If I listed the area I live in, you’d probably understand why about 90% of all students and professors at my college are at least liberal minded if not more extreme.
I’m really tired of hearing about Marx. It seems some students just pick random philosophies and hold on to them for dear life, so they can feel trendy and good about themselves. That seems to be my experience anyway.
When I told a classmate of mine that I was a capitalist, the room sort of just died. Silence. These are the sort of shocked reactions I get. It’s disgraceful.
I’m not too read up on the subject and being a student I don’t exactly have a lot of pocket change, but I’d be happy to part with it if I could destroy these presuppositions and assumptions.
Who has some good books to recommend that would be appropriate to my situation?
That would be golden.
How much do you know about economics? Basics, advanced or nothing yet?
What are you more interested in, economic, political theory or ethics?
The great thing about mises.org is that they have so much online literature readily available for your use. I’m somewhat of a fledgling like yourself, I’ve been reading this forum before and after I got back from afghanistan and only now I have started reading books. Currently I’m reading Economics in one lesson by Henry Hazlitt. If you search for literary recommendations by other users on this board to noobs, you will find that this is one of the most recommended, so you should certainly look into it.
Currently I know just the basics of austrian economics, and I’m going for a major in political science. I’m also going for a minor in philosophy, so any ethics books would be great as well.
I would go with Henry Hazlitt’s Economics In One Lesson and Gene Callahans’ Economics For Real People to start with. The basics are there, and you can build upon what you learn.
Also, as it is already mentioned above, one of the great things about the LvMI website is that many books, articles, and journals are freely available to you.
I graduated years ago, but I do recall being surrounded by Marx oriented peers and professors. Afterall, the very first day, the very first class, of my college career, we covered the Communist Manifesto.
Here are some books:
Hans Hermann Hoppe, Democracy, The God that Failed
Hans Hermann Hoppe, A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism (it might be the other way around).
And pick our minds on this forum:). A lot of my learning has been through the kind folks on this board.
There’s this post in the Politics forum that has a long list of suggested readings, too.
"Here are some books:
Hans Hermann Hoppe, Democracy, The God that Failed
Hans Hermann Hoppe, A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism (it might be the other way around)."
I have recently read MES and HA, and have been wanting to read Hoppe since his analysis seems to be near the cutting edge of Austrian theory. Should I go ahead and read these books now, or should I read some more Mises and Rothbard first?? (I’ve already read Theory & History, For a New Liberty, Betrayal of the American Right, America’s Great Depression)
Basically, I’m trying to decide between reading Socialism, Nation State and Economy, Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature, Ethics of Liberty, etc… or skipping on to reading Hoppe. Thoughts?
The Ethics of Liberty for sure. I think there are some critiques from later Austrians, but overall, there is consensus on the thoughts in that book.
I personally jump around between all the authors, not necessarily in chrono order.
The Ethics of Redistribution by Bertrand de Jouvenel
For your situation I cannot recommend any book any more highly than Murray Rothbard’s for a new liberty. Seriously, read that thing, I cannot stress this enough, it’s a primer on economics and not only an introduction to libertarian political theory but it could be considered an entire course on the subject, I really doubt you’ll be able to take Marx or Chomsky afterwards.
If you’re into philosophy I’d suggest Nietzsche, but read a primer first because his stuff is incredibly cryptic. There are a lot of things that can be picked up from him, the most powerful is simply the way that he thinks, there is perhaps no better way to learn how to resist simply going with the crowd and being forced into submission by society.
Yea read economics in one lesson, maybe econ for real people, and then just browse around in some smaller stuff, then you should be ready for Man Economy and State
I also second Democracy the God that failed even though that’s not on PDF unfortunatly 
But everything else that I said up there is available in PDF format so the total pricetag should be approximatly 0$ if you round up.
“I also second Democracy the God that failed even though that’s not on PDF unfortunatly :(”
http://www.4shared.com/file/233074401/83846e5/Democracy_The_God_that_Failed_.html
“What class was that?”
It was a Sociology class!
Hot Damn!
Thank you so much I’ve never read this and I’ve wanted to for so long. But just so you know the link you’re looking for is this:
http://www.4shared.com/document/2tdDX1qy/HOPPE_Hans-Hermann_Democracy_-.htm
The one you have up right now is a review.
ViennaSausage: “It was a Sociology class!” (regarding the Communist Manifesto")
And what was the attitude and perspective of the teacher toward this economic and political “work”?
“And what was the attitude and perspective of the teacher toward this economic and political “work”?”
The attitude was very positive towards Marx, namely his theory of the bougie vs. the proletariat. Very little economics was explicitly covered.
It is quite unfortunate that Marx appears to be basis of much of the sociological sciences.
I’d personally recommend End the Fed by Ron Paul if you’re completely new to everything. And I’d especially recommend that you tell other people to buy it if you’re arguing with them. Since most people have probably heard of the phrase and of Ron Paul before, they’ll be more likely to look both of them up. Then they’ll have an interest sparked in Austrian economics hopefully. If they really believe in Marxism, it’s only realistic to expect that they’ll read Ron Paul’s work before complex papers on economic theory and all that.
If it makes you feel any better, I attend the University of Wisconsin.