This is unabridged, original text of this infamous book. Might Is Right, or The Survival of the Fittest, is a book by pseudonymous author Ragnar Redbeard. First published in 1890, it heavily advocates social Darwinism, amoralism, and psychological hedonism. In Might is Right, Redbeard rejects conventional ideas of human and natural rights and argues that only strength or physical might can establish moral right (la Callicles). Libertarian historian James J. Martin called it "surely one of the most incendiary works ever to be published anywhere." Leo Tolstoy discussed the philosophy of Might Is Right in his 1897 essay What Is Art?: "The substance of this book, as it is expressed in the editor's preface, is that to measure "right" by the false philosophy of the Hebrew prophets and "weepful" Messiahs is madness. Right is not the offspring of doctrine, but of power. All laws, commandments, or doctrines as to not doing to another what you do not wish done to you, have no inherent authority whatever, but receive it only from the club, the gallows, and the sword. A man truly free is under no obligation to obey any injunction, human or divine. Obedience is the sign of the degenerate. Disobedience is the stamp of the hero. Men should not be bound by moral rules invented by their foes. The whole world is a slippery battlefield. Ideal justice demands that the vanquished should be exploited, emasculated, and scorned. The free and brave may seize the world. And, therefore, there should be eternal war for life, for land, for love, for women, for power, and for gold. The earth and its treasures is "booty for the bold." The author has evidently by himself, independently of Nietzsche, come to the same conclusions which are professed by the new artists."

The Authoritative Edition of Might is Right by Ragnar Redbeard. The variant text of the five editions published in the author's lifetime harmonized into one. Thousands of previously undocumented citations and a never-before-published index. Featuring a new introduction by Peter H. Gilmore, High Priest of the Church of Satan.

Why do great powers accommodate the rise of some challengers but contain and confront others, even at the risk of war? When Right Makes Might proposes that the ways in which a rising power legitimizes its expansionist aims significantly shapes great power responses. Stacie E. Goddard theorizes that when faced with a new challenger, great powers will attempt to divine the challenger’s intentions: does it pose a revolutionary threat to the system or can it be incorporated into the existing international order? Goddard departs from conventional theories of international relations by arguing that great powers come to understand a contender’s intentions not only through objective capabilities or costly signals but by observing how a rising power justifies its behavior to its audience. To understand the dynamics of rising powers, then, we must take seriously the role of legitimacy in international relations. A rising power’s ability to expand depends as much on its claims to right as it does on its growing might. As a result, When Right Makes Might poses significant questions for academics and policymakers alike. Underpinning her argument on the oft-ignored significance of public self-presentation, Goddard suggests that academics (and others) should recognize talk’s critical role in the formation of grand strategy. Unlike rationalist and realist theories that suggest rhetoric is mere window-dressing for power, When Right Makes Might argues that rhetoric fundamentally shapes the contours of grand strategy. Legitimacy is not marginal to international relations; it is essential to the practice of power politics, and rhetoric is central to that practice.

“A powerful and timely addition to the literature of rhetoric and folklore.” —Choice In 1860, Abraham Lincoln employed the proverb Right makes might—opposite of the more aggressive Might makes right—in his famed Cooper Union address. While Lincoln did not originate the proverb, his use of it in this critical speech indicates that the fourteenth century phrase had taken on new ethical and democratic connotations in the nineteenth century. In this collection, famed scholar of proverbs Wolfgang Mieder explores the multifaceted use and function of proverbs through the history of the United States, from their early beginnings up through their use by such modern-day politicians as Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Bernie Sanders. Building on previous publications and unpublished research, Mieder explores sociopolitical aspects of the American worldview as expressed through the use of proverbs in politics, women’s rights, and the civil rights movement—and by looking at the use of proverbial phrases, Mieder demonstrates how one traditional phrase can take on numerous expressive roles over time, and how they continue to play a key role in our contemporary moment.

Comments on the defeat of Gary Hart and Alan Keyes in the presidential campaign, and re-examines the failure of the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition after two decades of political maneuvering.

Is it possible that the famous duel between Hamilton and Burr was part of a judgment against the two by a secret society they formed decades prior to create an American shadow government? This story, telling of the lives of two great rivals, lies somewhere between a Robert E. Howard pastiche and a Yankee version of Thomas Dixon Jr. Rival Caesars is a fantasy Revolutionary War tale by the man who penned the infamous philippic titled Might is Right. Arthur Desmond, who wrote as Ragnar Redbeard, here uses the nom de guerre Desmond Dilg. Might is Right ends thus: "P.S. Book II will be issued when circumstances demand it." The 1903 novel Rival Caesars is that book. Preceding his time as one of the earliest proponents of an American Nietzscheanism, Desmond was an Antipodean radical, fighting in the streets alongside anarcho-communists and trade unionists. He stood for election as a labor candidate and promoted Georgism to both Māori and Europeans in New Zealand and Australia. Fleeing the law, he settled in America among the Chicago bohemian scene, and his radicalism turned from collective rights to individualist might. While Might is Right was intended as an awakening call for "mighty men of valor," Rival Caesars is the plan of action, plotted out under the guise of a historical romance. This novel is nothing short of a rallying cry to an American Caesar to claim their share of pelf, prominence, and prestige in the vein of Napoleon or Cecil Rhodes. Incredibly rare for nearly a century, here, finally, is an accessible and beautifully designed paperback edition, with an authoritative introductory essay by Darrell W. Conder. While it will never be as infamous as its predecessor, Rival Caesars is the ultimate book by the man known as Ragnar Redbeard.