European-American University™

The University's ongoing Libertarian Library Online Project (LLOP) aims to collect together online resources exploring different aspects of libertarian philosophy in a convenient single-source location, thus providing a comprehensive virtual library of libertarianism. As well as providing access to complete texts of such key writers as Henry David Thoreau, Ludwig von Mises and Adam Smith via online libraries, it includes links to libertarian organizations, political parties and to thousands of shorter articles and papers. All resources are free at the point of delivery and fully digitized for easy searching and printing. Resources are selected and annotated by the LLOP Librarians.

The language of the Project is English; we note that there are also valuable resources in other languages outside the scope of the Project.

The interpretation of libertarianism taken in the Project is wide, although not all those listed here interpret it within such broad boundaries. In particular, links are provided to left-libertarian, right-libertarian and non-partisan sources. No link should be taken to indicate either endorsement of that organization by the University, or vice versa.

Libertarian Alliance Publications
A series of publications of the Libertarian Alliance (UK), reproduced with permission. Organized by series:

>>Libertarian Pamphlets
>>Libertarian Reprints
>>Libertarian Heritage
>>Study Guides
>>Personal Perspectives
>>Libertarian Fiction

Libertarian Alliance Notes Series

>>Notes homepage

An Introduction to the Libertarian Alliance and its Publications
by John Kersey

The Libertarian Alliance is one of the few organizations in the United Kingdom today that has made a consistent and cogent stand for liberty in social, economic and political terms. As such, its output represents a significant and surprisingly varied contribution to British libertarianism and to libertarian ideas that have global relevance.

The Libertarian Alliance has its origins as a discussion group in 1967, and through the work and vision of the late Dr. Chris R. Tame, who was to become its Director (later President), acquired a profile as a radical free-market think tank. Tame's crucial achievement was to understand the context of threats to liberty as part of a strategy of ruling class and interest group dominance that was characterized by state control (even when ostensibly privatized), welfarism, the subjugation of the working classes and the overall cultural remodelling of English society so that its salient features were to be disrupted, marginalized and ultimately destroyed.

Where other free marketeers were prepared to brook compromise with the state in order to win apparent economic or political concessions, Tame gave no quarter and instead produced page after page of devastatingly accurate analysis of the threat to the intellectual life of the country. He described and dissected the "parasitic class of politicians, administrators, lawyers, experts, media people and state employees constructing a new order on a trumped-up basis of post-socialist corporatism and politically correct pieties."

Attracting over 150 writers, many of whom were highly distinguished, the LA began a publications programme in the late 1970s that was to grow to over 700 articles on every conceivable subject. The goal was the spread of libertarian ideas among the intellectual classes, who would then be in a position to effect change. Such a strategy avoided the prospect of schismatic dissent and defeat that would surely have surrounded any attempt to create a libertarian political party. It also led to a growing media profile, in which the officers of the LA have frequently been called to express libertarian views on radio and television.

One of the hallmarks of the LA has been its non-partisanship and inclusivity. Both left and right-libertarians have found a home there, and where disagreement has ensued, it has been in the context of debate between those who are fundamentally friends working for the same objectives, rather than resulting in the factionalism that has characterized some other groups. The only major split occurred in 1982, a few years after the official codification of the LA, resulting in the existence of both the present LA and also a much smaller group which uses the same name. Yet at heart the LA remains an open and radically inclusive organization, without a membership as such but functioning rather as an extended family, consisting of officers, subscribers who donate and help its work and others who contribute through writing, talking, offering administrative assistance and any manner of related involvement.

Since the death of Chris Tame in 2006 from bone cancer at the early age of 56 (ironically, he was a non-smoker and fitness enthusiast), charge of the LA has passed to Dr. Tim Evans as President and Dr. Sean Gabb as Director. 

The purpose of reproducing many of the publications of the LA in the Libertarian Library Online Project is severalfold. Firstly, this action highlights the importance of such an archive. There are few subjects of interest to libertarians and intellectuals of other outlooks that are not addressed in a cogent manner from several perspectives. The archive contains writing that is at times brilliant, at times infuriating, but rarely dull. It is full of "dangerous" thinking backed by considerable intellectual firepower that suggests answers for the problems that face us more than ever today. No comparable anthology of socialist or conservative writing has greater capacity to provoke, or compels the reader with such persuasive power to reevaluate his or her assumptions in fundamental terms.

In addition to this, the appearance of this archive here offers the prospect of its finding a new audience that might not otherwise make its way to the LA website, and also offers the basis for teaching and research that will hopefully take these ideas as a starting point for expansion, contextualization and action. A new generation of scholars will find that the fundamental issues discussed have not changed significantly in the 30 year timespan covered by the archive. Certainly, many things have got worse. But the nature of the causes of this decline, together with many proposed solutions, can be found here in a clear and unambiguous form.

If you find the publications of the Libertarian Alliance of interest, perhaps you might like to support its work. You can find the LA website at www.libertarian.co.uk and that of its Director at www.seangabb.co.uk.

The LA can be contacted by mail and telephone using the following details:

The Libertarian Alliance
Suite 35
2 Landsdowne Row
London W1J 6HL
England

Telephone: (+44)(0)870 242 1712

John Kersey
President, European-American University
Gold Subscriber, Libertarian Alliance