Here’s what I think is essential reading. As far as I’m concerned, you don’t need to read any further than this, unless you plan on becoming an academic. Therefore, I have not put Human Action or Man, Economy and State here, or any of the other great works, because they’re too technical and need only be read in small bits. The reading list is mainly intended for the layperson and political activists.
The two main issues for libertarians are the Fed & war. Therefore, I’ve not included minor issues like IP.
WAR AND PEACE
Crisis and Leviathan
Depression, War and Cold War
The Myth of National Defense
The Costs of War
The Road to Serfdom
ECONOMICS
Meltdown
The Revolution: A Manifesto
Economics in One Lesson
The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays
America’s Great Depression
15 Great Austrian Economists
PHILOSOPHY
Egalitarianism as a Revolt against Nature
The Ethics of Liberty
Power and Market
For A New Liberty
Chaos Theory (by Robert Murphy)
Well that’s pretty much it. Anything else can be read for free from the internet. But I think that the above books are essential for any libertarian.
actually a person coming fresh from the whirlwind of delusion most people cal reality needs a basic primer on rational thinking before they can even grasp most of those works.
AFAIK no such primer exists, though the people at lesswrong talk about it a lot. I would regard the creation of such a huge milestone. I personally had to learn it piecemeal from studying logical fallacies and cognitive bias and slowly applying the lessons to more and more categories.
I notice there’s not a single book by Ludwig von Mises on that list, yet it’s somehow essential reading. As for MES and HA they’re the two most important works in the Austrian school, so how they cannot be in any Austrian essentials list is beyond me. You also lack the book that started the school, Menger’s Principles of Economics. Moreover it does not have a single work on epistemology, capital structure of economic calculation.
Well essentially it was partly tailored to myself & meant to be posted within “A trip to the Mises Bookstore”, but because there were so many hyperlinks it had to be modded, so it was posted.
The list is more tailored to the Amateur and those who wish to be activists, and not the academic. I think the list fits it’s role pretty well.
I agree, but this is a list for amateurs/beginners! Human Action and Rothbards treatise are advanced books mostly read by professional economists.
EDIT: I’ve tried to provide a broad range of introductory books that touch on many areas. Some of them do talk about epistemology, capital structure and economic calculation, although very briefly.
Giles, I think his list is fine for an amateur. HA and MES may be essential reading for an Austrian, but they would overwhelm an amateur in economics.
Actually hasn’t Hazlitt got a book on thinking properly? People should invest in a book on logical reasoning to, of which the best I know is David Kelley’s The Art of Reasoning.