LibProfs recommended reading list, v1.0

The categories below are somewhat arbitrary, but I thought it best to include a 'Basic/General' category that all here should be somewhat familiar with. There is also a 'Highly Recommended' category containing works recommended by several subscribers. These are both meant to be fairly short lists, so newcomers can get up to speed within a few weeks. A somewhat longer list of 'Extended and Specialized Reading' is included for enrichment. Last, there is a 'Fiction' category (even professors need to be entertained from time to time), and a 'Nettiquette' category.

At the end, there are a few online resources where books may be purchased, and a listing of contributors to this reading list.

• Boaz, David:
  • _Libertarianism: A Primer_ (DB)
  • _The Libertarian Reader_ (DB)
• Friedman, David: _Hidden Order_ (YJ)
• Hazlitt, Henry: _Economics in One Lesson_ (GG,YJ)
• Machan, Tibor:
  • _Liberty for the 21st Century_, with Rasmussen, ed. (AS)

    "sample pack"

  • _Political Philosophy, Essential Selections_, with Skoble, ed. (JN) [-EM]
• Nock, Albert Jay: _Our Enemy the State_ (FF,JN,JO)
• Ruwart, Mary: _Healing our World_ (JN,YJ)

  "new edition due this fall"

• Spooner, Lysander: anything (FF,JN)

  Spooner Archive

  LysanderSpooner.org

• Friedman, David: _The Machinery of Freedom_ (JN,EM,YJ)

  "superb book"

• Nozick, Robert: _Anarchy, State, and Utopia_ (ML,AS,JN)

• Anderson, Terry and P.J. Hill: "An American Experiment in Anarcho-Capitalism," _Journal of Libertarian Studies_ v.III, no.1, 1979 (AS)

  "required reading for further discussion of the so-called 'wild west'"

• Barnett, Randy: _The Structure of Liberty_ (JN)
• Bastiat, Frederick:
  • _The Law_ (JN,YJ)

    "text on the web"

  • _Economic Harmonies_ (JN,YJ)
  • _Economic Sophisms_ (YJ)
  • _Essays_ (YJ)

    "has his best piece 'The Candlemakers Petition'"

• Beito: _From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State_ (JN)
• Benson, Bruce: _The Enterprise of Law_ (GG)
• Cowen, Tyler, ed.: _The Theory of Market Failure_ (JN)
• Foldvary, Fred:
  • _Soul of Liberty_ (FF)
  • _Public Goods and Private Communities_ (FF)
  • _Dictionary of Free-Market Economics_ (FF)
  • "Recalculating Consent," in Buchanan Festschrift, 1999 (FF)

    online version

    "constitutional constraints are not sufficient to preserve liberty. The problem is the structure of government, especially voting. The basic problem is mass democracy. The antidote is small-group bottom-up multi-level 'cellular' democracy"

• Friedman, David: _Law's Order_ (YJ)
• Gordon, David: _Secession, State, and Liberty_ (KD)
• Hayek, F. A.:
  • _Individualism and Economic Order_ (EM)
  • _Law, Legislation, and Liberty_ (EM)
• Henderson, David: _The Joy of Freedom_ (JN)
• Higgs, Robert: _Crisis and Leviathan_ (KD,AS)
• Hobbes: _Leviathan_ (GG) [-EM]

  Online versions can be found at:

  Renascence Editions

  sparknotes version with context, summary, quiz, word resources

  a version hosted in the UK

  * "...you can skip part II for all but scholarly purposes ...The main things are chapters 6 through 30, and the main main things are chs. 6, 13-19, and 24, 26, and 30. Most selections you'll read will be seriously warped for failing to understand that the work is a political work only in our sense of the word: that is, it propounds a general, fundamental moral theory, and builds its political theory on that. NOT vice versa." (JN)

  * "recommend that along with, or maybe even before, tackling Leviathan, read Michael Oakeshott's 'Introduction to _Leviathan_,' conveniently available in _Rationalism & Politics_, ed. Fuller" (ME) [-JN]

• Hoppe, Hans: _The Economics and Ethics of Private Property_ (KD)
• Hummel, Jeff: _Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men_ (CL)

  "magnificently documented...slavery kept in place by northern states returning escaped slaves and by laws forcing non slave-owning southern farmers to help patrol and keep slaves where they 'belonged'. Civil War was an aggression to maintain the United States --and Lincoln's power-- rather than allowing secession. Lincoln said as much."

• de Jasay, Anthony:
  • _Against Politics_ (JN)

    "see essay 'Self-Contradictory Contractarianism'--demonstrates the extreme difficulties faced by any argument for the state as being based on the consent of the governed."

  • _The State_ (JN)
  • _Social Contract, Free Ride_ (JN)
• de La Boetie, Etienne: _The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude_ (KD)
• Lester, Jan: _Escape from Leviathan_ (JN)
• Locke, John: _2nd Treatise of Government_ (ML,AS)
• Lomasky, Loren: _Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community_ (EM)
• Machan, Tibor: _Individuals and their Rights_ (AS)
• Mill, J. S.: _On Liberty_ (AS,YJ)
• von Mises, Ludwig:
  • _Human Action_ (ML,AS)
  • _Liberalism_ (JN)
  • _Socialism_ (JN)
• Murray, Charles:
  • _In Pursuit of Happiness and Good Government_ (JN)
  • _Losing Ground_ (JN)
• Narveson, Jan:
  • _The Libertarian Idea_ (AS,JN)
  • _Respecting Persons in Theory and Practice_ (JN)
  • _Moral Matters_ (JN) [-EM]
• Payne, James: _Overcoming Welfare_ (JN)
• Rand, Ayn:
  • _Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal_ (YJ)
  • _The Virtue of Selfishness_ (YJ)
• Rasmussen and Den Uyl: _Liberty and Nature_ (AS)
• Rothbard, Murray:
  • _For a New Liberty_ (AS)
  • _Man, Economy, and State_ (GG)
  • _Ethics of Liberty_ (KD)
• Schmidtz, David: _The Limits of Government_ (JN)

  "a terrific book!"

• Selgin, George: _The Theory of Free Banking_ (FF)

  "out of print, but copies may still be available from Cato"

• Simon, Julian: _The Ultimate Resource II_ (JN)

  "opened the eyes of so many thinking people to the environmentalist scam of recent years"

• Smith, Adam: _The Wealth of Nations_ (YJ)

  "long and difficult to follow at times, but very rewarding and satisfying"

• de Soto, Hernando:
  • _The Mystery of Capitalism_ (YJ)
  • _The Other Path_ (YJ)
• Spencer, Herbert: _The Man Versus the State_ (JO)
• Steele, David Ramsay: _From Marx to Mises_ (JN)

  "seals the doom of socialist theory...more so than Mises himself. After Steele, socialism is DEAD!"

• Tannehills: _The Market for Liberty_ (GG,YJ)
• Wagner, Richard: _To Promote the General Welfare_ (JN)
• Listing of economic textbooks: basic, intermediate, advanced

• Ditko, Steve: _Static_ (DS)
• Hogan, James: _Voyage from Yesteryear_ (CL)
• Huxley, Aldous: _Brave New World_ (DS2)
• Orwell, George: _1984_ (DS2)
• Rand, Ayn:
  • _The Fountainhead_ (YJ)
  • _Atlas Shrugged_ (YJ)
  • _We the Living_ (AS)

    "quite excellent...gets to the point about how destructive socialism is"

• Russell, Eric Frank:
  • _The Great Explosion_ (CL)
  • _Wasp_ (CL)
• Smith, L. Neil:
  • _The Probability Broach_ (CL,DS)
  • _Forge of the Elders_ (YJ) [-CL]
• Vinge, Vernor: _The Ungoverned_ (CL)

  "published as part of _Across Realtime_ ... inspired by David Friedman and is a must read"

• Wilson, F. Paul: _Wheels within Wheels_ (CL)
• Listing of free-market fiction
• Prometheus Awards, by Libertarian Futurist Society

• Martin, Judith: _Miss Manners Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior: The Ultimate Handbook on Modern Etiquette_ (TF,ML)

• Laissez-Faire Books
• Cato Institute, Web store
• Liberty Tree
• Liberty Fund browse catalog
• The Journal of Libertarian Studies
• Miss Liberty's Film & TV Update, when you want to take a break from all that reading :-)

Contributors:

• AS = Aeon Skoble
• CL = Carol Low
• DB = David Boaz
• DS = Dan Schmutter
• DS2 = Daniel Shumaker
• EM = Eric Mack
• FF = Fred Foldvary
• GG = Gil Guillory
• KD = Karen De Coster
• JN = Jan Narveson
• JO = Jim Otteson
• ME = Michael Etchison
• ML = Mark LeBar
• TF = Terry Flier
• YJ = Yazad Jal
• [-xx] = a vote to exclude an item