I had forgotten I had Dr. Eamonn Butler's IEA Monograph, Foundations of a Free Society, from November 2013 on the bookshelf, and so far it's a good read.
In his brief introduction of the book he tells us he started writing it for people that didn't live in a "free society", quickly realised that "none of us really lives in a free society, and that very few of us understand it."
He sets about to explain "the essential foundations of a free society – foundations such as freedom, property, trade, justice, toleration, moral rules, incentives, rights, and limited government…"
Dr. Butler explains that: "Building a free society is no mean feat. The institutions of today’s (relatively) free societies have been built up over hundreds, even thousands, of years, and reflect the diverse history and culture of their populations. We cannot impose some blueprint on other societies and expect things to work out well. But by helping people to understand the foundation principles that make a free society able to function, we can at least give them the underpinning upon which they can grow their own – or indeed, keep their existing freedoms alive."
