Economic Sophisms - Frédéric Bastiat

What gives this work its unique quality and places it among the classics of economic literature is not only the logical rigor with which each fallacy is demolished, but the highly original and striking way in which the author uses wit, irony, satire, dialogue, and apologue to reduce erroneous ideas to patent absurdity, as, for example, in his famous petition of the candlemakers for protection against the competition of the sun.

The essays in Economic Sophisms have come to be recognized as among the most cogent and persuasive refutations of the major fallacies of protectionism-fallacies that are still with us today and that will continue to crop up as long as the public remains uninstructed. The great lesson that all these essays teach, in one form or another, is the necessity of always looking at economic questions from the point of view of the consumer, rather than that of the producer. With an introduction by Henry Hazlitt, the notes of the French editor, and explanatory comments by the translator designed to elucidate all references that the modern reader might find obscure, this edition contains abundant cross references to the two other works of Bastiat, Selected Essays on Political Economy and Economic Harmonies, also available from the Foundation for Economic Education.

Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 292
Year of publication: 1996
ISBN: 9780910614146