Suggested readings foundational to Libertarian thought.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10
The Law
How is it that the law enforcer itself does not have to keep the law? How is it that the law permits the state to lawfully engage in actions which, if undertaken by individuals, would land them in jail? These are among the most intriguing issues...
The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
States are more vulnerable than people think. They can collapse in an instant—when consent is withdrawn. This is the thesis of this thrilling book. Murray Rothbard writes a classic introduction to one of the great political essays in the history...
Anatomy of the State
This gives a succinct account of Rothbard’s view of the state. Following Franz Oppenheimer and Albert Jay Nock, Rothbard regards the state as a predatory entity. It does not produce anything but rather steals resources from those engaged in...
Let’s Abolish Government
Lysander Spooner (1808–1887) is the American individualist anarchist and legal theorist known mainly for setting up a commercial post office in competition with the government and thereby being shut down. But he was also the author of some of...
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The Ethics of Liberty
Murray Rothbard’s greatest contribution to the politics of freedom is back in print. Following up on Mises’s demonstration that a society without private property degenerates into economic chaos, Rothbard shows that every interference with...
The Market for Liberty
Some great books are the product of a lifetime of research, reflection, and labored discipline. But other classics are written in a white heat during the moment of discovery, with prose that shines forth like the sun pouring into the window of a...
For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto
Book Club Discussion Guide In For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto , Rothbard proposes a once-and-for-all escape from the two major political parties, the ideologies they embrace, and their central plans for using state power against...
A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism
Here is Hans Hoppe’s first treatise in English — actually his first book in English — and the one that put him on the map as a social thinker and economist to watch. He argued that there are only two possible archetypes in economic affairs...
The Economics and Ethics of Private Property
Austrian economics puts private property at the center of its analysis of value, price, and exchange. Respect for private property is also implied by the fundamental moral principle, “Do not steal.” Hans-Hermann Hoppe has devoted his life’s work...
Busting Myths about the State and the Libertarian Alternative
In non-technical terms, the libertarian is simply someone who is against the use of force against peaceful people in civil society. You would think that this would be a universally accepted idea, but to believe in government as we know it is to...
