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… is from page 304 of my colleague Peter Boettke’s 2021 paper “Liberalism, Socialism, and Our Future,” as this essay appears as the Conclusion to Pete’s excellent 2021 book, The Struggle for a Better World [2]:
True liberal radicalism, as we have stressed, was born in the struggle for emancipation from dogma, from subjugation, from violence, from poverty. The goal was to find the set of institutions that would minimize human suffering and maximize the opportunities for human flourishing – a system that could empower and grant freedom to all, rather than a select few. The liberal plan of equality, liberty, and justice would deliver autonomy, prosperity, and peace.
DBx: Pictured here is Richard Cobden [3], who clearly saw – and emphasized – the positive connection between free markets, including of course free trade, and peace.