The Menace of the Herd, or Procrustes at Large

This exceeding rare book is by one of the great men of the 20th century. Written soon after his immigration to the United States, he signed the book “Francis Stuart Campbell” because he was a refugee from Austria and didn’t want to endanger them. The contents: a relentless attack on the idea of mass government based on the egalitarian ethic, and its tendency toward the total state of Stalin and Hitler. And yet there is more here, more than can possibly be recounted in a paragraph. The author was a remarkable 19th-century-style liberal intellectual, startling in his erudition and wisdom. A bit disorganized, perhaps, and not as friendly to the market as it might be but a book overflowing with insight into the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds. To read him is to experience something of an intellectual liberation from every sort of conventional wisdom. This is a dazzling work from a man who seemed to be an impossibility in the modern age.