Crisis and Leviathan

Dr. Robert Higgs

Senior Fellow in Political Economy, Independent Institute, and Editor at Large of The Independent Review.

Dr. Higgs discusses how government has continually grown in size and scope during the past century and claims that the main reason lies in government's responses to national “crises” (real or imagined), including economic upheavals and, especially, war. The result, he argues, is the ever-increasing government power, which endures long after each crisis has passed, impinges on both civil and economic liberties and fosters extensive corporate welfare.

Dr. Higgs is the author of Delusions of Power, Depression, War, and Cold War, Neither Liberty Nor Safety, Politická ekonomie strachu (The Political Economy of Fear, in Czech), Resurgence of the Warfare State, Against Leviathan, The Transformation of the American Economy 1865-1914, Competition and Coercion: Blacks in the American Economy, 1865-1914, and Crisis and Leviathan. A contributor to numerous scholarly volumes, he is the author of more than 100 articles and reviews in academic journals.

His popular articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Providence Journal, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, Society, Reason, AlterNet, and many other publications and Web sites, and he has appeared on Fox News, NPR, NBC, ABC, C-SPAN, CBN, CNBC, America's Talking Television, Radio America Network, Radio Free Europe, Talk Radio Network, Voice of America, Newstalk TV, the Organization of American Historians' public radio program, and scores of local radio and television stations. He has also been interviewed for articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Terra Libera, Investor's Business Daily, UPI, Orlando Sentinel, Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune, National Journal, Reason, Washington Times, WorldNetDaily, Folha de Sao Paulo, Newsmax, Financial Times, Al-Ahram Weekly, Creators Syndicate, and elsewhere.

Dr. Higgs has spoken at more than 100 colleges and universities and at the meetings of such professional organizations as the Economic History Association, Western Economic Association, Population Association of America, Southern Economic Association, International Economic History Congress, Public Choice Society, International Studies Association, Cliometric Society, Allied Social Sciences Association, American Political Science Association, American Historical Association, and others.

He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Premio Juan de Mariana, Alexis de Tocqueville Award, Gary Schlarbaum Award for Lifetime Defense of Liberty, Thomas Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties, Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty, Friedrich von Wieser Memorial Prize for Excellence in Economic Education, and Templeton Honor Rolls Award on Education in a Free Society.

Dr. Higgs received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University. He has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, and the University of Economics, Prague. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Higgs' lecture was held in the Grand Auditorium of the Rawls College of Business, Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, TX, on April 30, 2015.

This event was co-sponsored by the Free Market Institute.