I am helping start a libertarian group on my campus. I’ve decided to take charge and start a book club within the group. I’m thinking I can take a 1-2 chapters from books from mises.org and elsewhere, and read them per meeting. If people like it, they can then read the rest of the book. I was also thinking articles may be a good idea.
I want to start off with 2 chapters from Walter Block’s Defending the Undefendeable. Any suggestions on which chapters, as well as any literature you think would be good to share, or articles?
Anything from “For a New Liberty” would be absolutely awesome. I’d take some sections from “Human Action” from the chapter on the market, definitely include some stuff from “Democracy The God that Failed” when talking about the failure of government, and “Economics in One Lesson” when talking about any economic topics.
This would be really interesting. I assume that the people who would join a campus libertarian group are, how shall I say it, Libertarian-lite. I think it would be fun to introduce them to the more hardcore literature.
I think Ethics of Liberty would be a great place to start. I don’t agree with everything in it, but anything by Rothbard really is a fascinating read. When I initially became a libertarian, I was a little put-off by all the Rothbard enthusiasts, but after reading him myself, I can see why they were excited about his works.
As for specific chapters, I like the “Nature Of The State” and “The Inner Contradictions of The State” from EoL, but perhaps it would be best to study EoL completely as these chapters come after his initial set of explanations for libertarian morality. Chapter 3 of For A New Liberty (“The State”) would also be a great anti-statist primer.
If you’re gonna do Rothbard, maybe go with something brief like Anatomy of the State. Even shorter and more mainstream-friendly: I, Pencil (not a book, but good for getting people to come back). Some of the essays in Long’s Anarchism/Minarchism would be great as well (I’m thinking of the Hasnas one especially).