Read the highlighted chapters online.
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1. Free trade makes everyone more prosperous Frédéric Bastiat
Petition of the Candlestick Makers
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2. Prices transmit the minimum information needed for the efficient use of economic resources
Leonard E. Read
I, Pencil
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3. Economic decisions are best made by the man on the spot
F.A. Hayek
The Use of Knowledge in Society
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4. Capitalism made the customer king Ludwig von Mises
Liberty & Property
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5. Honour the entrepreneur and grow rich Deirdre McCloskey
Liberty and Dignity Explain the Modern World
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6. The inhibiting ideologies
Matt Ridley
A Century of Marxism-Leninism
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7. Tolerance in a pluralist society Martin Luther King
I Have a Dream
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8. Cancel culture is for cowards
Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt
The Coddling of the American Mind
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9. Social media engenders bigotry
Meg Wheatley
So Far from Home
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10. Seeking the truth
Peter Murphy
Kavanaugh's Trial by Ordeal
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Conclusion: Striving to build a better society
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I. One hundred years of growth worldwide
II. Recommended Reading
III. References
The Fortunate is an anthology of essays on the ideas that created the free and affluent society that we now enjoy – information that everyone needs to know. It is a book to give to your children and your grandchildren.
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Here, you will find Frédéric Bastiat wittily demolishing protectionism; Leonard E. Read describing the miracle of the price mechanism; F.A. Hayek analysing sound economic decision-making; Ludwig von Mises explaining how life changes when ‘the customer becomes king’; Martin Luther King Jr dreaming of a United States in which its founding principles will apply equally regardless of race; Jonathan Haidt, Meg Wheatley and Peter Murphy warning us about disturbing trends in our society; Matt Ridley reviewing 100 years of communism; and Deirdre McCloskey explaining how the Great Enrichment came about due to a change in rhetoric about liberty and human dignity.
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The philosophers of the Enlightenment told us that liberty works and that prosperity flows from it. Two hundred years of history has shown us that this is true - that it works in practice. Moreover, it applies, not just in the Anglosphere or in the developed world. The concepts are valid universally.
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Societies which have embraced liberal democratic principles – individual rights, private property, the rule of law, and representative government – have thrived. Now everyone can live happy, prosperous and meaningful lives if they and their leaders choose to build their societies on these principles.
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We should be proud of our heritage, confident in our achievements, and prepared to fight against forces that might unwittingly seek to destroy our way of life.
We are the fortunate.
Let’s enjoy it. Let's care for it. Let's share it.
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The Fortunate
The Fragility of Freedom
"Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again."
Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address, January 5, 1967.
We live in one of the freest and most prosperous societies in the history of mankind. Do you ever wonder why we are so lucky?
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Rerencing the work of over fifty great political philosophers and economists, The Fragility of Freedom explores the theory that underpins our systems of liberty, prosperity and justice. It examines how progress has been constrained by the errors of the dominant political ideologies of the twentieth century; how opportunities have been squandered.
It proposes a moral society, based on the principle of subsidiarity, in which individuals take responsibility for themselves and their families, where voluntary organisations thrive, and the State plays a limited role.
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For a free pdf copy of the Prologue to The Fragility of Freedom, download here.
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$29.95
For your personally signed copy
Free Delivery Worldwide
Pay with Paypal or with your credit card
Liberty at Risk
Liberty at Risk tackles today's political problems,
and challenges conventional thinking
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Our wonderful, free and prosperous society is being threatened by ideologies, from within and without, that compromise the reasons for its success. If we wish to convince others that our ideology is superior, then firstly we must understand its concepts and its roots, and secondly we must live its truth.
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Buy e-Book here.
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Testimonials
“Peter Fenwick challenges our perception of society’s status quo. He does not espouse a new age philosophy, but uses the philosophies of the 18th and 19th century libertarians whose thinking influenced our democracies in their infancy.
He questions the distortions of their ideals that are now causing rifts and failures in our modern day world. While our current politicians, bureaucrats and business leaders maybe beyond change, these essays provide food for thought to stimulate the next generation to change our world for a better future.
Topics such as the role and responsibilities of government, the distortion of crony capitalism, the rights of lobby groups to peddle self-interest, tolerance, entrepreneurs, caliphates, the role of the family, accepting responsibility……the list goes on. But in itself it provides a curriculum for any University, year 11 or year 12 current affairs or philosophy program that all of us would love to join.”
Dr Hugh Seward
CEO, AFL Medical Officers Association
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Monash University
Chairman of the Council of Geelong College
Geelong, Victoria
“Fenwick explores how the principles of libertarianism have been undermined by the rise of the welfare state and the increasingly interventionist governments of Western democracies. He writes of crony capitalism; the decline in civil virtues; how governments repeatedly attempt to solve social issues by regulation; and the rise of jihadist Islamism.
If you like food for thought, then this book is a feast! But it's not burgers and fries; rather it's a collection of small, appetising and healthy entrees that will whet your appetite for the main course - Peter Fenwick's book The Fragility of Freedom - Why Subsidiarity Matters.”
Graham Haines
Principal Consultant, Plans to Reality
Melbourne, Victoria
"Never has a book been more timely and welcomed than Liberty at Risk: Tackling Today’s Political Problems. Australian Peter Fenwick addresses some of the most important and vexing problems of today in 23 short chapters. The answers rest on the foundations of Classical Liberalism and Austrian free market economics and the reader will be reminded of work of the great Henry Hazlitt. An excellent introduction for the uninitiated."
Dr. Mark Thornton
Senior Fellow, Ludwig von Mises Institute
Book Review Editor, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics
Auburn, Alabama
“Peter Fenwick writes what so many of us think - he poses commonsense responses to even the most complex economic and political issues. In essence, a free market, and the freedom of individuals to act responsibly on their own behalf, should result in a better outcome for all.
Sadly, ego, pride and greed come into play, and these forces cannot operate as they should. If only politicians and big business could/would read Peter's work, examine history and learn from it, then inevitably our world would be a better place.
We probably recognize that the moral goals of the welfare state are not all wrong. It is the questions of what constitute our inalienable rights, and the methods used to ensure those rights, which distinguish libertarianism from socialist democracy.
What needs to be determined is to what extent the goals of the welfare state in terms of ensuring shelter, basic income, education, health (etc.) should constitute essential rights of the individual. And further, having been so determined - they should be guaranteed as a universal right to all, not selectively and inefficiently delivered by a bloated bureaucracy.
At least, if each of us reads Peter’s work, and seriously take responsibility for ourselves and our families, and deliberates the notion of balance and fairness, then the notion of changing the world one person (our self) at a time, may make it that better place for all of us.”
Susan M. Renouf
Executive Director, Renouf & Associates
Brighton, Victoria
“Launched at a time when disenchantment with our current politicians and our current democratic process has plumbed new depths, Fenwick’s analyses of the assaults upon our freedoms and quality of life resulting from ‘crony capitalism’ and the failure to achieve a genuinely free market are particularly timely.
As we brace ourselves for what promises to be a torturous election process, where the sole vision for our society appears to be the re-election of existing politicians, it is perhaps increasingly important to reflect on the kind of community we really want.
This volume will be a timely and valuable aid to such reflection.”
Lindsay Moore
Director, Parsifal Research Pty Ltd
Camberwell, Victoria
I love it – Liberty at Risk illustrates so many important principles of libertarianism with reference to current affairs and basic good common sense too. It is exactly the sort of book that will reach out to people who unbeknown to themselves are instinctively libertarians - people who understand that the good life comes from the lived experience not subservience to government.
I was particularly taken by the line, "If we wish to convince others that our ideology is superior, then firstly we must understand its concepts and its roots, and secondly we must live its truth". Magnificent. This book will go a long way to helping us understand liberal roots and concepts.
Professor Sinclair Davidson
RMIT University
Melbourne, Victoria
The Fragility of Freedom Book Launch
On the 1st December 2014, one hundred and seventy friends gathered at The Wheeler Centre to hear the Hon. Jim Carlton AO launch my first book, The Fragility of Freedom: Why Subsidiarity Matters.
Jim Carlton’s career included being a management consultant with McKinsey, the Minister for Health in the Fraser government and the Secretary General of the Australian Red Cross. With John Hyde and Peter Stack he formed the Crossroads Group which promoted the free market cause within the parliamentary Liberal party. He was awarded an Order of Australia in 2001.
Introducing him, Lindsay Moore said, “Given his background, there would be few better equipped to form a view on The Fragility of Freedom and none more appropriate to launch this important book.”
Here is an edited video of the launch, produced by the talented Chris ‘Topher’ Field.