When OUR ENEMY THE STATE appeared in 1935, its lit­er­ary merit rather than its philo­sophic con­tent attracted atten­tion to it. The times were not ripe for an accep­tance of its pre­dic­tions, still less for the argu­ment on which these pre­dic­tions were based. Faith in tra­di­tional fron­tier indi­vid­u­al­ism had not yet been shaken by the course of events. Against this faith the argu­ment that the same eco­nomic forces which in all times and in all nations drive toward the ascen­dancy of polit­i­cal power at the expense of social power were in oper­a­tion here made lit­tle head­way. That is, the feel­ing that “it can­not hap­pen here” was too dif­fi­cult a hur­dle for the book to over­come. Read on… →