Classical
Liberalism Historical Timeline:
Thinkers, Works, And
Movements
1632-Present
Classical Liberalism boasts a long and sustaining evolution. This timeline seeks to outline its major thinkers, works, and movements. For additional information on any of these works, one may refer to our overview essayor explore our Classical Liberal links page.
Obviously, no timeline can
guarantee full enclosure of all the writers and works in such a rich
intellectual tradition. The recent revival of classical liberal scholarship
makes the task even more difficult. We have sought to be very thorough, however.
Still, if one finds any glaring omissions, please contact the Institute
.
| Year | Thinkers | Works | Movements |
| 1632 | John Locke (1632-1704) | ||
| 1689 | Baron de Montesquieu (1743-1797) | ||
| Letter Concerning Toleration (Locke, 1689) | |||
| A. R. J. Turgot (1689-1755) | |||
| 1690 | Two Treatises of Civil Government (Locke, 1690) | ||
| 1694 | Voltaire (1694-1778) | ||
| 1695 | Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity (Locke, 1695) | ||
| 1711 | David Hume (1711-1776) | ||
| 1714 | Fable of the Bees (Mandeville, 1714) | Scottish Enlightenment (1714-1817) | |
| 1717 | Persian Letters (Montesquieu, 1717) | French Enlightenment (1717-1778) | |
| 1720 | Cato's Letters (Trenchard and Gordon, 1720-1723) | ||
| 1723 | Adam Smith (1723-1790) | ||
| 1727 | Marquis de Condorcet (1727-1781) | ||
| 1734 | Philosophical Letters (Voltaire, 1734) | ||
| 1737 | Thomas Paine (1737-1809) | ||
| 1743 | Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) | ||
| 1748 | Spirit of the Laws, (Montesquieu, 1748) | ||
| 1751 | James Madison (1751-1836) | ||
| 1754 | History of England (Hume, 1754-1761) | ||
| 1756 | William Godwin (1756-1836) | ||
| 1759 | Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) | Candide (Voltaire, 1759) | French Physiocrats (1759-1776) |
| Theory of Moral Sentiments (Smith, 1759) | |||
| Elogy (Turgot, 1759) | |||
| Tableau Economique (Quesnay, 1759) | |||
| Philosophical Dictionary (Voltaire, 1764) | |||
| 1766 | Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766-1817) | ||
| Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Riches (Turgot, 1766) | |||
| 1767 | Jean Baptiste Say (1767-1830) | ||
| Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) | |||
| Wilhelm Humboldt (1767-1855) | |||
| 1772 | David Ricardo (1772-1823) | ||
| 1773 | Essay on the History of Civil Society (A. Ferguson, 1773) | ||
| 1776 | The Wealth of Nations (Smith, 1776) | American Democratic-Republicans (1776-1816) | |
| Common Sense (Paine, 1776) | |||
| Declaration of Independence (Jefferson, 1776) | |||
| 1777 | American Crisis (Paine, 1777) | ||
| 1782 | Felicite Robert de Lamennais (1782-1854) | ||
| 1788 | Federalist Papers (1788) | ||
| 1789 | Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) | ||
| 1792 | Rights of Man (Paine, 1792) | ||
| Vindicationof the Rights of Women (Wollstonecraft, 1792) | |||
| On Property (Madison, 1792) | |||
| 1794 | History of Human Progress (Condorcet, 1794) | ||
| 1798 | Political Justice (Godwin, 1798) | ||
| 1801 | Frederic Bastiat (1801-50) | ||
| 1803 | Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | A Treatise on Political Economy (Say, 1803) | |
| 1804 | Richard Cobden (1804-1865) | High Price of Bullion (Ricardo, 1804) | |
| 1805 | Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) | ||
| 1806 | John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) | ||
| 1808 | Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) | ||
| 1815 | Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) | Principles of Politics (Constant, (1815) | |
| 1817 | Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) | On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (Ricardo, 1817) | |
| Catechism of Political Economy (Say, 1817) | |||
| 1818 | Consideration on the Principal Events of the French Revolution (de Stael, 1818) | ||
| 1820 | Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) | ||
| Heart of Political Constitution (Constant, 1820) | |||
| 1830 | Complete Course of Political Economy (Say, 1830) | Manchester School (1830-1859) | |
| 1834 | Lord Acton (1834-1902) | ||
| 1835 | Words of a Believer (Lamennais, 1835) | American Transcendentalism (1835-1882) | |
| Democracy in America (Tocqueville, 1835) | |||
| England, Ireland and America (Cobden, 1835) | |||
| Essay on Slavery (Channing, 1835) | |||
| 1836 | Russia (Cobden, 1836) | ||
| 1840 | Carl Menger (1840-1921) | ||
| William Graham Sumner (1840-1910) | |||
| 1841 | Self-Reliance (Emerson, 1841) | ||
| 1843 | Proper Sphere of Government (Spencer, 1843) | ||
| 1848 | Principles of Political Economy (Mill, 1848) | ||
| Declaration of Sentiments (Santon, 1848) | |||
| 1849 | The Law (Bastiat, 1849) | ||
| Civil Disobedience (Thoreau, 1849) | |||
| 1850 | Social Statics (Spencer, 1850) | ||
| 1851 | Eugen Bohm-Bawerk (1851-1914) | Limits of State Action (Humboldt, 1851) | |
| 1854 | Benjamin Tucker (1854-1939) | ||
| 1857 | Progress: Its Law and Cause (Spencer, 1857) | ||
| 1859 | On Liberty (Mill, 1859) | ||
| 1861 | Considerations on Representative Government (Mill, 1861) | ||
| 1863 | Utilitarianism (Mill, 1863) | ||
| 1869 | On the Subjugation of Women (Mill, 1869) | ||
| 1870 | Albert Jay Nock (1870-1945) | ||
| 1871 | Principles of Economics (Menger, 1871) | Austrian School of Economics (1871-present) | |
| 1880 | H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) | ||
| 1881 | Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) | ||
| Friedrich von Weiser (1851-1926) | |||
| 1883 | What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (Sumner, 1883) | ||
| 1884 | The Man Versus The State (Spencer, 1884) | ||
| Origin of Economic Value (Weiser, 1884) | |||
| 1886 | Isabel Paterson (1886-1961) | ||
| 1887 | Rose Wilder Lane (1887-1968) | ||
| 1889 | Capital and Interest (Bohm-Bawerk, 1889) | ||
| 1899 | Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992) | ||
| 1893 | The Principles of Ethics (Spencer, 1893) | ||
| 1905 | Ayn Rand (1905-1982) | ||
| 1912 | Milton Friedman (1912-) | The Theory of Money and Credit (Mises, 1912) | |
| 1919 | James Buchanan (1919- ) | Nation, State, and Economy (Mises, 1919) | |
| 1922 | Gordon Tullock (1922- ) | Socialism (Mises, 1922) | |
| 1926 | Murray Rothbard (1926-1995) | ||
| 1927 | Liberalism (Mises, 1927) | Chicago School (1927-present) | |
| 1929 | Monetary Theory of the Trade Cycle (Hayek, 1929) | ||
| 1930 | Israel Kirzner (1930- ) | ||
| 1935 | Our Enemy, The State (A.J. Nock, 1935) | ||
| 1938 | Robert Nozick (1938- ) | ||
| 1941 | Pure Theory of Capital (Hayek, 1941) | ||
| 1943 | Richard Epstein (1943- ) | The Fountainhead (Rand, 1943) | Objectivism (1943-1976) |
| Charles Murray (1943- ) | |||
| The Discovery of Freedom (Lane, 1943) | |||
| God of the Machine (Patterson, 1943) | |||
| 1944 | The Road to Serfdom (Hayek, 1944) | ||
| Omnipotent Government (Mises, 1944) | |||
| 1946 | Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (Rand, 1946) | ||
| Economics in One Lesson (Hazlitt, 1946) | |||
| 1949 | Human Action (Mises, 1949) | ||
| 1952 | The Counter-Revolution of Science (Hayek, 1952) | ||
| 1957 | Atlas Shrugged (Rand, 1957) | ||
| 1959 | Public Choice School (1959-present) | ||
| 1960 | Constitution of Liberty (Hayek, 1960) | ||
| 1962 | Calculus of Consent (Buchanan & Tullock, 1962) | ||
| Man, Economy, and State (Rothbard, 1962) | |||
| Capitalism and Freedom (M. Friedman, 1962) | |||
| 1964 | The Virtue of Selfishness (Rand, 1964) | ||
| 1970 | Power and Market (Rothbard, 1970) | ||
| 1971 | Libertarianism (J. Hospers, 1971) | ||
| 1973 | For a New Liberty (Rothbard, 1973) | ||
| Machinery of Freedom (D. Friedman, 1973) | |||
| Law, Legislation, and Liberty (Hayek, 1973-79) | |||
| 1974 | Anarchy, State, and Utopia (Nozick, 1974) | ||
| 1975 | The Limits of Liberty (Buchanan, 1975) | ||
| 1977 | Capitalism, Expectations, and the Market Process (Lachmann, 1977) | ||
| 1979 | Free to Choose (M. Friedman, 1979) | ||
| 1980 | Perception, Opportunity, and Profit (Kirzner, 1980) | ||
| 1982 | The Ethics of Liberty (Rothbard, 1982) | ||
| 1984 | Takings (Epstein, 1984) | ||
| 1988 | The Fatal Conceit (Hayek, 1988) | ||
| The Libertarian Idea (Narveson, 1988) | |||
| 1993 | The Nature of Rationality (Nozick, 1993) | ||
| 1997 | What it Means to be a
Libertarian (Murray, 1997) Libertarianism (Boaz, 1997) |
This timeline was created by Amy H. Sturgis and Larry M. Hall. © The LockeSmith Institute, 1994; updated 1997. All rights reserved.