Where should I start?

Philosophy & Economics: General

Addison Barton May 26, 2016 at 1:09 am

Hello all! I am very excited to have joined liberty.me. I have only been a “libertarian” for about 2 years. I was wondering if any of you had suggestions on which books or ideas to explore first? I’m fairly certain I’m more of the minarchist persuasion but am eager to learn more about all the different flavors of liberty. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Jakob Renner May 26, 2016 at 1:46 am

Bastiats The Law is a great book. Also FEE (The Foundation of Economic Education) has some great resources. Hope that helps.

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  Lee Roesner May 26, 2016 at 6:33 am
  
  Could not agree more…short, simple and logical…wisdom.
  
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    Daniel Burke May 26, 2016 at 8:22 am
    
    Another vote for Bastiat.
    
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Rob Wells May 26, 2016 at 3:09 am

mises.org has a wealth of material and many books free in pdf form.

Tom Woods has a great daily podcast, he has a eclectic bunch of guests and is able to get the best out of all of them, all of his 666 podcasts are available online. For a small fee you can access his Liberty Classroom with lectures on a range of historical, philosophical and economic topics.

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  The Usual Suspects May 29, 2016 at 1:20 pm
  
  Until some time ago I would have suggested the same. After reading some stuff, and connecting some dots, that’s not my suggestion anymore. Until Lew Rockwell controls the Mises Institute I think it’s better to concentrate on other primary resources, instead of listening to the bullshit nazi propaganda Tom Woods and Lew Rockwell are spreading lately.
  
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Greg Altenberger May 26, 2016 at 10:13 am

Welcome aboard Addison! Jeff’s list of classics is not a bad place to start: https://liberty.me/library/25-life-changing-classics/

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Michael Bunch May 26, 2016 at 12:42 pm
Addison, I’d say:
- Murray Rothbard for anarchism.
- Frederic Bastiat for classical liberalism (Jean Baptiste Say is good too).
- F.A. Hayek for minarchy.
- Albert Nock for the Old Right.
After reading them, I think you’ll find some really good references to other works and be able to feel your way around the materials further. Happy reading!
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Kevin Victor May 26, 2016 at 1:09 pm

All mentioned are good especially The Law as an introduction. If you want to take the harder route like learning C++ as your first programming language, I would read Herbert Spencer’s works(Social Statics, The Man Versus the State). Menger, Hayek, Rothbard, Nock, even Rand were influenced by his philosophies.

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Properal May 26, 2016 at 7:48 pm

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt

Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell

Chaos Theory by Robert P. Murphy (Audio)

Anatomy of the State by Murray N. Rothbard

For A New Liberty by Murray N. Rothbard (audiobook)

The Machinery of Freedom by David Friedman (e-book) and (audiobook).

The Market for Liberty by Morris and Linda Tannehill (audiobook)

The Problem of Political Authority by Michael Huemer

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Rob Wells May 26, 2016 at 11:19 pm

Lot’s of good book recommendations!

Personally I wouldn’t recommend a Classical Liberal text as an introduction to Libertarianism, partially because stylistically they tend to be dated but principally because I see Classical Liberalism as a failed political philosophy and the libertarian response addresses those failures. Not to say that Bastiat et al are not a good read but not as an introduction IMO.

A couple of more recent suggestions might be Gerard Casey’s “Libertarian Anarchy” and Chase Rachel’s “Spontaneous Order” which has a good introduction by Stephan Kinsella.

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The Usual Suspects May 29, 2016 at 1:26 pm

A book unknown to most libertarians is The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible by Ken Schoolland.

Also, if you want a strong individualistic basis read Ayn Rand‘s The Virtue of Selfishness.

One of the first books that influenced me was The Open Society and its Enemies by Karl R. Popper.

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Dave Wolfe June 1, 2016 at 9:31 pm

Rothbard — Anatomy of the State is a good quick read.

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