Secession, State, and Liberty

By David Gordan

Book Overview

The political impulse to secede - to attempt to separate from central government control - is a conspicuous feature of the post-cold war world. It is alive and growing in Canada, Russia, China, Italy, Belgium, Britain, and even the United States Yet secession remains one of the least studied and least understood of all historical and political phenomena. The contributors to this volume have filled this gap with wide-ranging investigations - rooted in history, political philosophy, ethics, and economic theory - of secessionist movements in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765809435
• ISBN13: 9780765809438
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Secession is dead only if might makes right

As editor David Gordon notes in his introduction, secession may be the most under-theorized concept in political science. Although the few Americans who bother to defend the idea are usually smeared as "neo-Confederates" or worse (is there anything worse?), a simple look at the last decade's headlines shows that secession is not only an idea, but an event, all over the world. From Quebec to Yugoslavia, the Baltic States to Chechnya, Scotland to Los Angeles, people are willing to defy the holy memory of St. Abraham Lincoln and "dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another." Gordon and his contributors have rediscovered, dusted off, and re-articulated for a new century one of the most basic political rights of all, the right of self-determination.A large portion of this collection of essays, as you might expect, examines the pre-eminent example of secession in American history, the Confederacy. The three essays dealing with this period -- Joseph Stromberg's "Republicanism, Federalism, and Secession in the South, 1790-1865;" Thomas DiLorenzo's "Yankee Confederates: New England Secession Movements Prior to the War Between the States;" and James Ostrowski's "Was the Union Army's Invasion of the Confederate States a Lawful Act? An Analysis of President Lincoln's Legal Arguments Against Secession" -- form the core of the book. However, this title is more than just an apologetic for the South. Philosophical, legal, and political analyses by other contributors provide a solid framework for secession as a political theory in our era as well.The last essay, Bruce Benson's look at arbitration as an alternative to state-run judicial systems in commerce and trade, provides a true-life example of a type of modern individual "secession," and recalls Mises' suggestion (quoted by several contributors) that the right to secession can ultimately be carried down to the community, home, and even individual level. Murray Rothbard reinforces this idea in "Nations by Consent: Decomposing the Nation State."This is a very important and valuable book, challenging as it does the accepted, post-1865 wisdom of Constitutional interpretation. Secession didn't die at Appomattox, either as a political theory or as a right inherent to each state in the American union. As several of the contributors note, secession (and the threat of it) is the single most powerful check on the expansion of federal power -- which, of course, explains why, from Lincoln on down, so many people have worked so feverishly to discredit it. But truth is just truth, and no matter how hard the "enlightened" classes try to deny it, analyses like the ones in this collection show that a true idea cannot be silenced forever.

Best discussion on Secession ever.

This book is the best discussion on the subject of Secession I have ever seen. This topic is so important and yet so ignored. No one can understand the "Civil War" with out understanding this important topic. The Right of succession is a crucial element of protecting liberty and this book Provides the best possible understanding of it available.

Secession and decentralism inevitable

Radical political decentralization worldwide is inevitable because of technology, demographics and the continual threat of nuclear destruction of large nation states, it is useful to have a scholarly investigation of the issue like Mr. Gordons.

A Must Have

This is an absolutely masterful book that deserves a great deal more attention than I fear it will ever receive. It deals with one of the most overlooked issues in political theory, secession. Although most people think that the American Civil War settled the issue for all time, the authors of this book beg to differ. From a variety of different vantage points and ideologies, secession is given the support that it so deserves. Secession is rooted in individual liberty and any opposition ultimately requires an outright act of force. It is this crucial fact that much of this book is based upon. Issues of secession, past, present, and future are all dealt with accordingly. This book should be on the bookshelf of every individual with a serious interest in libertarian political philosophy.