Bastiat truly was a man alone. Both his clear-headed thought and his indefatigable desire to bring liberty to the people of France, and eventually the world, were eminently admirable qualities. Roche's book is more of a biography of ideas and a history of the eponymous hero's socio-political milieu than a traditional biography that focuses on life events. The vast majority of Bastiat's life was supremely uneventful and of little interest to any but the most obsessive types. During his last five years, however, he went through an incredibly fruitful period and produced much of his works of genius that we are left with today. It is understandably this short period of time that Roche focuses on most.
