This carefully curated volume brings together the most influential writings of the legendary Robert Higgs. Enjoy an unparalleled look at his journey of thought, spanning civil rights, wartime political economy, the military-industrial complex, the regulatory state, the Food and Drug Administration, the long-run growth of government power … and more!

Best known for his landmark work Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, Robert Higgs changed the way scholars and citizens think about the relationship between government expansion, economic crises, and individual liberty. Again and again, he challenged conventional wisdom, asked difficult questions, and exposed the forces driving the steady growth of government power.

At the heart of Higgs’s work are the human stakes of political economy: freedom and coercion, power and individual agency, and the conditions that allow human beings to flourish.

The Indispensable Robert Higgs brings his groundbreaking ideas to a new generation of readers while giving longtime admirers a new opportunity to encounter the work of one of the most original and fearless thinkers of our time.

Timely, provocative, and deeply insightful, this collection captures the range and enduring power of Higgs’s scholarship … and shows why his ideas remain essential to understanding the debates over power, policy, and liberty unfolding today.