The Manual of Below-Grade Waterproofing Systems

Book Description

As the arsenal of weapons against leakage has grown, so has confusion among architects and engineers attempting to select the best below-grade waterproofing systems and materials. Manufacturers literature offers little assistance during the selection process, as well as being biased in favor of a particular product. The first guide devoted exclusively to the subject, The Manual of Below-Grade Waterproofing Systems picks up where manufacturers manuals leave off.

Written by an architect with more than twenty years of experience designing habitable underground spaces, it provides frank, unbiased appraisals of various waterproofing materials and systems. This manual presents architects and engineers with expert guidance on selecting, designing with, and specifying waterproofing materials and systems. Justin Henshell walks you step by step through the entire waterproofing process-from determining waterproofing needs to selecting and specifying waterproofing systems to preparing detailed drawings for construction documents. And throughout, he offers architectural details which illustrate general design principles, as well as high-quality photographs of waterproofing failures that help you to more clearly comprehend common design errors and problems associated with various waterproofing materials.

The Manual of Below-Grade Waterproofing Systems is an indispensable working resource for architects, civil engineers, contractors, specifiers, materials manufacturers, landscape architects, and all other professionals involved with the design and construction of habitable underground spaces.

Customer Reviews:

Below Grade Waterproofing.......2003-03-04

A good book and very good in depth knowledge of proper installation of systems. How ever a previous review mentioned a non bias approach....I beg to differ...it looks to me that Mr. Henshell is very pro and friendly with certain manufacturers.

Below Grade Waterproofing.......2003-03-04

It's About Time!.......2000-07-29

With the oldest known waterproofing going back 4,000 years you'd think someone would have recorded the wisedom of the ages on how to keep water out of the building. Finally someone has! Justin's book is the best that is available. This book should be on the shelf of anyone that is in any way involved with waterproofing. This could be the text for a comprehensive college course if any professor were ever so inclined.

Thank you Justin.

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Draw and Sketch Animals: Sketch With Confidence in 6 Steps or Less (Draw and Sketch)
David Boys
Manufacturer: North Light Books
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ASIN: 1581803117

Book Description

This exciting title in the "Draw and Sketch" series shows readers how to render any animal they see with skill and accuracy. David Boys starts by providing an overview of basic equipment, guidelines for getting into the right frame of mind to draw, and hints for finding the right subject matter.

Next, readers will learn how to see any animal as a whole shape, rather than as a collection of individual details. Boys also provides instructions for getting proportions right.

Anatomy, fur, feathers and other details follow, along with more complex issues, such as light, shade, backgrounds, reflections and color. Specific exercises will help readers learn these various skills as they draw big cats, camels, pelicans, monkeys, penguins, elephants, deer and more.

David Boys has a Master's degree from the Royal College of Art, London. He has been an artist and illustrator for the London Zoo since 1985 and a lecturer at the Royal College of Art since 1989. He has exhibited his work at a number of prestigious institutions including the Natural History Museum and the Society of Wildlife Artists. He lives in Kent, England.

Amazon.com

Marc Riboud's images are a window on a world in transition as China reinvents itself with dizzying speed--his is as revealing a window as we are likely to find. The contrast between China old and new, as interpreted by Riboud, is an often startling one that cannot help but inform and intrigue. He specializes in the juxtaposition of images, perhaps none are more jarring than his photograph of a poor man lugging a sack of belongings down a trash-littered back street while a pair of chubby-cheeked babies glance over his shoulder in a nearby poster and a porno actress bares her chest in an ad overhead. Riboud's home is France, his territory is the world from Vietnam to Iran, but his heart and soul are apparently in the China he has covered from the days of Mao's revolution through the erosion of Communism to the country's modern economic upheaval.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating and memorable.......2003-10-26

My wife (who is Chinese) and I have spent hours with this book
and find it endlessly fascinating. The quality of the photographs
and printing is excellent. It is like a window into a lost and
changing world.

There is considerable overlap with Riboud's earlier collection
of photographs from China. If you only buy one of these,
I recommend this one. The photographs are better and the
printing quality is much higher.

Old & New China in one book.......2000-06-25

This is a welly printed photographic book on China by photographer Marc Ribond. The page layout is neat especially with old and new images printed on facing pages. This is not just a great photographic book but also a record of new China history.

THE THREE BANNERS OF CHINA : the peoples communes,the great leap forward, and the new general party line.

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THE THREE BANNERS OF CHINA : the peoples communes,the great leap forward, and the new general party line.
Marc Riboud
Manufacturer: MacMillan Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CNJQK

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The three banners of China
Marc Riboud
Manufacturer: MacMillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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Capital of Heaven
Marc Riboud
Manufacturer: Doubleday
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Marc Riboud
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In China: Forty Years of Photography.
Marc RIBOUD
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
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THE THREE BANNERS OF CHINA.
Marc. Riboud
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Marc Riboud
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Visions of China: Photographs, 1957-1980

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Disappointing

Visions of China: Photographs, 1957-1980
Marc Riboud
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing.......2003-10-26

As a fan of Riboud's work, I found this volume somewhat disappointing. "Marc Riboud in China" contains most of the good photographs from this volume. In addition, the printing is much, much better.

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China: The Other Communism
K.S. Karol; Photographer Marc Riboud; Translator Tom Baistow
Manufacturer: HILL AND WANG
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Book Description

The second edition of the popular RFF Reader brings together much of the best work published by researchers at Resources for the Future.

Many articles in the Reader were originally published in RFF's quarterly magazine, Resources. Wally Oates has supplemented that with material drawn from other RFF works, including issue briefs and special reports. The readings provide concise, insightful background and perspectives on a broad range of environmental issues including benefit-cost analysis, environmental regulation, hazardous and toxic waste, environmental equity, and the environmental challenges in developing nations and transitional economies. Natural-resource topics include resource management, biodiversity, and sustainable agriculture. The articles address many of today's most difficult public policy questions, such as environmental policy and economic growth, and "When is a Life Too Costly to Save?" New to the second edition is an expanded set of readings on global climate change and sustainability, plus cutting-edge policy applications on topics like the environment and public health and the growing problem of antibiotic and pesticide resistance.

For general readers, the RFF Reader has been an accessible, nontechnical, authoritative introduction to key issues in environmental and natural resources policy. It has been especially effective in demonstrating the contribution that economics and other social science research can make toward improving public debate and decisionmaking. Organized to follow the contents of popular textbooks in environmental economics and politics, it has also found wide use in beginning environmental policy courses.

The RFF Reader in Environmental and Resource Management (RFF Press)

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The RFF Reader in Environmental and Resource Management (RFF Press)

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University Fellow Wallace Oates has brought together much of RFF's best work in a new volume that provides teachers and students, the public policy community, and informed citizens with a broader and deeper perspective on natural resources and the environment. While ideal for course use, this treasure trove of balanced and authoritative policy analysis has value well beyond the classroom. It belongs on the bookshelf of any individual or institution concerned about effective environmental and resource management.

Much of the material in The RFF Reader comes from Resources, the quarterly publication. Oates has supplemented that with other important RFF work in climate change and sustainability. He has assembled many of the most requested articles to emerge from RFF. The pieces are succinct and readable and not overly technical. The book includes sections on key environmental topics such as benefit-cost analysis, environmental regulation, and environmental justice. There is a section devoted to environmental problems in developing nations and transitional economies. Natural-resource topics include resource management, biodiversity, and sustainable development. The articles address many of today's most difficult public policy questions, such as "Does Environmental Policy Conflict with Economic Growth?"and "When is a Life Too Costly to Save?"Among the many other issues addressed are emissions trading, environmental damage assessment, Superfund, biodiversity, forest management, waste-facility siting, and sustainable agriculture.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Independent Review, published by Independent Institute on June 22, 2001. The length of the article is 1795 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Escape from Leviathan: Liberty, Welfare and Anarchy Reconciled.
Author: James R. Otteson
Publication: Independent Review (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2001
Publisher: Independent Institute
Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Page: 129(4)

Article Type: Book Review

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Escape From Leviathan: Liberty, Welfare, and Anarchy Reconciled

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ANARCHY IS OFF THE SPECTRUM BUT ON THE COMPASS
Libertarianism by Conjecture and Refutation
And just where does "anarchy" fall on the spectrum again?
A landmark in the literature of classical liberalism
A Defense of Liberty, Wellbeing and Private-Property Anarchy

Escape From Leviathan: Liberty, Welfare, and Anarchy Reconciled
J.C. Lester
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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The principal criticism of libertarianism is that it would damage human welfare. In response, this book considers an extreme libertarian thesis: there is no conceptual or practical clash among the most plausible accounts of economic rationality, interpersonal liberty, human welfare, and private-property anarchy. Eschewing moral advocacy as a distraction, it offers a critical-rationalist defense of this objective thesis from many criticisms in the literature.

Customer Reviews:

ANARCHY IS OFF THE SPECTRUM BUT ON THE COMPASS.......2005-04-06

A reply to Peter Vinton Jr.

Peter Vinton's title asks "And just where does `anarchy' fall on the spectrum again?" I was persuaded by an editor not to put my essay on this matter into an appendix of the book. I am not convinced that this omission was a good idea. Were it there, Vinton would have been answered and the ideological position of anarcho-liberalism might have been illuminated for other readers (maybe it can be in the next, a revised, edition). The short answer to his question is that anarchy is off the spectrum but on the compass. The long answer can be found here: http://www.la-articles.org.uk/pc.htm.

My intention in writing Escape from Leviathan was, using the critical-rationalist epistemology, philosophically to defend (by responding to all the best or typical criticisms I could find) the social-scientific evidence (but certainly not summarizing it all) that private-property anarchy does not clash with either interpersonal liberty or human welfare (which italicised proposition I called the `extreme classical-liberal compatibility thesis'). I eschewed all moral advocacy as irrelevant and confusing, given the objective nature of my thesis. However, I did, where necessary, engage in meta-ethics to explain how morals and moralizing (but without any particular content) fitted with the rest of my arguments and theories. I emphatically did not avoid morals because I think morals are unimportant or irrelevant to all libertarian arguments, as some critics have supposed. Still less did I write the entire book out of a "desire to address the familiar argument that libertarian principles have no morality", as Vinton somewhat more strangely supposes.

The introduction explains-as its subheadings indicate-the classical-liberal compatibility thesis, why moral advocacy is avoided, and the critical-rationalist method. So I don't agree that it begins "with a `recap' of exactly what constitutes classical liberalism".

In the chapter on rationality I do not only, or mainly, look at altruism, as Vinton appears to suggest. I am attempting to give a comprehensive philosophical defence of aprioristic instrumental rationality. And I look only at the `logic' of altruism (and related aspects of morals), where I look at it at all, rather than "its underlying motivations". I nowhere suggest or imply the proposition that "an attitude of enlightened self-interest is actually a better framework for real altruism than the current atmosphere of welfare" (although I do argue that human welfare is best promoted by laissez-faire). Contra Vinton, I explicitly argue against the thesis that "[p]eople are naturally psychological egoists" and in favour of the thesis that altruism is genuine. Given the immediately previous quotation, he does not even appear to be consistent in what he asserts I say here. Nor do I suggest that "`self-perceived interest' is a better expression than `altruism'" but that it is clearer than `self interest'. And I explicitly defend, not reject, the view that "altruism implies having an interest in others as an end in itself."

It is a howler, given what I write in the book about `coercion', to state "The second part of the book ... explores the end results of coercion versus liberty". And it cannot be accurate to state that the book has "some refreshing new theories on what constitutes equitable redress." For equity (fairness in justice) is not discussed; nor is any theory of justice propounded. However, Vinton is right to note the novelty and, I hope, interest of the theory of liberty as `the absence of [proactively] imposed cost' and the consequences of applying this as a thought experiment in various simple situations.

In the chapter on welfare, I defend the view of (spontaneous-)want-satisfaction as a plausible theory of welfare for persons. That is not the same as advocating that people should be "embracing the motive of want-satisfaction". And to explain and defend the objective libertarian consequences of maximizing such welfare is not to argue that this "leads to a better system of social justice". That is just the kind of red herring about morals the book takes pains to avoid.

The single short sentence on the anarchy chapter does not contain any obvious inaccuracies.

Why do I reply to a review that does not appear to have any real criticisms and quite a few misunderstandings? I don't want to miss an opportunity to clarify what the book is about because I believe it to be both substantially true and morally urgent. However, I do not have high hopes of its being given wider consideration while the publishers continue to sell only the hardback at such a stiff price and while anti-libertarian professors prefer to repeat their old lectures on Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia. His book is often thought-provokingly clever but it is a justificationist, minarchist, ragbag bereft of a clear theory of liberty and its relation to property and human welfare.

I have replied elsewhere on the net to most other amazon.com reviews, which have sometimes appeared in longer forms first. Seek and ye shall find.

J C Lester, March 2005

Libertarianism by Conjecture and Refutation.......2005-01-25

J. C. Lester has written an outstanding book. It fulfills all the criteria for that accolade. It is the author's first book yet he tackles the subject with the consummate skill of an expert in the field. He is up to date with all the relevant literature, that which is sympathetic to his intellectual cause as well as the arguments of its opponents. He is familiar with all of the philosophical issues and manages to breathe some new life into matters that have been discussed ad nauseum by libertarians over the years. While not always crystal clear in his exposition (indeed, this book is not to be recommended to beginners), Lester writes generally in a lively and provocative style which is sure to attract freedom-loving scholars. Furthermore, he is not afraid to take on some well-known shibboleths of contemporary political philosophy and subject them to full libertarian rigor; his critique of democracy was a heady, almost intoxicating, refutation of the most emotive (and apparently uncriticizable) concept in the political lexicon. As he points out, "Democracy is the enemy of liberty and welfare." [1] Of course, most critics of democracy are automatically dismissed as fascists, but that is a most implausible, indeed libelous, charge to level at one who is so committed a believer in freedom.

Lester shows considerable originality, either when he is discussing some of the deepest problems in political theory or when he is making a contribution to some of the more casual issues of contemporary politics. He is able to use the concepts and intellectual weaponry of libertarianism as effectively as the giants of the subject - Rothbard, David Friedman and the early Nozick included. Equally important are his critiques of some of the most well-known critics of libertarianism. His sections on Rawls and John Gray are neat little vignettes, brief but rigorous.

Lester has written a book about libertarianism and he is not frightened to consider the major, and the deepest, intellectual conundrums in the doctrine. But while the discussion is intense and penetrative, the book is not about foundationalism; in fact, the author specifically rejects any fundamental demonstration of the truth of libertarianism, whether that is derived from natural rights, utilitarianism, or any other justificatory intellectual scaffolding that is alleged to be impervious to criticism. In a considerable theoretical coup, Lester adopts Karl Popper's anti-justificatory critical rationalism, though he takes it into areas undreamt of by that philosopher. Rather than aiming at philosophical absolutism, Lester adopts the method of conjecture and refutation. The "truths" of libertarianism emerge as they survive a series of logical (and occasionally empirical) tests. Perhaps Lester pushes the analogy with Popperian science a little far when he says that libertarianism is "as unsupported as universal scientific theories." [2] After all, scientific theories, unlike those of ethics and politics, display a greater vulnerability to falsification, and there is considerable agreement among scientists as to what counts as a refutation of a theory. Furthermore, there is a strong a priori element in Lester's thinking that does not gel easily with Popper's scientific empiricism (though that philosopher is clearly no ordinary empiricist). Certainly, the apodictic reasoning of Mises, who constructed the whole of economic theory from apriori premises, would not be acceptable since, in Popper's view, a proposition that could not be falsified had zero empirical content. Some of Lester's ratiocination looks suspiciously like this.

Still, at least the approach Lester takes gets away from the endless and fruitless search for the permanent and irrefutable justification of political and moral values. Lester is particularly effective in rebutting Gray's critique of classical liberalism, which depends almost entirely on the author's claim that the doctrine fails to be justified in the light some fashionable contemporary doctrines. Gray has repeatedly claimed that liberalism does not to take in account cultural pluralism and that it mistakenly tries to provide universal principles for problems that can only be solved within a localized value framework. But, as Lester stresses, classical liberalism does not need a heavy metaphysical justification. Liberty is not a "value laden" concept that requires agreement on a broad set of philosophical themes, including the notion of the person, if it is to be serviceable normatively. Liberty is a coherent ideal, or set of principles, that, when applied to abiding social problems, has an increasingly universal appeal. Indeed, only the liberty principle can validate cultural variation; it allows a plurality of customs to develop subject only to the constraint of non-interference by any one (the state) over its rivals. What is also surprising and refreshing is that Lester can produce arguments against interference and coercion that, in most cases, though not all, are inferences from the liberty principle itself and its associated economic and philosophical principles. There is no "baggage" of heady but unrealistic metaphysics

None of this is suggestive of a lack of intellectual ambition in Lester. He sets himself the difficult task of producing a fundamental compatibility in our values; liberty, property, welfare, and (ultimately) libertarian anarchy are theoretically harmonious and contain no, or very few, internal inconsistencies. This is a welcome change from much contemporary theorizing in politics which so often depends on precarious tradeoffs between competing values and unstable compromises between rivalrous demands. But Lester is confident that we can maximize welfare and achieve liberty, that legitimate property is perfectly consistent with a coherent conception of justice, and that utility, properly understood, does not clash with libertarian rights. A further welcome feature of his analysis is that, for the most part, he eschews external morality. His normative suggestions derive from the consequences of adopting liberty and self-ownership, not from the demands of a morality demonstrable by reason. But, still, rarely has capitalism been justified with such philosophical expertise.

Lester takes a robust and relatively uncomplicated view of the person (though this is not to say that his analysis is not complex). Against those who maintain that individuals have a propensity for valued action that may not be revealed in their uncoerced choices, a position that normally leads to paternalism, Lester is happy to see us as rational choosers whose desires are perfectly valid reasons for action. This enables him to surmount the old altruism/egoism conflict. The fact that we are sometimes other-regarding in our actions is not a reason for dropping self-interest as the primary focus of action. Action is a product of perceived self-interest and there is no reason why that should always take an immediate egoistic form. When we behave altruistically we do so from a "selfish" desire to effect some improvement in the world. However, Lester slightly relaxes this rigor when he admits into the theory what he thinks is the necessity of cardinal utility (knowing how much a person is better off from a course of action). While he concedes that such notions are not strictly measurable, he claims that "without the notion of cardinal utility we are left without the notion of conscious beings." [3] I am not sure this is consistent with his minimalist, even materialist, view of the self that he espouses earlier. I wonder what some persistent interventionist might make of the notion of "conscious being": it could be used as a device for suppressing our choices in the market.

Naturally, Lester concentrates on liberty and he has some very important and novel things to say about it. To get away from the endless debates about the meaning of the concept, and the limits and extent of unfreedom, he conjectures that liberty is a state in which people do not have a subjective cost initiated and imposed on them by others without their consent. [4] People are at liberty when they pursue their choices in the market. Withholding a benefit to which a person might (mistakenly) think he is entitled, often a feature of positive liberty, is not a loss of freedom: only the imposition of a cost is. This might cover most cases of unfreedom, but there is a problem because of its unavoidably subjectivist nature. Those of a deep religious persuasion undoubtedly feel a loss of subjective liberty when their faith is traduced, as Muslims undoubtedly did when the author Salman Rushdie parodied their beliefs. This example is used by Lester, but not very satisfactorily. He simply says they had no "realistic case" without properly analyzing it in the context of his philosophical position. I do not think the notion of harm can be eliminated from a discussion of permissible actions, even though Lester rightly points to its conceptual ambivalence. Despite the ambiguity here, and irrespective of the Muslims' perhaps explicable anger at Rushdie, it is hard to imagine that they suffered a loss in liberty. Only by a perverse definition could their interests be said to have been harmed. The disputatious nature of harm is matched by the irredeemably subjectivist aspect of Lester's criterion of the imposition of cost.

The connection between liberty and property is obviously of crucial importance to libertarians and Lester has some interesting comments to make about it. In his discussion of the propertarianism versus libertarianism debate he comes down on the side of liberty. Indeed, the notion of self-ownership derives from the idea of liberty conjectured in a state of nature. However, the fact that liberty must prevail over property might pose some problems for Lester's compatibility thesis. He quotes the familiar example of the property owner buying up land so that he surrounds an otherwise innocent person, completely eliminating his freedom. Is property to be legitimately limited to prevent this happening? Lester merely asserts that liberty takes priority. Similar problems, identified by David Friedman, occur with a possible conflict between liberty and an uncontroversial notion of utility. Are we entitled, albeit illegitimately, to seize a gun when that is the only way of controlling a dangerous lunatic? Lester seems to go along with common sense solutions to admittedly unusual cases; they do pose probably insoluble intellectual problems. But they could be converted into more plausible scenarios by anti-libertarians using well-chosen examples.

There is a property problem more immediately relevant to public policy than the examples of "desert island ethics" analyzed in detail by Lester, however. I refer here to the original ownership of land and the rationale of land rent. It is a problem that bothered classical economists in the nineteenth century and it should concern libertarians today more than it does. It certainly has a bearing on Lester's compatibility of liberty and property thesis, for the case for a land tax (Henry George's single tax) is the only example of an interventionist policy I know that is consistent with efficiency (utility) and a superficially plausible notion of liberty. What gives the lucky inheritor of land the sole title to a resource limited by nature? What can possibly justify the differential rent paid to an owner of a property in New York which is identical to a property in Idaho? The owner of the New York apartment did not create that extra value: in a sense, everybody did. Are libertarians saying that inheritors of land display entrepreneurship? If so, then that concept becomes entirely analytic. Of course, the followers of Henry George did not deny that improvements to land should be fully rewarded. They were, on the whole, pro-market, and they could easily argue that no efficiency losses would occur through the single tax (as land has little alternative use). I do not deny that there are libertarian replies to consistent Georgists, but I was disappointed that Lester ducked the issue with his assertion that "....exclusive land ownership, for reasons of security and privacy, is usually a relatively trivial imposed cost on people and its absence a great one." [5] I am not sure that it is trivial, even though in the modern world knowledge is probably a more fertile source of wealth creation than landownership. Lester does recognize some constraints on original acquisition, [6] deriving from a version of Locke's injunction to leave "as much and as good" for others, and also those embodied in the claim that it is illiberal for people to consume irreplaceable natural resources. It is therefore a little disappointing that he gives no attention to the only socialist proposition that ever made any sense, i.e., collective restraint on individual landownership.

With regard to welfare, which Lester handles with considerable aplomb, there is only one area that provoked dissent from this reviewer. After eloquently defining welfare in terms of want-satisfaction, where only the individual is qualified to determine utility (defined in preference terms rather than quantifiable units of pleasure), Lester suddenly invokes the idea of the interpersonal comparison of utilities (an assertion which has an unacknowledged affinity with his earlier sympathy for cardinal utility). [7] It is true that he does so somewhat warily, aware as he no doubt is of the way in which interventionist, Benthamite utilitarians have used the notion to smuggle in all sorts of constraints on liberty and the market (for example, progressive income tax) which allegedly make everybody better off. Lester, however, says we make such utility comparisons all the time. Of course, a mother often says Susie needs a new dress more than Tommy needs shoes, and she no doubt thinks the family as a whole is better off as a result of the purchase. But we don't want such judgments to invade public policy. To my surprise, Lester says "general arguments can show that certain social rules are likely to promote over-all want-satisfaction."[8] It is true that he does not want some sort of comprehensive utility function imposed on society, but he is obviously worried by the implications of the formal Pareto criterion. For a welfare improvement to occur, everybody must gain, and there is a rigid prohibition on any interpersonal comparisons of utility in Paretianism.

This austere doctrine means, for example, that any movement from a slave to a free society requires the agreement (or compensation) of the slaveowners, or that the landowners in Britain would have to have been compensated on the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. But the problem here has been misunderstood. The Paretian is not necessarily precluded from making moral judgments about the evils of slavery or monopoly landownership; he is not necessarily an emotivist or a logical positivist. All he is arguing is that such appraisals have no relevance to a scientific analysis of what constitutes a welfare improvement. Slaveowners and monopoly landowners are simply immoral, but Lester is reluctant to make ethical judgments. Sometimes we must, though, if we are to have a fully compatible set of values.

In a short review article it is impossible to do justice to Lester's remarkable book. He manages to say new and exciting things about criminal justice (restitution should replace formal punishment), new ways of internalizing externalities, and property rights solutions to the "tragedy of the commons." Not all libertarians, for example, would agree with his claim that creators should have full claim to profits from copyrights and patents and there is a respectable body of thought that maintains that these arrangements simply establish economically and morally unjustified monopolies, but Lester's arguments are presented with sophistication and are informed by an impressive mastery of the secondary literature.

To conclude on a slightly critical note: anarcho-capitalists are very good at showing how a private enterprise system of law enforcement could work, how even national defense could be provided voluntarily, and how well-defined property rights would solve all the problems of the environment. Indeed, with some minor discordances, Lester has shown how in such a world all our values are compatible. Getting there, however, is not only an immense practical problem, but it is also an intellectual one which tests compatibility to the full. How can unfunded pension systems be wound up without hurting one generation? What about all those people who have become completely dependent on welfare through coercive national insurance schemes? Can they all be compensated in any changeover? We know the world looks very pretty in theory but in practice it bears the same tawdry and weary face that it always did. And always will?

[1] J. C. Lester, Escape from Leviathan: Liberty, Welfare and Anarchy Reconciled. (London, Macmillan, 2000), 203.

[2] Ibid., 8.

[3] Ibid., 48.

[4] Ibid., 54.

[5] Ibid., 106. Emphasis in the original.

[6] Ibid., 93-95.

[7] Ibid., 152.

[8] Ibid.

And just where does "anarchy" fall on the spectrum again?.......2004-12-24

Lester appears to have written this study out of the desire to address the familiar argument that libertarian principles have no morality. Beginning with a "recap" of exactly what constitutes classical liberalism, he then breaks up his book into four components to address this argument. In "Rationality," he looks at altrusim, its underlying motivations, and how an attitude of enlightened self-interest is actually a better framework for real altruism than the current atmosphere of welfare. People are naturally psychological egoists amd not altruists, Lester argues, and so we can never have purely selfless interests. In this sense the phrase "self-perceived interest" is a better expression than "altruism," since altruism implies having an interest in others as an end in itself. The second part of the book, "Liberty," takes up the bulk of the space and explores the end results of coercion versus liberty, in matters pertaining to property rights (both intellectual and material), and also some refreshing new theories on what constitutes equitable redress. Lester comes up with an interesting definition of Liberty that this reviewer has not encountered anywhere else, and that is the _absence of imposed cost._ An interesting analogy of two misanthropic individuals stranded on a tropical island presents some curiously simple examples to back up this definition, which is easily the most fascination component of the entire book. The third section, "Welfare," returns to the premise of the first section by explaining how whole-heartedly embracing the motive of want-satisfaction ultimately leads to a better system of social justice. The final section, "Anarchy," is very brief and mainly addresses the innate hurdles and societal prejudices against a system which, after all, must ultimately be the hallmark of an advanced civilization. (This reviewer has long held the view that anarchy is a natural state at the very beginning, and the very end, of the so-called political spectrum: primitive societies are anarchic because they are unable to embrace any notion of governance, and supremely advanced societies are anarchic because they have outgrown any need for any form of governance at all.) It should be pointed out that this book was recommended to me by a Senior Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute (www.mises.org).

A landmark in the literature of classical liberalism.......2002-03-01

This book probably represents a landmark in the literature of liberalism on two counts. One of these is the robust statement of his major thesis on the compatibility of free markets, liberty and welfare. The other is the way he uses the non-authoritarian theory of rationality expounded by Karl Popper and William W Bartley.

"In practice (rather than in imaginary cases) and in the long term, there are no systematic clashes among interpersonal liberty, general welfare, and market anarchy, where these terms are to be understood roughly as follows...". Those who seek linguistic precision may be alarmed that his terms are to be understood roughly. Lester has quite deliberately avoided the kind of conceptual analysis, the teasing out of the meaning of terms, that Popper has labeled "essentialism". At least one reviewer noted the remarkable amount of meat that is packed into the book. This is partly due to the self-conscious avoidance of essentialism, partly to Lester's firm grasp on his materials and party to the mode of argumentation that he has adopted, following the non-justificationist or non-foundational line that has been articulated by Popper and Bartley.

The main characteristic of this approach is that it only attempts to achieve what is possible, which is the formation of a critical preference for one option rather than another, in the light of the evidence and arguments that are available up to date. He does not attempt the impossible, namely a logically conclusive proof of his case. What is possible is to propose a theory or a doctrine and subject it to criticism, then if it stands up we may proceed with that theory or doctrine until such time as an alternative is proposed that has better credentials and stands up to criticism at least as well as the previous candidate.

Turning to the organization of the book, after the Introduction are four chapters; Rationality, Liberty, Welfare and Anarchy. Each chapter is tightly organised and packed with crisply presented arguments which resist efforts to paraphrase them. Consequently no short review will do justice to the contents of the book or its organisation. Lester's theory of rationality has to reconcile two extreme views in economics - the neglected subjective, "a priori" approach of Menger and the Austrians, and the standard objective, empirical account. He adopts the theory that agents are self-interested utility-maximisers and he addresses a number of standard objections that are raised against this concept. He argues, successfully in my view, that the objections do no damage to his thesis.

Liberty is formulated as the absence of initiated or proactively imposed cost, or in the case of a mutual clash of imposed costs, the minimisation of imposed costs. This means avoiding or minimising the subjective costs imposed on us by other people, without our consent. Lester explains this formulation, compares it with typical libertarian alternatives to illustrate its strengths and then tests it by attempting to solve some problems presented to libertarians by David Friedman and John Gray. This is the longest chapter and it covers a huge amount of ground, including intellectual property rights and a theory of restitution for crimes and torts. In addition to the criticism of Friedman and Gray there is also a rejoinder to Amartya Sen and to Karl Popper.

The criticism of John Gray is important because for some time he enjoyed a high profile as a rare instance of a classical liberal Oxford don. Lester also responds to Gray's charge of "restrictivism", directed at liberals on the ground that they do not accept that freedom is "an essentially contested concept". In response, Lester accuses Gray of "conflationism", that is, importing a raft of contentious theories from elsewhere (psychology, hermeneutics, epistemology) to muddle and confuse the issues, at the same time appealing to various authorities and ultimately overriding interpersonal liberty in favour of some other goal.

Welfare is a sticking point for many people of good will who support freedom but believe that they cannot be libertarians because of all the poor people who need assistance. Actually support for deserving poor people could be provided by a VWA (Voluntary Welfare Association), dispensing funds from voluntary donations from all the people who currently vote to support welfare policies. The main targets in the chapter on welfare are R M Hare, Amartya Sen, Bernard Williams, John Rawls, John Harsanyi and Alan Ryan.

The final chapter on anarchy is very short because most of the work to defend private property and the market order has been done in previous chapters. "Basic conceptual confusion and mere prejudice are more the real problems" (page 193). He casts a critical eye over some conceptual aspects of the state and then he turns to John Rawls again as an exemplar of confusion and prejudice. Finally, Lester identifies the way that Rawls has simply ignored the libertarian position on the state, which is perceived as providing the arena where the most divisive issues can be removed from the political agenda.

A Defense of Liberty, Wellbeing and Private-Property Anarchy.......2001-08-16

Excerpted from The Independent Review (Summer 2001) by James R. Otteson
J. C. Lester's Escape from Leviathan is a bracing book.
The chief asset of the book is its dogged and persistent attack on the detractors of the private-property anarchy the author advocates. But this asset is simultaneously a liability: Lester does not argue for his position; rather, he argues that the most likely objections to it fail. This tactic gives the book a somewhat unpleasantly defensive tone, and, more significantly, it limits the ultimate persuasiveness of the book's central thesis.
In the end, the principal value of Lester's book is as something like a catalog of arguments defending libertarian or anarchistic political thought against various detractors and their objections. Not all of the defenses work, and in a few cases Lester's dismissals are too hasty; nevertheless, he offers many interesting and novel insights. I remain disappointed that he did not undertake to defend his own thesis directly, and I hope that in the future he will relax his commitment to Popperian epistemology and undertake such a defense. In the meantime, however, refutation of objections is a valuable service in its own right, and Lester accomplishes that task well.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent, easy-to-use resource.......2004-09-10

Now in a completely updated, significantly revised, and substantially expanded 17th edition, the Omnigraphics hardcover publication of the 962-page reference, the Government Assistance Almanac 2003-2004 is an exhaustive in-depth guide to American federal domestic financial and other programs. Covering grants, loans, insurance, subsidies, scholarships, traineeships, advisory services, investigation of complaints and much more, the Government Assistance Almanac 2003-2004 lists each program with a statement of its purpose, the type of assistance it gives, qualifications for eligible applicants or beneficiaries, a range and average of the money disbursed, and the location of its headquarters as well as its web page or Internet contact information. Additional charts, graphs and appendices, as well as an exhaustive index make looking up details a snap. An excellent, easy-to-use resource and an absolute "must-have" for anyone seeking to earn government funding from appropriate venues.

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