fu reviewed The Lysander Spooner Reader by George H. Smith
None
3 stars
The best part of this particular collection of Spooner's writings was the introduction by Smith. This introduction included mentions of other writings that were not included in this collection that I think would be more valuable, that is more informative, than what was. This includes Mentions of writings on an argument against Women's suffrage, and the necessity for paper inflationary currency. Of the collection that was included, I felt Spooner did a great job on the overarching message contained within "Trial by Jury" giving a good information on why the jury of the pears is so important, and a better idea of what Jury Nullification really is (a lot of "paleo-conservatives" seem to be promoting lately that the jury has the ability to actually strike laws from the books). I find it interesting how much he referenced England. It makes me wonder if perhaps in 19th century America more folks …
The best part of this particular collection of Spooner's writings was the introduction by Smith. This introduction included mentions of other writings that were not included in this collection that I think would be more valuable, that is more informative, than what was. This includes Mentions of writings on an argument against Women's suffrage, and the necessity for paper inflationary currency. Of the collection that was included, I felt Spooner did a great job on the overarching message contained within "Trial by Jury" giving a good information on why the jury of the pears is so important, and a better idea of what Jury Nullification really is (a lot of "paleo-conservatives" seem to be promoting lately that the jury has the ability to actually strike laws from the books). I find it interesting how much he referenced England. It makes me wonder if perhaps in 19th century America more folks actually cared what England had did, most Americans now-a-days will give 0 credit to anything that is not American. I did not appreciate his continually long pointless quotes from other writers, particularly quoting in Latin and then trying to argue with himself the translation. Still many of the writings have the flavor of a student trying to meet the page/word number requirement for an assignment, but all in all a good collection on philosophy, and if one were to decide to purchase a collection of his works (which are available for free as they are in public domain now) this would be a good one. Also of note, either the table of contents or the titles in the book are wrong on the number of "No Treason: the Constitution of no Authority" however as I had read this essay previously I did not attempt to do so again. &c. viz. (common abbreviations in the writing for et cetera. and vis-Ã -vis).