In the autumn of 1818 the parish of Dedham, Massachusetts, chose a new minister. The parish was every taxpayer in town, and the taxpayers wanted Alvan Lamson, a young Harvard man of the liberal, Unitarian kind. The church was the […]
America's founding answer to state power was a list of things the state may not do: it may not establish a religion, may not abridge speech, may not […]
Ask someone why the state runs the schools and the answer arrives instantly, before the question has even finished: of course it does, who else would? That instant, unreflective quality is itself worth noticing. Almost nothing else this large — […]
Ask most people why government issues the currency and you'll get a shrug — of course it does, who else would? The monopoly feels less like a policy choice than a fact of nature, the same way a national anthem […]