In case there are newcomers interested, why don’t we consider Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson… or something geared toward an introductory readership, etc. (But then again, perhaps our discussions surrounding more advanced books would potentially help an Austrian rookie…) Any thoughts?
The real George Washington
The Real Thomas Jefferson
The Real Ben Frankiln
End The Fed By Ron Paul
The Fair Tax Book Neal Boortz
Glenn Beck Common Sense
Fair Tax the truth Neal Boortz
The Revolution A Manifesto Ron Raul
The Road To Serfdom The Definitive Edition F.A. Hayek
All great books.
I would take exception of two of them: The Fair Tax Book and Common Sense Fair Tax. The is no such thing as a fair tax. Tax is theft, what could possibly be fair about theft?
Just my opinion.
That is not a good reason (imo) to not read the book. We could still read it and then go through all its flaws. : )
My two suggestions are Man, Economy & State (including Power and Market).
or
The Economics of Prohibition by Mark Thornton
More good suggestions. We are trying to keep it down to 2 books suggested per participant, though. I think Cold Hard Cash is onto something. Honestly, and this is said with my own self interest in mind but may apply to others, I believe it would be a good idea to pick something introductory. But, you are all free to suggest what you want. Remember, Wednesday is when we all begin voting. I’ll do another post here in a moment for the list we’ve got so far. I haven’t suggested any yet either, so I’ll say “Economics in One Lesson” by Hazlitt and Irwin A Schiff’s “How and Economy grows and Why it Doesn’t” the comic book version. Both of those are free and you can get them online.
I’ll post the list of books we’ve got so far…
Efficiency and Externalities in an Open-Ended Universe - Roy Cordato
Time and Money - Roger Garrison
Liberalism - Ludwig von Mises
The State - Anthony De Jasay
Anarchy, State, Utopia - Robert Nozick
Hamilton’s Curse by Tom DiLorenzo
The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand.
Economics in One Lesson - Henry Hazlitt
How and Economy grows and Why it Doesn’t (comic) - Irwin A Schiff
That’s our list so far.
Doger also suggested these:
The real George Washington The Real Thomas Jefferson The Real Ben Frankiln End The Fed By Ron Paul The Fair Tax Book Neal Boortz Glenn Beck Common Sense Fair Tax the truth Neal Boortz The Revolution A Manifesto Ron Raul The Road To Serfdom The Definitive Edition F.A. Hayek
Man, Economy & State (including Power and Market). The Economics of Prohibition by Mark Thornton
All good suggestions Dodger, but for this project could you pick two and suggest them for the list?
We vote on between Wednesday and Friday. We can start reading this weekend.
I don’t know who advises the Roy Cordato book, but it’s actually a bit disappointing. It doesn’t add that much to the discussion in general.
Roger Garrison’s book (Time & Money) is awesome, if you want to discuss the businesscycle - and it’s relation to Keynes and monetarism - in great depth.
LIberalism is most likely to be Mises his worst book; but from a modern libertarian/anarchist perspective, there is probably a lot to debate on.
De Jasay’s ‘the state’ is awesome, and definitely a book that gets better when you are able to discuss it with other people. So is Nozick’s Anarchy, State and Utopia.
I’m not a big fan of Hamilton’s Curse, because that’s basically history; and is that really something you want to discuss?
I haven’t read Rand’s book, so I can’t commend on that one at all.
2 suggestions; “Why Perestrojka Failed” by Peter Boettke, on the problem with socialism in theory and the real existing socialism in the Soviet Union. (It’s on his website in pdf.)
“The Constitution of Liberty” by F. A. von Hayek; even though a lot of us will have severe comments on certain arguments he makes, the first ‘philosophical’ part has some merit that is worth looking into from a Misesian/Rothbardian point of view. (You can get the PDF-version online somewhere… :))
Just my 2 cents. 
Good feedback. Good suggestions too. I like that you picked things that we can get for free online. In fact, that may be something we want to consider when we vote. Again, I think for our first book something introductory AND free online would be a good candidate. But I’m not trying to institute a rule here, it’s just and idea I wanted to bounce off you guys.
How about Spooner’s No Treason or Albert Nock’s Our Enemy, The State? Both available for free.
I wouldn’t go for something introductory per se. Take for example Economics in One Lesson; basic and introductory. The ‘problem’ for this book in a bookclub however is the fact that it is introductory. I’ve had some experience with book clubs and when you take a book that everyone agrees on, the bookclub sort of fails. That doesn’t mean it has to be difficult; just no to basic.
That’s why Constitution of Liberty would be a good suggestion. I love some parts, am neutral to others and ‘hate’ others; so it’s bound to cause discussion.
I don’t know the Spencer one, nor the Nock one, so I can’t commend on those.
Hazlitt - The Foundations of Morality counts as one that fits the bill, I think, If I can add another suggestion.
That, I think is very good advice. It is the main reason I suggested ASU as when I first read it, I was still fairly new to libertarianism and it would be beneficial to reread it in light of other things I have read. Also, what you said about CoL I think for me fits exactly how I feel about ASU.
Yeah, ASU would be great, but, unfortunately, it’s not available online (to my knowledge). If we want to keep entrycosts low, than is choosing a book that we can get a good idea. (I have it, so I don’t care that much. :p)
I do believe The State is available online though, which would be a nice discussion starter. Though, I must admit I was rather biased in my picks too as I looked at which books were unread on the shelf or that I had been meaning to get back to.
You are correct.
Anarchy, State and Utopia IS AVAILABLE ONLINE. It’s on scribd.com
You guys make some good points. I do want to read the Hazlitt book, but for our book club it may not be the best choice. Still gonna leave it on the list though.
This is really going well. I have a good feeling about this. Bouncing ideas off each other is really helping us get to the good ideas fast. Keep the dialogue going folks. Day after tomorrow we start the vote.
I would suggest ‘’ the Law’’ and ‘’ Human Action’'. Two great books for any curious minded person. Read them and you will never be thinking the same as yesterday.
Peace.
Human Action is, of course, a masterpiece, and I have heard great things about Man, Economy, and State (although I have not read it). However, a full-blown treatise is a bit too ambitious for our first book IMO.
My offer for Rand’s/Branden’s The Virtue of Selfishness still stands. It is available online for free right here:
http://marsexxx.com/ycnex/Ayn_Rand-The_Virtue_of_Selfishness.pdf
I wholeheartedly agree that Human Action is mindshattering and that any student of human society would do well to read it and reread it. However, I think its length might be too ambitious as a previous poster stated for the initial selection. “The Law” is an excellent work that could be read in less then a day, i don’t know how much discussion would be gotten from it by students who are intermediate to advanced in their studies though there is always merit in rereading a work especially a classic.
The Law - Frederich Bastiat
Human Action - Ludwig von Mises
Economics In One Lesson - Henry Hazlitt
The State - Anthony De Jasay
The Virtue of Selfishness - Ayn Rand
How an Economy Grows & Why it Doesn’t - Irwin A. Schiff
Anarchy, State & Utopia - Robert Noznick
Hamilton’s Curse - Tom DiLorenzo
How’s that for the list? If we can agree on this list lets start voting. The ones that I dropped were never mentioned again in the preceding discussions and I thought it was best to keep the list short. I’d like to vote from this list. Next month we can always add more.
Voting is from this Wednesday the 28th @ 12:01 am up to 11:59 pm of Friday 30th.
Please keep you posts during the next few days short. List the book you’re voting for and maybe four or five sentences explaining why, if you believe you need to argue the case to get others to agree with you. It’s almost quarter til’ midnight now so start voting in a few minutes if you’re awake.
Why are these posts not encrypted? I thought all of the “forum” went out and back on https! This is not smart.
Anyway, isn’t Irwin Schiff’s book How an Economy Grows…a comic book? Maybe that was another title, I have purchased about ten of his - and I am sorry for being lazy, but I got fired from one job for ordering his works and (stupidly) having them delivered to the place of employment. But that was 25 years ago - when he was first jailed.