Everything Voluntary


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Back Cover Endorsements: “A wonderful selection of first-rate essays on one of the most important principles of civilized life—cooperating with people instead of controlling, taxing, dragooning, bullying or bombing them. Bravo, Skyler Collins!” – Lawrence W. Reed, author of Striking The Root, and president of the Foundation for Economic Education.

“This collection is especially valuable because it comes from the mind of someone who became convinced of the case for liberty — and so we have here some of the most intellectually compelling literature of the modern libertarian world. The application to family life presents a serious challenge even to those who embrace political and economic liberty, but puzzle about how to apply these principles in their own life. In this, there is a collection about high thought and real action, and that’s a beautiful combination.” – Jeffrey Tucker, author of It’s a Jetson’s World and Bourbon for Breakfast, executive editor of Laissez Faire Books, and former editorial vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

“This book contains a very useful, well-organized, and carefully selected set of essays centered around the idea of human liberty, what Hazlitt called ‘cooperatism’ [Foundations of Morality, p. xii] and what the editor calls ‘voluntaryism.’ In addition to covering the basics of politics and economics, the book contains a large number of essays devoted to education and parenting. This decision makes perfect sense, when we realize that our children and the ideas they are exposed to are the greatest hope for liberty in generations to come. I highly recommend this excellent volume, for beginners, activists, and seasoned libertarians.” – Stephan Kinsella, author of Against Intellectual Property, and director of The Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom.

Everything Voluntary: From Politics to Parenting
Edited by Skyler J. Collins, Foreword by Chris R. Brown, PhD.
6″ x 9″, 286 pages

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HTML version below.
Reviews: Doug French, Alex Knight, Goodreads

Foreword, Chris R. Brown, PhD, p.xi
Preface, p.xiii
Introduction, p.17

Section One – Politics
1 – Persuasion versus Force, Mark Skousen & Jo Ann Skousen, p.25
2 – Coercivists and Voluntarists, Donald J. Boudreaux, p.35
3 – Fundamentals of Voluntaryism, Carl Watner, p.39
4 – The Anatomy of the State, Murray N. Rothbard, p.44
5 – Thoughts on Nonviolence, Karl Meyer, p.67
6 – Charity in the Land of Individualism, John D. Fargo, p.70
Voluntaryist Resources, p.74

Section Two – Religion
7 – The Origin of Religious Tolerance, Wendy McElroy, p.81
8 – The Historical Origins of Voluntaryism, James Luther Adams, p.87
9 – For Conscience’s Sake, Carl Watner, p.90
10 – Secular Theocracy, David J. Theroux, p.103

Section Three – Economy
11 – I, Pencil, Leonard E. Read, p.115
12 – What is The Free Market?, Murray N. Rothbard, p.122
13 – Planning vs. The Free Market, Henry Hazlitt, p.128
14 – Historical Capitalism vs. The Free Market, Richard Ebeling, p.139
15 – Why Socialism Must Fail, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, p.144
16 – Agorist Living, Nicholas Hooton, p.150
Free Market Resources, p.156

Section Four – Education
17 – The Trouble with Traditional Schooling, Vahram G. Diehl, p.163
18 – Schooling: The Hidden Agenda, Daniel Quinn, p.167
19 – The Right to Control One’s Learning, John Holt, p.179
20 – What is Unschooling?, Earl Stevens, p.185
21 – Whose Goal is it Anyway?, Pam Laricchia, p.191
22 – Unexpected Benefits of Unschooling, Sandra Dodd, p.199
23 – Grown Without Schooling, Jason Hunt, p.208
Unschooling Resources, p.212

Section Five – Parenting
24 – Natural Born Bullies, Robin Grille, p.219
25 – Childhood: The Unexplored Source of Knowledge, Alice Miller, p.225
26 – Why Do We Hurt Our Children?, James Kimmel, p.237
27 – On Seeing Children as “Cute”, John Holt, p.252
28 – 10 Ways We Misunderstand Children, Jan Hunt, p.259
29 – Raising Children Compassionately, Marshall B. Rosenberg, p.262
30 – Born to Explore, Missy Willis, p.272
Parenting Resources, p.276

Afterword, p.281
Topical Guide, p.284
About the Editor, p.285

More endorsements:

“This is a MAGNIFICENT book. You don’t have to look much beyond the list of contributors to realize that Skyler Collins has put together an all star cast of libertarians. I didn’t have to read most of this book in order to give it my very strong recommendation. Why not? Because I had already long ago enjoyed many of the all time classics of libertarianism and economic good sense contained within its covers. Buy one book for yourself as a reference to our philosophy, and another dozen for twelve of the people you most want to convert to the freedom philosophy.” – Walter Block, professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans, and author of Defending the Undefendable, and several other books and essays on liberty and economics.

“There is no more appealing social vision than that of a world organized on the basis of peaceful, voluntary cooperation. In Everything Voluntary, Skyler Collins has collected essays by a variety of thinkers—including well-known libertarian theorists and others who deserve wider recognition—committed to enlarging our understanding of the nature of such a society and the paths we might take to reach it. The essays here are especially noteworthy because of the breadth of their focus: discussions of religion and child-rearing rarely figure in libertarian conversations—though they should do so much more often—but Collins has ensured that those interested in thinking about these topics will have lots of food for thought. Everything Vountary is well worth the time of anyone who cares about realizing the ideal of peaceful, voluntary cooperation.” – Gary Chartier, author of The Conscience of an Anarchist, co-editor of Markets Not Capitalismand Associate Dean at La Sierra University.

“The ideals that each person pursues in their life, such as prosperity, liberty, health, morality, and wisdom, can only properly be achieved through peaceful means. Any amount of unjust coercion to achieve these goals tarnishes whatever brilliance they might have otherwise had. Frédéric Bastiat once observed that the state is the great fiction by which we each try to live at one anothers’ expense. Our ideal, then, should be its opposite: the individual pursuit of excellence only through peaceful means, and its promotion only through persuasion. Skyler Collins’ new book compiles a variety of helpful and thought-provoking essays to help the reader ponder how to remove coercion from their lives and live peacefully. Anybody will benefit from considering its content, but more importantly society as a whole will benefit from its concepts being implemented and encouraged.” – Connor Boyack, author of Latter-day Liberty, a Gospel Approach to Government and Politics, and chapter coordinator of the Utah Tenth Amendment Center.

“I loved the range and scope of this freedom anthology that Skyler Collins has created. For those who wonder about where voluntaryism begins and ends, this book shows that it encompasses practically everything – hence the title. The various articles within shed lots of light on many key topics, including the roots of coercion found in education and parenting. As noted, it’s here that the seeds of a peaceful and prosperous stateless society will be sown. The reader will encounter many libertarian classics as well as many articles that aren’t so well-known, but are nonetheless tremendously insightful. Some of the writers don’t explicitly advocate a stateless society and reveal faulty premises at times, but one will find much common ground in their overall promotion of human freedom. Ultimately, this book explains why all our lives are immensely enriched by applying voluntaryist principles.” – Wes Bertrand, author of The Psychology of Liberty and the CompleteLiberty.com podcast.

“Skyler Collins has assembled a great panoply of voluntaryist literature for the curious reader. From the basics of ethics to the details of parenting, these collected essays have the potential to change your entire perspective on life itself — for the better!” – Norman Horn, PhD in chemical engineering, founder and chief editor of LibertarianChristians.com, and blogger at The Libertarian Standard.