THE STATE _ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT VIEWED SOCIOLOGICALLY_ _By_ FRANZ OPPENHEIMER, M.D., PH.D. Professor of Political Science in the University of Frankfort-on-Main _Authorized Translation_ _By_ JOHN M. GITTERMAN, PH.D., LL.B. (Of the New York County Bar) [Illustration] NEW YORK VANGUARD PRESS _Copyright_, 1914 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY _Copyright_, 1922 B. W. HUEBSCH, INC. VANGUARD PRINTINGS _First--August, 1926_ _Second--February, 1928_ PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE MAN (1864--): _Franz Oppenheimer_, one of a fairly large number of British, French and German physicians who abandoned their medical pursuits and rose to fame as political economists, was born in Berlin. He studied and practiced medicine, became private Lecturer of Economics at the Berlin University in 1909, and Professor of Sociology at the Frankfort University in 1919. His libertarian views made him, for many years, the target of academic persecutions, until the growing fame of his masterpiece, _The State_, effectively silenced his detractors. THE BOOK (1908): The organic history of the State is a long and exciting adventure, usually rendered dull in learned accounts. Not so in Oppenheimer’s _The State_ which extracts that history, in a highly stimulating manner, from the sharp necessities and homicidal conflicts of all sorts and conditions of men, from the Stone Age to the Age of Henry Ford. The easy flow of important information derivable from this German volume has rendered it highly acceptable to American readers. OTHER BOOKS BY DOCTOR FRANZ OPPENHEIMER Die Siedlungsgenossenschaft 1896 Grossgrundeigentum und Soziale Frage 1898 Das Grundgesetz der Marxschen Gesellschaftslehre 1903 Robertus’ Angriff auf Ricardos Renten-theorie und der Lexis-Diehl’sche Rettungsversuch 1908 David Ricardos Grundrententheorie 1909 Theorie der Reinen und Politischen Ökonomie 1910 AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE SECOND AMERICAN EDITION This little book has made its way. In addition to the present translation into English, there are authorized editions in French, Hungarian and Serbian. I am also informed that there are translations published in Japanese, Russian, Hebrew and Yiddish; but these, of course, are pirated. The book has stood the test of criticism, and has been judged both favorably and unfavorably. It has, unquestionably, revived the discussion on the origin and essence of the State.