Essays – Joseph Bast | Writing

Dark Light

The Ridpath Library consists of brief bios and short excerpts from the works of thousands of “the world’s most eminent authors,” as judged by Ridpath and his team of “most capable scholars.”

Essays

A Discovery that Rocked My World

December 10, 2025

Dr. Cochrane simply ignores the lessons we’ve learned from trying to implement unilateral free trade with countries that are unwilling to reciprocate and, worse, have weaponized trade to wage economic and even kinetic war on the U.S.

Essays

Why Not Tariffs?

December 4, 2025

Imagine how happy I am to have discovered that Gerd Gigerenzer emerged as an outspoken critic of “behavioral economics."

Essays

The Fallacies of Behavioral Economics

September 22, 2023

With the help of dedicated board members and Heartland’s senior staff, we found the ideal candidate to take my place and successfully wooed him. Tim Huelskamp started full-time in July.

Essays

Leadership for a New Era of Freedom

August 1, 2017

School choice has finally arrived. New programs are starting and existing programs are being expanded in unprecedented numbers.

Essays

Finally, School Choice Arrives

March 1, 2017

Climate realism is part of a bigger pro-energy, pro-environment, and pro-jobs agenda.

Essays

Winning the Global Warming War

February 1, 2017

Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 2016 national election will be the subject of countless books for many years. Why did he win?

Essays

A Second Chance for Freedom

January 1, 2017

The following history of The Heartland Institute describes as objectively as possible how the organization has changed over the years.

Essays

History of The Heartland Institute

December 11, 2016

Freedom is rising at the state and local levels in much of the country. It is being lost – “floating away” – at the national level.

Essays

Freedom Rising … or Floating Away?

August 1, 2016

Why build a library devoted to liberty? Because freedom is first and foremost an idea, not a social or political movement. That idea is contained in literature.

Building a Library for Liberty

May 1, 2016