The Law was originally published in French in 1850 by Frederic Bastiat. It was written two years after the third French Revolution of 1848 and a few months before his death of tuberculosis at age 49. It is the work for which Bastiat is most famous. This translation to American English is from 1874.

2011 Reprint of 1950 American Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) was a French economist, statesman and author. He did most of his writing during the years just before and just following the Revolution of February 1848 in France. This was the period during which France was turning to Socialism. "The Law" is here presented again because the same situation was perceived to being transpiring in American in 1950, when this translation was first published. The explanations and arguments then advanced...