University, the Colloquium on Market Institutions and Economic Processes at NYU, the Association of Private Enterprise Education, the Philadelphia Society, many branches of the Bastiat Society across the US, the Institute of Economics Affairs in London, the Institute for Liberal Studies in Canada, the Centre for Independent Studies and the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation in Australia, and the University of the Third Age in Sydney.

EMPLOYMENT AND POSITIONS HELD

  • 2023-2025: an Adjunct Research Fellow with the University of Western Australia Business School
  • 2001-2019: Director of the Online Library of Liberty Project, at Liberty Fund Inc., Indianapolis, IN. Website: oll.libertyfund.org.
  • 1986-2001: Lecturer in Modern European History, the University of Adelaide. Courses taught: first year Survey of Modern European History, upper level courses on Liberal Europe 1815-1914, German History, the Intellectual and Cultural History of War, the Enlightenment, and Film and History. Winner of the University of Adelaide Stephen Cole the Elder Teaching Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
  • 1983-1986: Cambridge University, Supervision and tutoring of students in the History of Modern Political Thought.

 

HONOURS, AWARDS, AND INVITED "NAMED" LECTURES

  • as Director of the Online Library of Liberty:
    • the Library of Congress, selected for the Minerva Archive Project
    • the National Endowment for the Humanities, “The Best of the Humanities on the Web”
    • the British Arts and Humanities Research Council
    • the International Political Science Association
  • The Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture: “Frédéric Bastiat: The ‘Unseen’ Radical” (10 March, 2017) at the Austrian Economics Research Conference, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn Alabama. Online here and here
  • The David R. Saurman Provocative Lecture: “Frédéric Bastiat - Pivotal French Classical Liberal” (4 April, 2011) at the Department of Economics, San Jose State University, CA. [Online]
  • 1993 - Winner of the University of Adelaide Stephen Cole the Elder Teaching Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

EDUCATION

  • 1983-1986: PhD from King’s College, Cambridge, U.K. Thesis topic on “Class Analysis, Slavery and the Industrialist Theory of History in French Liberal Thought, 1814-1830: The Radical Liberalism of Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer.”
  • 1981-1983: M.A. in Modern European History, Stanford University, CA. Major Research Paper on "The Economic Thought of the Physiocrats".
  • 1980-1981: DAAD Scholarship to attend the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, FRG.
  • 1975-1979: B.A. (Hons.) in history from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Thesis on "Gustave de Molinari and the Anti-Statist Tradition."
  • 1966-1974: High school at Knox Grammar School, Sydney, Australia.

 

 

DIGITAL LIBRARIES AND ELECTRONIC BOOKS

The Online Library of Liberty

While in the Department of History at the University of Adelaide (1986-2001) David was an early adopter and pioneer in digital learning and teaching, and the creation of digital texts for the use of academics and students. He began by putting online a score or so of French economic texts which he downloaded from "Gallica" [Online], the digital library of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and a collection of half a dozen or so works by William Shakespeare. These were both online and distributed by means of CDs which were custom made for the purpose.

This activity came to the attention of the non-profit educational foundation, Liberty Fund, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, which asked him to design, build, and run their Online Library of Liberty (OLL) website which he did for 20 years (2001-2019) before his retirement.

This required the creation of the following features which he designed and implemented:

  1. a coding system (a DTD) for the texts which was appropriate for scholarly use, in particular the use of paragraph IDs to facilitate key word searches and scholalry citation; the texts were coded in XML which would then be converted to other formats as required
  2. a database which could house the carefully chosen and curated metadata for each author and text; each author was provided with a brief biography and was assigned to “groups” (nationality, histrocial period, and a school of thought) ; each text was provided with a brief description and was assigned to “collections” (subjects areas, topics, a language, special collections), and a "kind" (book, essay, play, etc.).
  3. a website design which would enable the upload, management, display, and download of large numbers of texts;
  4. texts which were avaliable in facsimile PDF format, searchbale HTML, and a varietey of eBook formats for distribution and off-line reading
  5. and several other features to enable the assembly and display of reading lists, course booklets, intellectual debates, and so on.

More detailed technical information about these features can be provided upon request.

During the 20 year tenure of David as Director of the OLL the site won four major awards for excellence from:

  1. The Arts and Humanities Research Council (U.K.)
  2. The International Political Science Association (UNESCO, Italy)
  3. The Library of Congress Web Archive Minerva (U.S.)
  4. The National Endowment for the Humanities (U.S.)

By the end of 2019 the OLL had

  • 1,778 titles organized in 12 Subject Areas (Art, Economics (500 titles), History (312), Law (136), Literature, Music, Philosophy (178), Political Theory (671), Religion, Science, Sociology, War and Peace), 20 Topics, 13 Debates, 18 Major Collections, and 270 online versions of books published by Liberty Fund.
  • works by 489 authors organized by Historical Period and in 29 Schools of Thought
  • and 1,318 essays and study guides (in 23 categories)

During 2019 the OLL had 1.8 million users, four million page views, and there were 216,000 downloads of books.

In the first 10 years of the OLL's existence (2004-2013) a "Portable Library of Liberty" data DVD was given away upon request. It contained 1,088 full-text titles of works on the OLL website. Over 20,000 copies were given away, in many cases to people living in the Third World where internet connections were very slow.

The OLL website also housed some very significant and large scholarly works whose display and curation were carefully designed. Some of the collections were published originally in book form by outside University Presses and some by Liberty Fund. These included:

  1. Adam Smith, The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Oxford University Press, 1976; Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1981-87). Six volumes.
  2. The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, ed. J.M. Robson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963-1991), 33 vols.
  3. The Works of David Ricardo, 11 vols. (Cambridge University; Liberty Fund)
  4. The Works of Ludwig von Mises, 26 vols. (Liberty Fund)
  5. The Works of Israel Kirzner (ongoing) (Liberty Fund)
  6. The Works of James Buchanan, 20 vols. (Liberty Fund)
  7. The Works of Gordon Tullock (Liberty Fund) Fund)
  8. The Works of Arthur Seldon (Liberty Fund)
  9. Natural Law and Enlightenment Series, 40 vols. (Liberty Fund)

The Director also wrote or edited the following:

  • a series of 64 “illustrated essays” in the collection Images of Liberty and Power which examined the political and economic significance of art, posters, cartoons, and book illustrations in the OLL collection
  • a weekly "Quote of the Week" selected from one of the online texts, organised into 31 topics, with a commentary and discussion of its historial context and its significance. There are 601 quotations in the collection.
  • an anthology or "Reader" of some of the best material in the OLL collection. There are 265 chapter length extracts organised under 12 main topics.
  • two anthologies of Key Documents of Liberty: a larger one of over 100 documents from the Code of Hammurabi to the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution; and a shorter "Pocket Guide" of 12 documents: The Pocket Guide to Political and Civic Rights: The English, American, and French Traditions, 1215-1830
  • he also edited and was an occasional contributer to a monthly online discussion between three invited academics on a book in the OLL collection, called "Liberty Matters". Between January 2013 (when it began) and September 2019 there were 40 such disucussions.

The Digital Library of Liberty and Power

In his retirement (the end of 2019) David has continued to put classic works of political and economic thought online and to write papers about them as the sections below indicate. An overview of what "The Digital Library of Liberty and Power" contains and his research interests can be found here. New material is added weekly and is listed here in the form of a monthly "diary". Its progress can be followed here: 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024.

The site began in June 2010 with the addition of texts on French political economy by authors such as Frédéric Bastiat, Charles Comte, Charles Dunoyer, Gustave de Molinari, and the Journal des économistes whose work continues to be of great interest.

The website today hosts 2,960 PDF files and 2,196 HTML files which comprise a collection of the following material:

  1. works on economics and political thought (both facsimile PDFs of the original texts and his own editions in HTML) in the areas of research listed below, in particular five Research Project topics
  2. scholarly papers and essays which have been written in these areas of research
  3. lectures, papers, blogs, and essays on "The 400 Year History of the Classical Liberal / Libertarian Tradition"
  4. teaching material for university courses and lectures which have been given over the decades
  5. public talks and lectures on political economy, art, and film.
  6. a collection of more sophisticated HTML coded classic texts in the "Guillaumin Collection". To date there are 232 titles by 114 authors (see below for details)
  7. anthologies of essays, chapters, and extracts from hard to find or little known texts and political documents (over the past couple of years 14 of these have been completed - seven on the Levellers, one on Adam Smith, one on Comte and Dunoyer, one on Bastiat, two by Molinari, and two others)
  8. translations of the works of some of the more important 19th century French political economists (over the past couple of yearshe has done 12 book length translations and half a dozen shorter articles)
  9. a personal blog called "Reflections on Liberty and Power" here.

 

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

[Note: The links provided below go to a summary page on the website which provides more detail.]

  • a full list of research papers, translations, anthologies of texts, formal public lectures, and other items (some 175 items to date) [Online]
  • major research Projects for which there are collections of online texts and anthologies, many of which are being translated, and on which papers have been written
  • The 400 Year History of the Classical Liberal / Libertarian Tradition: a collection of lectures, essays, anthologies, blog posts, and other teaching material developed over several decades [Online summary]
  • The French Classical Liberals and Political Economists (the "Paris School") [Online summary]
  • The Anglo-American Radical Individualist Tradition [Online summary]
  • The Great Books of Liberty / of the Western Tradition [Online summary]
  • Classical Liberal Class Analysis [Online summary]
  • On Digital Library and Electronic Book Design [Online]
  • Other Topics:

 

 

RECENT PUBLICATIONS, PAPERS, TALKS, AND OTHER ITEMS

Summary

A more complete list of some 181 items can be found here. Over the past three years (2023-25) the David has written or presented 10 scholarly papers, edited 13 large anthologies of texts, and translated 10 books and over 20 journal articles and chapters of books (predominantly from the French).

Print Publications

Forthcoming:

  1. An Introduction to Gustave de Molinari's Esquisse de l'organisation politique et économique de la Société future (A Sketch of the Political and Economic Organisation of the Society of the Future) (1899), written for a Spanish translation of the Esquisse. Forthcoming. Draft [Online].
  2. A translation of Vilfredo Pareto, “Un’applicazione di teorie sociologiche,” Rivista Italiana di sociologia, (Luglio 1900), p. 401-456. In Italian here and English trans. as “An Application of Sociological Theories" here to appear in an anthology published by the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., ed. Alberto Mingardi of Pareto's journalism published in Benjamin Tucker's magazine Liberty; with an afterword to the volume written by David.

In print:

  1. "Smith on the ‘Great System of Government’ and its Political Machine," in Adam Smith and why he matters today. Essays on the relevance of Smith after 300 years. Paul Oslington and David M. Hart. With a Foreword by Peter Kurti (CIS Occasional Paper 199. December 2023), pp. 8-15. Online at the CIS.
  2. The chapter on “Class” in The Routledge Companion to Libertarianism. Edited by Matt Zwolinski and Benjamin Ferguson (Routledge, 2022) , pp. 291-307.
  3. “The Paris School of Liberal Political Economy” in The Cambridge History of French Thought, ed. Michael Moriarty and Jeremy Jennings (Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 301-12.
  4. Social Class and State Power: Exploring an Alternative Radical Tradition, ed. David M. Hart, Gary Chartier, Ross Miller Kenyon, and Roderick T. Long (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). [Online elsewhere].
  5. "For Whom the Bell Tolls: The School of Liberty and the Rise of Interventionism in French Political Economy in the Late 19thC," and a translation of Frédéric Passy, “The School of Liberty” in Journal of Markets and Morality, vol. 20, Number 2 (Fall 2017), pp. 383-412. [Online elsewhere] and [Online elsewhere].
  6. The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat in six volumes. Jacques de Guenin (deceased), General Editor. Academic Editor, David M. Hart (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2011-2019). Six volumes were planned; three have appeared in print and online; two more "manuscripts" have been submitted the fate of which are unknown at present. [Online elsewhere].
    1. Vol. 1: The Man and the Statesman: The Correspondence and Articles on Politics (2011)
    2. Vol. 2: The Law, The State, and Other Political Writings, 1843-1850 (2012)
    3. Vol. 3: Economic Sophisms and “What is Seen and What is Not Seen” (2017).
    4. Vol. 4: Miscellaneous Economic Writings (draft submitted in 2019).
    5. Vol. 5: Economic Harmonies (draft submitted in 2019).
  7. Translation of Gustave de Molinari's "Eleventh Soirée" from Les Soirées de la Rue Saint-Lazare (1849) in Panarchy: Political Theories of Non-Territorial States, ed. Aviezer Tucker, Gian Piero de Bellis (Routledge, 2016).
  8. “Broken Windows and House owning Dogs: The French Connection and the Popularization of Economics from Bastiat to Jasay,” The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy. Symposium on Anthony de Jasay (Summer 2015), vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 61-84. [Online elsewhere].
  9. L'âge d`or du libéralisme français. Anthologie. XIXe siècle. Robert Leroux et David M. Hart. Préface de Mathieu Laine (Paris: Editions Ellipses, 2014).
  10. Jacques Bonhomme: L’éphémère journal de Frédéric Bastiat et Gustave de Molinari (11 juin – 13 juillet 1848). Recueil de tous les articles, augmenté d’une introduction. Ed. Benoît Malbranque (Paris: Institut Coppet, 2014). With my assistance in supplying the texts. [Online elsewhere].
  11. French Liberalism in the 19th Century: An Anthology. Edited by Robert Leroux and David M. Hart (London: Routledge, 2012).
  12. The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Editor-in-Chief Ronald Hamowy. Assistant Editors Jason Kuznicki and Aaron Steelman. Consulting Editor Deirdre McCloskey. Founding and Consulting Editor Jeffrey D. Schultz. (Los Angeles: Sage, 2008. A Project of the Cato Institute). Entries on Comte, Condorcet, Constant, Dunoyer, The French Revolution, Molinari, Say, Tracy, and Turgot. [Online elsewhere].
  13. “War and Peace in the Arts”, in New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, ed. Maryanne Cline Horowitz (New York: Charles Scribners and Sons, 2004). In 6 Volumes. vol. 6, pp. 2454-60. [Online].

Scholarly Papers (the 12 most recent)

  1. "A Monument to French Political Economy': the Dictionnaire de l'Économie Politique (1852-53). The Contributions of Gilbert-Urbain Guillaumin (1801-1864), Charles Coquelin (1802-1852), and Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912". A Paper given at the annual conference of the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia, the University of Western Australia, Perth, 17-18 July, 2025. [Online]. This paper is accompanied by a translation of all of Molinari's contributions to the DEP (some 30 entries): Gustave de Molinari, The Collected Articles from the Dictionnaire de l'Économie politique (1852-53). Edited and translated into English by David M. Hart (March, 2025). 33 items. See the French version [Online] and my English translation [Online].
  2. A series of 12 short essays and 2 timelines on the history and some of the key ideas of the classical liberal / libertarian tradition which have been submiited to the Cato Institute, Washington, D.C. for inclusion on their website libertariainism.org. On topics such as "Visions of a Liberal Society: 'The Free and Prosperous Commonwealth'", "The Foundational Principles of Classical Liberalism", "Classical Liberalism and the Struggle for Emancipation and Enrichment", "Proto-Liberals: Liberty before 'Liberalism'", classical libealism in "The Seventeenth Century. The English Civil Wars and Revolutions of the 17th century (1640–1688)".
  3. "Grappling with Economic Complexity: The Idea of "Ceteris Paribus" or "Toutes Choses d'ailleurs Égales" in the Thought of J.S. Mill and Frédéric Bastiat". A paper presented at the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia Conference 26-27 September, 2024, at Alphacrucis University College, Parramatta, Sydney NSW. [Online]. A version of this paper was published by the Centre for Independent Studies, Sydney.
  4. "Putting the ‘Political’ back into Adam Smith’s Political Economy: Smith on Power and Privilege, Faction and Fanaticism, and Corruption and Conspiracies". A paper given at the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia conference (20 Sept. 2023) held at the University of Canberra. [Online]
  5. “The Paris School of Liberal Political Economy, 1803-1853”. A Paper given at the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia Annual Conference, Melbourne VIC, 22 Sept. 2022. [Online].
  6. “Bastiat on the Seen and The Unseen: An Intellectual History”. An unpublished paper (27 June, 2022). [Online].
  7. “Bastiat’s Theory of Class: The Plunderers vs. the Plundered”. An unpublished paper (16 July, 2021). [Online].
  8. ”Bastiat on Harmony and Disharmony" (Jan., 2020). A paper given to the American Institute for Economic Research, Great Barrington, Mass. [Online].
  9. “Reassessing Bastiat’s Economic Harmonies" after 170 Years” (Jan. 2020). A paper given to the Political Economy Project, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire [Online].
  10. “Some Thoughts on an ‘Austrian Theory of Film’: Ideas and Human Action in a Film about Frédéric Bastiat”, a paper given at the Libertarian Scholars Conference, The Kings College, NYC (Sept. 2019) [Online]
  11. ”Was Molinari a true Anarcho-Capitalist?: An Intellectual History of the Private and Competitive Production of Security,” a paper at the Libertarian Scholars Conference, NYC (Sept. 2019) [Online].
  12. "Reassessing Bastiat's Economic Harmonies after 160 Years" Liberty Matters (May 2019) [Online elsewhere].

Essays on Art, Economics, and Politics

David is intrested in the intersection of art (both graphical and cinematic) and political economy where the political meaning of the work of art itself and the political context in which it was created are examined. This was explored in several courses taught at the University of Adelaide and at an annual Summer Seminar organised by the Institute for Humane Studies, Washington, D.C., on "Liberty in Film and Fiction" where he lectured for 10 years during the 1990s in the U.S.

He gave a course for 10 years at the University of Adelaide on "Responses to War: An Intellectual and Cultural History of War" in which war art, propaganda, and war films were discussed. There is an extensive collection of study guides and essays on war art and war films on the website. While at the Liberty Fund he also wrote scores of what were called "illustrated essays" based upon the illustrations and images in some of the books which were put online.

These and many others have been collected here:

  • a summary of the material concerning "Images of Liberty and Power" [Online];
  • on "The Art of War and Peace" [Online] and
  • "Art and Politics" [Online].
  • a collection of study guides for 84 war films [Online].

The Austrian school of economics theory of "human action" was applied to analysing and making films in a paper given to the Libertarian Scholars Conference in New York City in September 2019:

  • "Some Thoughts on an ‘Austrian Theory of Film’: Ideas and Human Action in a Film about Frédéric Bastiat". A paper given at the Libertarian Scholars Conference, The Kings College, NYC (Sept. 2019). [Online].
  • see also the earlier piece "Bastiat goes to the Movies, or "Filming Freddie": How to Popularise Economic Ideas in Film". A paper given at the Association of Private Enterprise Education Annual Conference, April 2017 Maui, Hawaii. [Online].

These thoughts came from the experience of writing a screenplay about the life, thought, and activities of the French political economist Frédéric Bastiat during the 1848 revolution in Paris. The screenplay, called "Broken Windows", is accopanied by a long "illustrated essay" on what Paris and the physical environment in which the economists moved looked like in 1848:

  1. "Broken Windows: A Screenplay" (2016) - a screenplay for a film about the life and times of the economist Frédéric Bastiat. [Online].
  2. "Broken Windows: An Illustrated Essay to accompany the Screenplay" (2016). [Online].

David continues to write and lecture on these matters from time to time. There is a list of some recent public talks which have been given on this below. Some newer "illustrated essays" include the following:

  1. "Jacques Callot and Hugo Grotius on Crime and Punishment in a Time of War" (16 March, 2022). [Online].
  2. "The Art of The Anzac Book (1916)" (23 Dec. 2021): an illustrated essay about the art work and illustrations in The Anzac Book. Written and Illustrated in Gallipoli by The Men of Anzac. For the benefit of Patriotic Funds connected with the A. & N.Z.A.C. (1916). [Online].
  3. "War and Violence in the Work of Ronald Searle (1920-2011)" (23 Dec. 2021). [Online].
  4. "The Military Hospital: Jacques Callot and the "Miseries of War" (1633)" (14 Feb. 2021). [Online].
  5. "Thomas Hobbes and the Iconography of the Leviathan State" (Dec. 2020). [Online].
  6. "The Cover Art of Boétie's Discours" (28 November, 2020): a collection of interesting covers of various editions of Étienne de la Boétie's "Speech on Voluntary Servitude" [Online].
  7. "The Art of the Levellers" (25 October, 2020). A discussion of a selection the "cover art" and title pages of Leveller tracts. [Online].

Public Talks and Lectures

David is interested in reaching out to the public to discuss his research and intellectual interests. The following pubic talks have been given over the past three years:

  1. "War and the Art of Propaganda". A talk given to the West Pennant Hills Probis Club, 3 June, 2025. Lecture slides [Online in PDF].
  2. "The Power of Art: The Depiction 0f Power and Legitimacy in Official Portraits of Kings, Presidents, and Prime Ministers". A talk given to a meeting organised by the University of the Third Age (U3A) on 7 May, 2025, in Newport, Sydney. Notes online in [HTML]. Presentation slides in [PDF].
  3. "Donald Trump's Economic Policies: Friend, Foe, or Schmo?" A talk to a meeting of the University of the Third Age, Newport, Sydney (5 Feb. 2025): Lecture overheads [PDF] and Lecture notes and images/graphs [HTML].
  4. "The Bayeux Tapestry : History, Politics, and Propaganda in Art" (6 August, 2024). A talk given to the Probis Club of Avalon, Sydney. Lecture slides in [PDF].
  5. "From Bayeux to Guernica: The Depiction of Power, Destruction, and Suffering in War Art." A talk given to the Probis club of Turramurra on Friday 18 Aug. 2023. [Blogpost] and Lecture slides in [PDF].
  6. “A Classical Liberal approach to understanding ‘Class’ and ‘Class Conflict’ in Australia” (6 July 2023). A talk prepared for the Friedman Conference in Sydney. Lecture online in [HTML] and PDF of [lecture slides].

 

DIGITAL TEXTS, ANTHOLOGIES, AND TRANSLATIONS

The "Guillaumin Collection" of Digital Texts

This project was started in late 2022 with the aim of creating online "near replica" editions of the first edition of a classic and important text or the last revised edition published in the author's lifetime. These books have been richly coded (in "enhanced" HTML) and have some important features such as the original page numbers of the text, a unique paragraph ID number which allows the “citation tool” to grab the ID number and create a “citation” for that paragraph, and an easier to read format for these texts based on the text design ideas of Edward Tufte [Online elsewhere].

The collection is named after the 19th century French publisher Gilbert-Urbain Guillaumin (1801-64) whose family-owned firm published over 2,300 books and dictionaries on economics between 1837 and 1907. See a list of the publications here and a discussion of the firm here.

There are at present 232 books by 114 authors. Of these 144 titles are in English; 63 in French; 21 in German; three in Latin; and one in Italian. The titles are also available in various eBook formats which allows them to be downloaded and read offline or on other devices. [Online]. A substantial group within the collection are works of political economy of which there are now 56. See the list of 54 economics titles in the collection as of May, 2025 here.

Anthologies and Translations

Over the past three years a more concerted effort has been made to organise several collections of texts into anthologies and to make translations (mainly from the French) of classic works in order to make them available to a greater number of readers. These include 13 anthologies (six on the Levellers, two by Molinari, and one each of Adam Smith, Trenchard and Godron ("Cato"), Bastiat, and one of miscellaneous bills of rights and charters) and translations (primarly of works of political economy) of 11 books (seven by Molinari, four by Bastiat) and 36 articles or chapters (one by Pareto (from the Italian) and a collection of 35 articles by Comte and Dunoyer from their journal Le Censeur européen).

These works are listed chronologically by order of creation in this sortable table [Online]. Clicking on the Heading "Kind" will sort the table which is then listed in order of "Paper", "Anthology", and "Translation", and so on. They are listed in more detail below under the various "Projects" which are being worked on at the website.

The Comte and Dunoyer Project

A summary of "The Comte and Dunoyer Project" can be found here

It is part of a broader Project on the "Paris School" of political economy. See this paper from 2022 for details [Online]. This work began with a PhD on the work of Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer (Cambridge 1983-86) and has continued to be explored ever since. [Online].

There is an improved list of their works (98 books and important journal articles) in this sortable table (created in Jan. 2024) with links to their works which are [Online]

Four of their major works have been edited and put online in enhanced HTML :

  1. Charles Dunoyer, L’Industrie et la morale considérées dans leurs rapports avec la liberté (1825). [Online]
  2. Charles Dunoyer, Nouveau traité d’économie sociale, ou simple exposition des causes sous l’influence desquelles les hommes parviennent à user de leurs forces avec le plus de LIBERTÉ, c’est-à-dire avec le plus FACILITÉ et de PUISSANCE (1830). [Online]
  3. Charles Comte, Traité de législation, ou exposition des lois générales suivant lesquelles les peuples prospèrent, dépérissent ou restent stationnaire (1826-27) [Online]
  4. Charles Comte, Traité de la Propriété (1834). [Online].

A large translation project is being worked on with Roderick Long, a philosopher at the University of Alabama, to translate their key writings on "industrialism" which they developed during the 1810s and 1820s. The editor has created an antholoigy of 35 of their articles in French and is halfway through translating them into English:

  1. a table of contents of the anthology of their articles from Le Censeur (1814-15) and Le Censeur européen (1817-1819). [Online]
  2. the anthology in French [Online]

The Bastiat Project

Activities on "The Bastiat Project" are summarised here.

Work on Bastiat continued after the Editor retired from Liberty Fund where he was the Adademic Editor of their translation project of Bastiat's Collected Works (three volumes of a proposed six have appeared).

A new sortable table has been created which lists Bastiat's works (265 books and articles and 208 letters) with links to the material which is online. [Online].

The following items have been converted into enhanced HTML :

  1. five of the seven volumes of the 1862-64 edition of his Oeuvres complètes. See the Table of Contents of the entire collection here
  2. the “Introduction” to his first book Cobden et la ligue, ou l’Agitation anglaise pour la liberté du commerce (1845), pp. i-xcvi. [Online]
  3. the first collection of Sophismes économiques (1846) [Online]
  4. the second collection of Sophismes économiques. Deuxième Série (1848) [Online]
  5. the combined version of SE as "2 vols in 1" [Online]
  6. the pamphlet L’État. Maudit Argent (1849) [Online]
  7. the pamphlet Ce qu’on voit et ce qu’on ne voit pas, ou l’Économie politique en une leçon (1850) [Online]
  8. the pamphlet La Loi (1850) [Online]
  9. the posthumous unfinished magnum opus Harmonies économiques. 2me Édition (1851) [Online]
  10. a posthumous collection of Bastiat's lettres to Madame Cheuvreux Lettres d’un habitant des Landes (1877) [Online]

An anthology (in French) has been edited of his writings (13 items) on class and the state along with a lengthy introduction: An Anthology of Writings by Bastiat on Plunder, Class, and the State [Online].

The followings books and pamphlets by Bastiat have been translated:

  1. the 100 page "Introduction" to his book Cobden et la Ligue (Cobden and the League, or the English Movement for the Liberty of Commerce) (1845). French [Online]; English trans. [Online]
  2. A Comparative Edition of Frédéric Bastiat's essay on "The State" (1848-49) It contains an introduction and editions of the three versions of his essay in both French and English. [Online].
  3. Book: Ce qu’on voit et ce qu’on ne voit pas, ou l’Économie politique en une leçon (What is Seen and What is Not Seen, or Political Economy in One Lesson) (1850). French [Online]; English trans. [Online].
  4. Pamphlet: La Loi (The Law) (1850). French [Online]; English trans. [Online].

The Molinari Project

Activities on "The Molinari Project" are summarised here.

A new sortable table has been created which lists Molinari's works here. There are 44 stand alone books, eight Introductions or Prefaces he wrote for other books, three Journals he edited, 17 Pamphlets which were reprints of journal articles, and 249 Articles he wrote for magazines and journals (primarily the JDE). He also wrote five biographical articles and 25 “principle articles” for the DEP which make a sizeable book in their own right.

The following items have been converted into enhanced HTML:

  1. article: "De la production de la sécurité," in Journal des Economistes, Vol. XXII, no. 95, 15 February, 1849), pp. 277-90. [Online].
  2. book: Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare; entretiens sur les lois économiques et défense de la propriété (1849). [Online].
  3. lecture: Les Révolutions et le despotisme envisagés au point de vue des intérêts matériels (1852) [Online].
  4. book: Cours d’économie politique, 2 vols. 2nd revised and enlarged edition (1863). 2 volumes in 1. [Online],
  5. book: L’évolution économique du XIXe siècle: théorie du progrès (1880) [Online].
  6. book: L’évolution politique et la Révolution (1884) [Online].
  7. book Grandeur et décadence de la guerre (1898) [Online].
  8. book: Esquisse de l'organisation politique et économique de la société future (1899) [Online].
  9. book: Économie de l'histoire: Théorie de l'Évolution (1908) [Online].
  10. book: Notions fondamentales d'économie politique et programme économique (1891) [Online].

Two anthologies (in French) of Molinari's writings have been edited:

  1. Thoughts on the Future of Liberty (1901-1911) (2023) (3 journal articles and a book chapter). In French [Online]
  2. An Anthology of the Articles by Gustave de Molinari in the 'Dictionnaire de l'économie politique' (1852-53) (30 articles) in French [Online]

The followings books and pamphlets by Molinari have been translated:

  1. Book: Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare; entretiens sur les lois économiques et défense de la propriété (Soirées on rue Saint-Lazare: Discussions about Economic Laws and a Defence of Property) (1849). French [Online]; English trans. [Online].
  2. The Collected Articles from the Dictionnaire de l'Économie politique (1852-53) 33 items. French [Online]; English trans. [Online].
  3. Lecture: Les Révolutions et le despotisme envisagés au point de vue des intérêts matériels (Revolutions and Despotism considered from the Perspective of Material Interests) (1852). French [Online]; English trans. [Online].
  4. A translation of the 12th Lesson (chapter) on "Public Consumption" in Cours d'économie politique. Deuxième édition (1863). French [Online]; English trans. [Online].
  5. Book: L’évolution politique et la Révolution (Political Evolution and the Revolution) (1884). French [Online]; English translation [Onlne]
  6. Book: Esquisse de l'organisation politique et économique de la Société future (A Sketch of the Political and Economic Organisation of the Society of the Future) (1899). French [Online]; English trans. [Online]; and the accompanying long Introduction for the Spanish trans. [Online]
  7. Book: Grandeur et décadence de la guerre (The Greatness and Decline of War) (1896). French [Online]; English trans. [Online]
  8. two articles and a book chapter on Thoughts on the Future of Liberty (1901-1911). French [Online]; English trans.[ Online].

The Leveller Project

Activities on "The Leveller Project" are summarised here.

There is a new sortable table which lists 331 works of which 185 are [online].

Six anthologies of their writings have been edited:

  1. An Anthology of Works by John Lilburne (1638-1656) (2025) with 51 items and 1,488 pages. [Online]
  2. An Anthology of Works by Richard Overton (1641-1649) (2024) with 22 items and 466 pages. [Online]
  3. An Anthology of Works by William Walwyn (1600-1681) (2025) with 29 items and 547 pages. [Online]
  4. "The Sparks of Freedom in the Minds of Men": Three Tracts by John Warr (1648-1649) (2025) with 3 items and 73 pages. [Online]
  5. Demanding Liberty: An Anthology of Leveller Agreements of the People, Petitions, Remonstrances, and Declarations (1646-1659) (2025) with 30 items and 330 pages. [Online]
  6. An Anthology of Protests of "The Little People" (1641-1652) with 17 items and 182 pages. [Online].

The Editor has also written an "illustrated essay" on the cover art of the Levellers pamphlets: "The Art of the Levellers" (2020, revised 2025) [Online].

 

The Monarchomach Project

Activities on "The Monarchomach Project" are summarised here.

There are eight titles in this collection to date listed here:

  1. Étienne de la Boétie, Discours de la servitude volontaire (A Speech on Voluntary Servitude) (1553). In [French] and in [English].
  2. John Ponet, A Shorte Treatise of politike power, and of the true Obedience which subjectes owe to kynges and other civile Governours (1556). In [English].
  3. Christopher Goodman, How superior powers oght to be obeyd of their subiects and wherin they may lawfully by Gods Worde be disobeyed and resisted (1558). In [English].
  4. Théodore de Bèze, Du droit des magistrats sur leurs subjets (The Right of Magistrates over their Subjects) (1574, 1578). In [French].
  5. Francis Hotoman, Franco-Gallia: Or, an Account of the Ancient Free State of France (1574). In Latin and in [English].
  6. George Buchanan, De jure regni apud Scotos (On the Rights of the Government over the Scots) (1574). In [Latin] and in [English].
  7. Junius Brutus (Hubert Languet), Vindiciæ contra tyrannos: a defence of liberty against tyrants (1579). In Latin and in [English].
  8. Juan de Mariana, De Rege et Regis Institutione (On the King and the Education of the King) (1599). In [Latin].

Other Texts

In 2024 a sufficient number of texts were added to the collection to consitute a "school of thought", namely "The Austrian School of Economics" [Online]. There are 22 titles by four authors:

  1. Carl Menger (1841-1921)
  2. Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1914)
  3. Friedrich von Wieser (1851-1926)
  4. Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973)