Greetings,
I'd like to compile a methodical list of literature by people who came from the liberal prespective. If you have been converted from Liberalism to Minarchism, or Liberalism to Anarchy of some sort I need your input.
What I need is the list of books you read which ultimately got you to where you are today and in the specific order you read them in.
You can send me a PM or post them here as a reply to this thread.
I'll use your feedback for this project here. I can then compile a list and build a recommended reading list for liberals. We can use our reading lists to help us make recommendations to friends/families/others ect...
Statism is a religion.
All the statists and Keynesians will look up and shout "Save Us!" and I'll wisper "No."
Read human action, became an old fashioned libertarian.
Read Democracy: The God that Failed, and that was the end of statism for me.
This path will only work for people who have a strong interest in economics.
Microsecession as a strategy for revolution | Challenge to minarchist | How would a private road system work?
Roderick T Long's seminar on an anarchist legal order really nailed it for me. I was a confused socialist before.... But RTL was really appealing to me because I had such a strong background in philosophy. I don't think that most people would appreciate him.
"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit and the emperor remains an emperor." ~Dream
Thanks guys, keep these coming please!
Stranger:Read human action, became an old fashioned libertarian.
Human Action is not ideal I think for starters. What about prior to human action that will get people excited about it?
Snowflake:Roderick T Long's seminar on an anarchist legal order really nailed it for me. I was a confused socialist before.... But RTL was really appealing to me because I had such a strong background in philosophy. I don't think that most people would appreciate him.
Can you direct me to which seminar's your referring to specifically?
Good books for Classical Liberalism:
Jean-Baptiste Say's A Treatise on Political Economy
Benjamin Constant The Cambridge Political Writings of Benjamin Constant
Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America
John T Flynn As We Go Marching, While You Slept, Country Squire in the White House
Robert Higgs Crisis and Leviathan
Walter Block Defending the Undefendable
Murray Rothbard Betrayal of the American Right, History of Economic Thought, For a New Liberty, Ethics of Liberty, Conceived in Liberty, History of Money and Banking in the United States, America's Great Depression
Garet Garrett People's Pottage
John Denson Costs of War, Reassessing the Presidency
Ludwig von Mises Liberalism, Marxism Unmasked, Theory and History
Lysander Spooner Let's Abolish Government, Natural Law
Herbert Spencer The Man vs The State
Albert Jay Nock Our Enemy, The State
David Gordon Secession, State & Liberty
Franz Oppenheimer The State
Hans Hoppe The Myth of National Defense
'It is difficult to imagine any normal person wishing to meet Marx for a third time.' - Alexander Gray, The Socialist Tradition
Hey! Your going to end up doing my job for me. :)
That's just the classical liberal books I am reading right now. There are a whole bunch of socialist critiques but that is for another topic.
filc:Can you direct me to which seminar's your referring to specifically?
Karl Popper was a Social Democrat in his younger days in Austria, back when the Social Democrats still adhered to the tenets of Marxism.
As for non-famous people,I was until about a year ago still a card-carrying member of Iceland's left-green party, mainly because they were the only party who had a firm anti-war, anti-NATO stance. No libertarian tradition here unfortunately, so I plan to build one :D
Ludwig Von Mises Socialism , that's it. All the rest came afterwards.
Yes, it's time for the Dr Goebbels show!
My liberalism (in the Pelosi sense) was quickly remedied by these two books:
"That which is seen, and that which is not seen" by Frederic Bastiat and "Economics in one lesson" by Henry Hazlitt are still very good and very quick reads for people without the slightest understanding of economics.
Thanks Everyone! I'll be compiling a list a bit later today. Keep em comin if you have em!
Liberal
Animal Farm - Orwell
Capitalism and Freedom by M. Friedman
The Road to Serfdom
Libertarian
Economics In One Lesson
Constitution of Liberty - Hayek
Socialism - Mises
Fatal Conceit - Hayek
Minarchist
No Treason - Spooner
What Has Gov't Done To Our money - Rothbard
Power and Market - Rorhbard
For A New Liberty -Rothbard
The State - Oppenhiemer
An-Cap
Enterprise Of Law - Bruce L. Benson
Democracy is nothing more than replacing bullets with ballots
If Pro is the opposite of Con. What is the opposite of Progress?
I definitely qualify as such. I just started reading tons of Mises and Cato, and now I'm an ancap. Whodathunkit?
Periodically the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.
Thomas Jefferson
Cam Nedland: I definitely qualify as such. I just started reading tons of Mises and Cato, and now I'm an ancap. Whodathunkit?
Is there anything that first kicked it off?
An article in relation to a specific issue? Someone posted you something to read?
A man named Matthew Jones and I were talking on an Obama discussion board on facebook, and he kept using Mises links. It started for me with the concept of self-ownership and the non-aggression principle. Does that help at all?
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