Robert Higgs is Retired Senior Fellow in Political Economy, Founding Editor and former Editor at Large of the Independent Institute’s quarterly journal The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, the University of Economics, Prague, and George Mason University. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation.
He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Premio Juan de Mariana, Alexis de Tocqueville Award, Gary Schlarbaum Award for Lifetime Defense of Liberty, Thomas Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties, Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty, Friedrich von Wieser Memorial Prize for Excellence in Economic Education, Murray N. Rothbard Medal of Freedom, and Templeton Honor Rolls Award on Education in a Free Society.
Dr. Higgs is the editor of the Independent Institute books Opposing the Crusader State, The Challenge of Liberty, Re-Thinking Green, Hazardous to Our Health? and Arms, Politics, and the Economy, plus the volume Emergence of the Modern Political Economy.
He is also the author of Crisis and Leviathan, Delusions of Power, Depression, War, and Cold War, Neither Liberty Nor Safety, Resurgence of the Warfare State, Against Leviathan, The Transformation of the American Economy 1865-1914, Competition and Coercion: Blacks in the American Economy, 1865-1914, and Politická ekonomie strachu (The Political Economy of Fear, in Czech). A contributor to numerous scholarly volumes, he is the author of more than 100 articles and reviews in academic journals.
His popular articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Providence Journal, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, Society, Reason, AlterNet, and many other publications and Web sites, and he has appeared on Fox News, NPR, NBC, ABC, C-SPAN, CBN, CNBC, America’s Talking Television, Radio America Network, Radio Free Europe, Talk Radio Network, Voice of America, Newstalk TV, the Organization of American Historians’ public radio program, and scores of local radio and television stations. He has also been interviewed for articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Terra Libera, Investor's Business Daily, UPI, Orlando Sentinel, Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune, National Journal, Reason, Washington Times, WorldNetDaily, Folha de Sao Paulo, Newsmax, Financial Times, Al-Ahram Weekly, Creators Syndicate, and elsewhere.
Dr. Higgs has spoken at more than 100 colleges and universities and at the meetings of such professional organizations as the Economic History Association, Western Economic Association, Population Association of America, Southern Economic Association, International Economic History Congress, Public Choice Society, International Studies Association, Cliometric Society, Allied Social Sciences Association, American Political Science Association, American Historical Association, and others.
