L. Philip Vander Elst is a British freelance writer and lecturer whose many publications include Power Against People: A Christian Critique of the State (IEA, 2008) and Vindicated by History: Statism's 19th Century Critics (Cobden Centre, 2012). His article first appeared in the March 2014 issue of the American libertarian magazine, Future of Freedom, and is reproduced here by their kind permission.