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Book Review: The Mainspring of Human Progress by Henry Grady Weaver By William H. Peterson “There can be no progress except through the more effective use of our individual energies.” The emblazonment of this quotation on the front cover of the new edition of Henry Grady Weaver’s classic is timely. For the thought gets to the heart of the Austrian concept of methodological individualism, a counterpoint to the Keynesian macroeconomic approach that requires national planners in Washington to manage our economy. That approach ignores the role of creative, risk-taking individuals who are the mainspring of human progress. They are the subject of this welcome book. Henry Grady Weaver hailed the concept of natural law and extolled the Founders’ political structure because it “unleashed the creative energies of millions of men and women by leaving them free to work out their own affairs—not under the lash of coercive authority, but through voluntary cooperation and moral responsibility.” Weaver did his homework well in this historical examination of the ideas and people who built the American dream. This edition, with a two-page preface by FEE founder Leonard E. Read, features a new and most perceptive ten-page introduction by John Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation and author of The Heroic Enterprise. Hood notes the ongoing assault on the American business system, from the American historians’ putdown of “robber barons” such as J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, to more contemporary putdowns of such supposedly representative entrepreneur-villains as TV’s J.R. Ewing and Hollywood’s Gordon Gekko. Hood applauds Weaver for setting the record of the American business system straight. That record would not have been possible, Weaver argues, without the basic legal framework of private-property rights and tightly constrained government. Nor would it have been possible without a moral framework of respect for the rights of others. Freedom cannot be separated from personal accountability. The Ten Commandments and the biblical injunctions against covetousness, and to “love thy neighbor as thyself” go far to explain the triumph of laissez-faire capitalism. As Weaver wrote: “Your natural freedom—your control over your own life-energy—was born in you along with life itself. It is a part of life itself. No one can give it to you, nor can you give it to someone else. Nor can you hold any other person responsible for your acts. Control simply can’t be separated from responsibility; control is responsibility.” There is a whiff of Hayek’s spontaneous order idea here. Weaver came out strongly for “unplanned planning” as the secret of American economic success. Free men and women have the opportunity to live their lives, plan their own activity, work with one another, pursue their own happiness—all without any overriding forced authority of government. Unplanned planning worked. But Weaver is writing about much more than just the United States. What makes this book so powerful is its historical sweep. Progress occurs whenever you have the ingredients previously mentioned. One of his most remarkable chapters is on the success of the Saracens, whose moral code and minimal government produced a prosperous and peaceful civilization while Europe suffered through the Dark Ages. Freedom has always and everywhere been the mainspring of human progress.

2022-10-26 05:33