Leonard E. Read argues that individuals should be free to do anything they please so long as it is peaceful, and he maintains that the sole legitimate role of government is to keep the peace, protecting against force and fraud. He illustrates how free human cooperation drives innovation and prosperity—most famously through the essay I, Pencil—demonstrating that even the simplest objects result from complex, peaceful, market‐driven collaboration. Read warns that socialism undermines creativity and individual responsibility by relying on coercion, stifling the dynamic interdependence of a free society, and argues that peaceful freedom—not state control—is the foundation of civilization.