So far, Menger has gently revised Classical Economics. Once subjective and marginal utility enter the equation, though: a revolution is underway.

In a poetry-centric set of “Chimes,” our contributors implore their fellows: wake up already to the horrors of life under slavery.

Before Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there was the early libertarian Frances Whipple and her story of “The Slave Wife”. 

In the Americas, two centuries after Locke, his system found its most devoted allies and it’s most deadly opponents.

Locke explores the nature of sovereignty as part of his attack on Filmer.

Locke’s real purpose in overturning Filmer is erecting an unassailable new political order not subject to rebellions and revolution from below.

We find two broad methods affecting the end of slavery: 1) absolute self-reliant independence by abolitionists, and 2) challenging the slave to rebel.

Whipple’s Liberty Chimers were a radical bunch, for sure—and she used that flame to ignite a deep and lasting opposition to the Slave Power.

Rhode Island’s “Dorr War” opened sharp wounds in the antislavery community. Whipple wanted to heal her community, and attack the real enemy.

As a peace offering for the two sides of Rhode Island’s bitter antislavery divide, Frances Whipple offers this ringing call for abolitionist union.

Menger concludes his second chapter with two key observations about higher order goods and a solution to a supposed paradox.

How could humanity be fruitful and multiply if they are all slaves to their fathers?

It’s an idea that just won’t stay dead.

Menger’s second chapter invokes knowledge and society to connect causal chains of productivity from the individual to larger economic processes.

At base, economics is an historical discipline—it is the study of how productivity and material resources, combined over time, satisfy human needs.