A must-read book for lovers of history and/or economics—even if you disagree with his presuppositions, articulated arguments, and viewpoints. This summarizes what those of the “classical liberal” school think of law, coercion, the government (all synonymous). He jammed this out while dying of tuberculosis in 1850, two years after France's third revolution. It's highly influenced by Locke's “Second Treatise on Government” and for those who've read it will recognize some of Hazlitt's “Economics in One Lesson” is based on Bastiat's work here. He rips into many contemporary writers and thinkers of his day, but I mostly reveled in his smacking around of Rosseau.