Some time ago we talked about adding a list of recommended
libertarian books to the LPSF website, with a similar format to our
current list of charities ("non-government solutions", where each
entry is accompanied by a list of LPSF members who recommend it), and
linking them to Amazon, to encourage more book sales that will earn us
commissions from Amazon. I told Rob I'd volunteer to compile this list.
So, if you have pro-freedom libertarian books you'd like to
recommend, please respond to this message with your lists. If
possible, include both title and author, with an eye to making sure
they are spelled correctly, to avoid any confusion. I will likely be
going onto Amazon and looking for the titles in order to find graphics
and links when putting together the list.
I propose to put the list in order of how many people recommend each
book, with books having the same number of recommendations being
listed in alphabetic order within that group. It occurred to me that
perhaps we might also want to include a brief description of each
book. If we do that, the next question is whether these descriptions
should be straightforward descriptions, or personal testimonials from
recommenders. Also, should we have a rule that people making
recommendations have actually read the book in question? That might
tend to give our list more validity in the eyes of potential readers,
but could be too restrictive. Another question -- should we have any
loose voluntary guidelines for determining what constitutes a
"libertarian book"? What do you all think?
Anyway, here are my initial recommendations of books I've actually
read that would seem to fit into a fairly narrow definition of
libertarian (books I would say have a pretty strongly libertarian
point of view):
"Healing Our World" - Dr. Mary Ruwart
"Unintended Consequences" - John Ross
"Community Technology" - Karl Hess
"Feeling Your Pain" - James Bovard
"Atlas Shrugged" - Ayn Rand
"The Fountainhead" - Ayn Rand
"Anthem" - Ayn Rand
"1984" - George Orwell
"Animal Farm" - George Orwell
"Give Me A Break" - John Stossel
"Parliament Of Whores" - P.J. O'Rourke
"The Law" - Frederic Bastiat
"The Road To Serfdom" - Friedrich Hayek
"The First Circle" - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
"Cop To Call Girl" - Norma Jean Almodovar
"The Other Path" - Hernando de Soto
"Pallas" - L. Neil Smith
"A Drug War Carol" (graphic novel) - Susan W. Wells (illust. Scott
Bieser)
Using a broader definition (books that I think have a fairly
libertarian message but are perhaps somewhat less directly libertarian
-- and it's not necessarily an easy line to draw!), I would also
recommend the following books I've actually read:
"The Whiskey Rebellion" - William Hogeland
"Imperium" - Robert Harris
"This Is Burning Man" - Brian Doherty
"The Grapes Of Wrath" - John Steinbeck
"The Ethical Slut" - Dossie Easton & Catherine Liszt
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" - Harriet Beecher Stowe
"Out Of Mao's Shadow" - Philip P. Pan
"Thomas Paine" - Craig Nelson
"One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" - Ken Kesey
Books I *haven't* actually read, but would am comfortable
recommending based on what I've heard or know about them or their
authors, include:
"The God Of The Machine" - Isabel Patterson
"The Black Book Of Communism" - Stephane Courtois, Mark Kramer
(Translator), Jonathan Murphy (Translator), Karel Bartosek, Andrzej
Paczkowski, Jean-Louis Panne, Jean-Louis Margolin (Contributors)
"Human Action" - Ludvig von Mises
"For A New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto" - Murray Rothbard
"Radicals For Capitalism" - Brian Doherty
"Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical" - Chris Sciabarra
"Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do" - Peter McWilliams
So, send in your lists and thoughts on this topic!
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))