Some fundamental essays on the relation between individuals and the state. Though Stigler was an economic and social conservative, he wields his intellectual knife just as often against the right as against the left - he challenges any idea that is not grounded in evidence. Some of the essays are reprints of his statistical work on the effects (or absence of effects) of government regulations on the outcomes the regulations were intended to impact. These won him a Nobel Prize, but of course they are very dated studies today (some of the data is pre-WW2). A few of the essays are for a general audience: anyone interested in the limits of freedom in modern society. Stigler's prose is humorous and brimming with sharp observations. Stigler was a leader of the so-called Chicago School of economics. This label is often taken to mean conservative but it is more accurate to say that the School focused on empirical evidence concerning the functioning or malfunctioning of markets. ( )