Books Every Libertarian Should Read

December 3, 2014

December 1, 2014—One of the most common questions I get is, what should I read? There are so many great libertarian texts to choose from. Watch this free episode of the Ron Paul Channel for my recommendations.

I frequently mention The Road to Serfdom by Frederich Hayek, an Austrian economist. It’s not the easiest book to start with. To begin, I would pick Frederick Bastiat’s The Law. It’s very short, easy to ready, and very clear. By knowing the morality of the law, you can then understand everything else we are talking about. It’s as simple as the fact that you, as a citizen, have limitations. You can’t hurt other people or take others’ property. And if The Road to Serfdom: T... F. A. Hayek, Bruce Cal... Best Price: $3.06 Buy New $1.99 (as of 03:40 UTC - Details) you’re not supposed to do it, the government shouldn’t do it either.

The next book I recommend is Henry Hazlit’s Economics in One Lesson. He befriended Ludwig von Mises when he escaped Nazi Germany. This book is a great introduction to free market economics. It’s been around for a long time and offers a broad viewpoint of economic policy.

Murray Rothbard’s book, America’s Great Depression, was an eye-opener for me. It dispelled the whole mess of the 30s and how it was Roosevelt who introduced so much welfarism and debt and war. Murray goes through this and shows how the seeds of the Great Depression were planted in the 20s.

Last, I have one book that happens to be authored by myself. I tried to put into one book a description of how to take our philosophy and apply it to specific issues. That’s Liberty Defined. There are 50 small chapters in there. I think it offers a good way to use the philosophy in specific events.

There are a lot more books and they are available now. In the old days when I was trying to find books, there was no Internet and everything was saturated with socialist texts. Pick up one of these today and happy reading!

Reprinted from Voices of Liberty.

The Law Frederic Bastiat Best Price: $0.99 Buy New $5.80 (as of 06:15 UTC - Details)

Economics in One Lesso... Hazlitt, Henry Best Price: $2.43 Buy New $7.43 (as of 12:35 UTC - Details)

America’s Great ... Rothbard, Murray N. Best Price: $2.12 Buy New $59.88 (as of 01:10 UTC - Details)

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Dr. Ron Paul is a former member of Congress and Distinguished Counselor to the Mises Institute.

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