"Liberty and Leviathan" - The 2006 Thomas Szasz Awards and an Evening with Robert Higgs

TITLE: "Liberty and Leviathan" - The 2006 Thomas Szasz Awards and an Evening with Robert Higgs

WHEN:
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Reception & book signing: 6:30 P.M
Program starts at 7:00 P.M. and concludes at about 9:00 P.M.

SPEAKERS:
- Thomas S. Szasz, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at State University Medical Center Syracuse, and author of "The Myth of Mental Illness"
- Robert Higgs, Senior Fellow of The Independent Institute, and author of "Crisis and Leviathan" and "Depression, War, and Cold War"
- Robert Spillane, Professor of Management at Macquarie University, Australia, and author of nine books on psychology and management.

DESCRIPTION:
Gala reception and presentation of the 2006 Thomas S. Szasz Awards for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties to our Senior Fellow Robert Higgs and Australian psychologist Robert Spillane: http://www.independent.org/newsroom/news_detail.asp?newsID=79

The program will feature world-renowned author and critic of psychiatric abuses, Thomas Szasz, followed by a special forum featuring Dr. Higgs on "Liberty and Leviathan," based on his acclaimed, new book, DEPRESSION, WAR, AND COLD WAR (Oxford University Press), the sequel to his classic CRISIS AND LEVIATHAN. http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=65

As you may well know, within the past five years, domestic spending by the federal government has grown faster than at any time since before the Great Depression. How could the U.S. government have grown by more than one-third since 9/11, with Congress having increased the national debt to $8.5 trillion, the feds annually consuming a record $2.5 trillion, and constitutional liberties increasingly jeopardized? Is this unique or are there precedents in past "crises"?

Based on DEPRESSION, WAR, AND COLD WAR, Dr. Higgs will provide a powerful, solidly grounded exposé of government power in the U.S. since the early 1930s, answering key questions that have long puzzled historians: What accounts for the extraordinary length of the Great Depression? What about "wartime prosperity" and whether World War II "got the economy out of the depression"? How does war alter relations between government and the leaders of business and labor? How do military economies alter the business cycle, as during World War II and the Cold War? What is Congress's role in the military-industrial-congressional complex?

TICKETS:
$15 per person ($10 for Independent Institute members)
Reserve tickets by calling (510) 632-1366 or ordering on line at http://www.Independent.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=123.