Conceived in Liberty Volume 2 - Ludwig von Mises Institute

33
The Growth of Libertarian Thought
We have touched several times, especially in dealing with religious doctrines
and institutions, upon the growth of libertarian views in eighteenthcentury
America. This extremely significant development was not a fullblown
giant suddenly burst upon the European and American scenes. J. H.
Hexter, in his brilliant Reappraisals in History, warns us of the dangerous
temptation toward a linear view of history—a view adopted in different
ways by "Whig" and Marxist alike. The linear view assumes a steady march
from past to present; Hexter cites the concept of the "rising middle classes."
Historians, he points out, noted that the English middle classes were dominant
in the nineteenth century, and virtually nonexistent in the Middle
Ages. Hence the linear assumption of a steady march upward by the middle
classes century by century, a picture which Hexter indicates is far from the
truth. But the important point here is that history often moves not in a
smoothly linear trend but in varying patterns of rises and falls of trends
shattered by contrary trends.
The growth of libertarian thought in eighteenth-century America was,
to be sure, heavily influenced by a preceding growth in England, the main
source of cultural influence on its colonies. But the pattern was not so simple.
For it must be remembered that parts of America itself had experienced
entirely libertarian institutions in the seventeenth century: for example,
Rhode Island, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. To a large extent, this
libertarianism had been unarticulated. In short, the abundance of fertile virgin
land in a vast territory enabled individualism to come to full flower in
many areas. But only in such cases—important to be sure—as those of Roger
Williams and Anne Hutchinson did practicing libertarianism receive the-
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