Mill, Liberty and the Facts of Life

This paper examines John Stuart Mill's discussion of economic liberty and individual liberty, and his view of the relationship between the two. It explores how, and how effectively, Mill developed his arguments about the two liberties; reveals the lineages of thought from which they derived; and considers how his arguments were altered by political economists not long after his death. It is argued that the distinction Mill drew between the two liberties provided him with a framework of concepts which legitimized significant government intervention in economic matters without restricting individual liberty.     

Book Reviews

Drugs, women and justice: Roles of the criminal justice system for drug‐affected women Edited by James A. Swartz, Patricia O'Brien and Arthur J. Lurigio New York: Haworth Press Inc., 2006, p. 151. Hardback, ISBN 978‐0‐7890‐3624‐7     

War and the West

The outline of human history over the last two thousand years is framed by armed conflict. Many would like to overlook this simple historical reality, and the perilous consequences of ignoring military affairs. The advantage the West now enjoys is the product of several developments in political and social domains culminating in what can be called a Military Revolution. The creation of powerful states as the overarching social organization is an example of one such revolution, which supported a series of smaller innovations and changes in the way the West fought its wars. These smaller changes are “revolutions in military affairs.” These revolutions do not have to be tied to technology. Britain generated an advantage over France by creating a financial system which substantially altered its ability to sustain the conduct of war in the eighteenth century. History reveals the degree of political, social, economic and technological adaptation needed to maximize security and minimize the consequences of failure. The study of history is necessary to insure that we do not have to fight wars more often, or at far higher cost in human terms.     

Margaret Mead and Paradigm Shifts Within Anthropology During the 1920s

The debate between Derek Freeman and the silenced ghost of Margaret Mead remains unintelligible to many readers because of the absence of historicist context for the early work of Mead. Despite Freeman's apparent attention to historical documents, he makes virtually no effort to situate Mead within Boasian anthropology or the interwar years more generally. This paper provides such contexts in terms of the Boasian paradigm of the time and how Mead was understood by her contemporaries. This context dispels the black and white indictment of a disciplinary heroine with feet of clay, and provides the baseline for a more balanced assessment.