Excuse Me Professor: Challenging the Myths of Progressivism

Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 8 years, 3 months ago to Books
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Excuse Me Professor: Challenging the Myths of Progressivism
Book Review, 8-30-16
Edited by Lawrence W. Reed, President of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
Current Events/Economics, 277 pages, excluding credits and index.
ISBN: 978-1-62157-465-1

This may be the best quick reference book for those that wish to have factual, intellectual arguments that debunk progressive sophistry at their fingertips. Fifty-two short, succinct, powerful essays are gathered together in one volume ready for your convenience, that refute the most pernicious and prevalent positions of the progressives.

There are essays from twenty-one authors. The editor Lawrence W. Reed, as well as Donald J. Boudreaux, Burton W. Folsom, Henry Hazlitt, and Walter Williams are among the notable contributors. Also, there are many excellent quotes from many other brilliant economists and political thinkers such as Thomas Sowell, Thomas Jefferson, Friedrich A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Thomas DiLorenzo.

The essays within these pages clearly make the case that there is nothing “progressive” about progressivism. The arguments made by progressives are the same old tired, failed nonsense that has been proposed many times before, only to fail and leave the people foolish enough to adopt their policies worse off than before. Each essay has something to offer with common sense, and practical, historic examples that easily debunk their flawed ideology.
The final chapter, “Progressives Have Good Intentions, So What Else Is Required?” summarizes nicely and highlights their basic fallacies and dubious claims. Of all the arguments made, among the essays, there were only a few sentences in essay #46, authored by Wendy R. McElroy that were somewhat dismissive of the utility of patents that I could not support. The rest of the book was quite excellent and easily read by anyone, regardless of their erudition, or lack thereof, in the field of economics.

I recommend adding this book to the collection of every defender of freedom and free markets.

Happy reading,
O.A.


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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 3 months ago
    Ditto and recommended I have had my copy for about half a year or so. Anytime i need a subject explained from the opposite view and the way to handle it ...spot on!
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    • Posted by 8 years, 3 months ago
      Hello MichaelAarethun,
      I believe every parent sending their progeny off to college should provide a copy to them beforehand. For that matter, perhaps they should be provided one as soon as they can read it and before they partake in our public education system any further.
      Respectfully,
      O.A.
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