With extraordinary knowledge of intellectual history and political history, Lord Acton (1834-1902) wrote insightful, inspiring essays about the history of liberty. Standouts include "Nationality" (1862), "The History of Freedom in Antiquity" (1877) and "The History of Freedom in Christianity" (1877). He championed the view that moral standards must be applied to rulers at least as much as, if not more than, they are applied to everybody else. His most famous line occurred in an 1887 letter, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Acton referred to liberty as "the palm, and the prize, and the crown" and, speaking to historians, he said "I exhort you never to debase the moral currency or to lower the standard of rectitude, but to try others by the final maxim that governs your own lives, and to suffer no man and no cause to escape the undying penalty which history has the power to inflict on wrong." His essays are aglitter with gems like these.

Born in Naples with an English father and Bavarian mother, he embraced a cosmopolitan view of the world. He spoke German with his wife, Italian with his mother-in-law, French with his sister-in-law, English with his children and perhaps another European language with a visitor. He pored through Europe's greatest historical archives, and his three personal libraries exceeded 60,000 books and manuscripts. One can learn a great deal and gain much pleasure from his work.

(Reprinted with permission from Laissez Faire Books)

Quotable

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."-Lord Acton

Books & Tapes

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