My first Mises Store purchase -- booklist

Miscellaneous Newbies
1

Against Intellectual Property, by N. Stephan Kinsella

Elementary Lessons in Logic, by W. Stanley Jevons

Foundations of Morality, by Henry Hazlitt

Human Action (Pocket Edition), by Ludwig von Mises

Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt

Bastiat Collection, vol. I & II, by Frederic Bastiat

Liberalism, by Ludwig von Mises

Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market (The Scholar’s Edition), by Murray N. Rothbard

Money, Sound and Unsound, by Joseph T. Salerno

Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles, by Jesus Huera de Soto

Prices and Production, by Friedrich A. von Hayek

Conceived in Liberty, vol. I, II, III, & IV, by Murray N. Rothbard

I’ve listed them in the order in which I plan to read them. It seems like a somewhat logical progression, except for perhaps the Kinsella book, which I’m (currently) reading first, only because it is so short.

Feel free to comment if you have read any of these books and have some insight. Particularly those of you who have read Human Action, which I tried to read once before but found it a difficult read–I only decided to buy it now because the Mises Institute fellows always speak so highly of it, and because it was only $10. What do you guys think of Human Action? Is it really as great as people say?

Also, feel free to post any other book titles you have read and recommend. We can just use this a general reading list post with book reviews, comments, etc.

2

I’d add the “Human Action Study Guide” to the list; only $16.

3

All of them are good reads (I have all of them), though much like most of his work I think Rothbard’s writing is a bit more engaging. I especially love his historical works, so besides the Conceived in Liberty set I’d also reccomend enthusiastically A History of Money and Banking in the United States and America’s Great Depression.

Human Action is an great book, though like you noted it can be rather dense to read through. I think to the layman MES is a bit more accessable .

4

I’d probably read Economics in One Lesson a bit sooner. By the time you get through Human Action it will be small potatoes. It’s a good warm up book.

I’m not extremely well read either, but it seems that Man, Economy, and State is easy to get into than Human Action, although HA can be amazing in parts. It’s probably worth reading through the early chapers of HA, where he deals with human cognition and the action axiom, then switch over to MES, and return to HA after a while.

They’re really books to be studied, rather than read one-off. A lot of them will complement eachother. Also, the pocket edition is probably handy, but go get the hardbound edition of Human Action. Place it next to MES and you can impress all your friends with your giant heavy books. Also good for self defense in a pinch. :smiley:

5

Don’t buy the Human Action study guide-- its readily available online. Sure, most of these are, but I would rather get study guide help online than pay for a physical copy. Human Action, though, is worth every penny-- it is just about perfect.

You can go ahead and drop Economics in One Lesson if you’re going to get a hold of MES, that will do you just fine (Hazlitt is good, but too simplistic for someone already commited to much deeper study), let alone HA, P&P, and de Soto. Considering the incredible amount of study you’ll need just for MES and HA, you may want to hold off buying de Soto and Hayek for later. Its just a lot of money all at once for stuff that will take a while to complete. The only thing I feel that is really missing is Menger, some other Mises works (Socialism and Theory and History), Bohm-Bawerk, and Kirzner-- but ESPECIALLY Menger. I would also recommend Mises’ Theory of Money and Credit over Salerno’s (still wonderful) Money, Sound and Unsound.

You can also temporarily exempt yourself from the $50 that the Bastiat Collection will cost you if you’re getting Mises’ Liberalism, which serves as a perfect introduction to classical liberalism. Albert Jay Nock’s Our Enemy, the State is perfect too for a more radical ideological tract.

I would recommend Bruce Benson’s Enterprise of Law, Butler Shaffer’s In Restraint of Trade, and Vedder/Gallaway’s Out of Work, Robert Higgs’ Crisis and Leviathan, and Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Libertarian Forum, Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, History of Money and Banking in America, and/or Wall Street, Banks, and Foreign Policy. Any combination of those would give you a nice selection of books to broaden your historical knowledge-- which I think may be better than spending a lot on something as narrow and specialized as Rothbard’s Conceived in Liberty-- which is a classic, but it pricey, and if you’re new to this, may be too narrow a focus whereas books like Crisis and Leviathan, Out of Work, History of Money and Banking, etc. have more broad classifications and theoretical applications of much worth to the newcomer.

6

this is just my opinion, but i think it would be far more beneficial to get Economics in One Lesson and then MES and then HA. Then after reading both MES and HA, read them again. there is SO much to get from MES and HA that it is nearly impossible to understand everything from only one read…

7

Don’t buy the Human Action study guide-- its readily available online. Sure, most of these are, but I would rather get study guide help online than pay for a physical copy. Human Action, though, is worth every penny-- it is just about perfect.

Since he is buying the paperback version of Human Action I don’t think he will be reading it near a computer so I think the study guide is a good addition.