6. Bibliography READING FOR LIBERTY

As this is a collection of speeches, I’ve avoided footnoting in this volume, but all quotations have been checked for reliability. The quotations from Ludwig von Mises are from Socialism, Liberalism, Human Action, and Nation, State, and Economy, all of which are online (a Google search reveals precise sourcing information), as well as Notes and Recollections and Omnipotent Government. Quotations from Murray N. Rothbard are “The Anatomy of the State,” “Mises and the Role of the Economist in Public Policy,” “Invade the World,” and Ludwig von Mises: Scholar, Creator, Hero, all of which are online. The quotations from John Randolph are from his “Speech on Executive Powers”; V.I. Lenin from The Collected Works; Isabel Paterson from the God of the Machine; J.M. Keynes, the General Theory; F.A. Hayek, “The Pretence of Knowledge”; from Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy; from Robert LeFevre, This Bread Is Mine; and from Frédéric Bastiat, Economic Harmonies. Other sources, from new and old popular sources, are generally clear from the text.

Aside from those directly mentioned, there is the broader and more important list of books and ideas that form the ideological foundation of this book. This volume would be a lot longer if I listed all the books I love and heartily recommend. But I offer this short account as a list of volumes essential to my understanding of the world.

In economics, there are two pillars: Human Action: A Treatise on Economics by Ludwig von Mises, Scholar’s Edition (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, [1949] 1998) and Man, Economy, and State, by Murray N. Rothbard, Scholar’s Edition (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, [1962] 2004). The Scholar’s Edition of Man, Economy, and State is joined for the first time with Power and Market (Kansas City, Mo.: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1970) as Rothbard originally had intended. What’s in Mises’s book? Enough to ignite a revolution in the social sciences and in the political realm as well. It’s hard to believe that one mind could produce such a treatise.

Rothbard’s book, meanwhile, began as a textbook on Human Action but became its own independent treatise, one especially valued by economics students who require a rigorous theoretical apparatus to counter fallacies taught in the classroom, as well as a wonderful account of everything that is wrong with State intervention. I would say that both need to be thoroughly understood but, in fact, that is unrealistic for most people in a lifetime. In any case, they both should be read.

Continuing with Mises, his volume Bureaucracy (South Holland, Ill., Libertarian Press, [1944] 1994) applies his argument against socialism to explain why the public sector does not work. His Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow (Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Free Market Books, [1959] 1995) is a transcript of lectures and has proven very popular over the years. His Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (Indianapolis, Ind.: LibertyClassics, [1922] 1995) is more than an economic attack on collectivism; it counters a huge range of social, cultural, and political arguments for socialism. And it is written with an intellectual exuberance that could have only come from the ferment of interwar Austria.

Mises’s first book, Theory of Money and Credit (Indianapolis, Ind.: LibertyClassics, [1912] 1995), still goes a long way toward explaining the monetary disorders of our time. Finally, his Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, [1957] 1985) is a systematic exposition of the place of economics within the social sciences and a systematic argument against antieconomic ideologies.

Continuing with Rothbard, An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, 2 vols. (Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar, 1995) shows that economics predated Adam Smith and that the British School was something of a comedown from the Continental tradition.

Rothbard’s What Has Government Done to Our Money? (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, [1964] 1990) has been translated into many languages for a reason: it is the single best account of how the free market can manage money better than the State. His History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2002) applies the lesson to American history. For shorter articles on applications of Austrian theory, and to see why he is so esteemed as a writer, see the shorter items that comprise his Making Economic Sense (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 1995).

For an introduction to Austrian economics, see Gene Callahan’s Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2002), and for the origins of the science in the High Middle Ages, see Alejandro A. Chafuen, Faith and Liberty: The Economic Thought of the Late Scholastics (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2003).

David Gordon provides An Introduction to Economic Reasoning (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2000) while Henry Hazlitt’s famous Economics in One Lesson, 50th Anniversary Edition (San Francisco: Fox & Wilkes, 1996) still holds up. For further elaboration on the implications of economic science for the world, I recommend Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Economics and Ethics of Private Property: Studies in Political Economy and Philosophy (Norwell, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993) and A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism (Norwell, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989).

On the history of taxation, see Charles Adams, For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization (Lanham, Md.: Madison Books, 2001), in which he shows the central role that taxes play. For understanding the current moment in politics in light of the last 400 years, nothing beats Martin van Creveld’s amazing Rise and Decline of the State (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

For American history in particular, I recommend Robert Higgs’s Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987) and John V. Denson, ed., Reassessing the Presidency: The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2001). On the founding, see The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates, Ralph Ketcham, ed. (New York: Mentor Books, 1996). It turns out that the skeptics of the Constitution were exactly right! On the Civil War, read Thomas DiLorenzo’s the Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War (New York: Prima Publishing, 2002) in which he shows that Lincoln was an inflationist, mercantilist, and all-round proponent of big government, and Charles Adams’s When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Little-field, 2000), which defends the right to secession, while deprecating the war.

Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, [1963] 2000) remains the definitive account of what caused the calamity (it wasn’t the free market). And if you really want to understand American history, you must start long before the Constitution, and your best guide is Rothbard’s Conceived in Liberty, 4 vols. (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 1999).

On war, a wonderful and sweeping treatise is John V. Denson, ed., the Costs of War: America’s Pyrrhic Victories, 2nd ed. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1997). On World War I, see Paul Fussell, the Great War and Modern Memory (New York: Oxford, 2000); Thomas Fleming, the Illusion of Victory: America in World War I (New York: Basic Books, 2003), Niall Ferguson’s the Pity of War: Explaining World War I (New York: Basic Books, 2000), and Ludwig von Mises’s Nation, State, and Economy: Contributions to the Politics and History of Our Time (New York: New York University Press, [1919] 1983).

On World War II, see Thomas Fleming’s the New Dealers’ War: F.D.R. and the War Within World War II (New York: Basic Books, 2001); John T. Flynn’s As We Go Marching (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1944); Garet Garrett’s the People’s Pottage (Belmont, Mass.: Western Islands, 1965); and Ludwig von Mises’s Omnipotent Government: The Rise of Total State and Total War (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1969), which is the best attack on national socialism ever written. Mises writes of those who would romanticize war; two outstanding antidotes to such nonsense are Paul Fussell’s Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) and Chris Hedges’s War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (New York: Public Affairs, 2002). On postwar politics, see William Appleman Williams’s the Tragedy of American Diplomacy (New York: W.W. Norton, 1988).

For a political outlook, I’ll again stick with books that depart radically from the mainstream. Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Democracy–The God That Failed (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2001) will change your thinking about freedom and the vote. Mises’s Liberalism: In the Classical Tradition (San Francisco: Cobden Press, [1929] 1985) remains the best modern statement of the classical ideal, with an appropriate emphasis on peace and property.

On statism generally, reading Albert Jay Nock’s Our Enemy, the State (Tampa, Fla.: Hallberg Publishing, 2001) is a transforming experience, and the same is true of Herbert Spencer’s The Man Versus the State: With Six Essays on Government, Society, and Freedom (Indianapolis, Ind.: Liberty-Classics, [1884] 1995). Etienne de la Boétie’s Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1998) was written in 1552, but it explains why people go along with the birds that are ruling us today (the Rothbard introduction is indispensable).

Secession, State, and Liberty (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1998), edited by David Gordon, is your guide to breaking up the consolidated state. John T. Flynn’s the Roosevelt Myth (New York: Fox & Wilkes, [1948] 1998) remains the essential debunking of his icon (the Ralph Raico introduction is crucial). Murray N. Rothbard’s Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2000) is Rothbard at his applied best, while the Ethics of Liberty (New York: New York University Press, 1998) is the best modern treatise on political theory. Rothbard’s For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto (New York: Fox & Wilkes, 1989) is the libertarian manifesto, and still the best introduction to the libertarian worldview.

Two other Rothbard books offer spectacular commentary on our times: Freedom, Inequality, Primitivism, and the Division of Labor (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 1991) and the Irrepressible Rothbard (Burlingame, Calif.: Center for Libertarian Studies, 2000). To understand neoconservatism, see Justin Raimondo’s Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement (Burlingame, Calif.: Center for Libertarian Studies, 1993). For a frightening look at the social and cultural consequences of modern statism, see Paul Gottfried’s After Liberalism: Mass Democracy in the Managerial State (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001) and Helmut Schoeck’s magisterial book Envy (Indianapolis, Ind.: Liberty Fund, [1966] 1987).

My own Website (LewRockwell.com) offers detailed bibliographies on history and war, while Mises.org keeps its Study Guide constantly up to date. For war coverage see antiwar.com, for economic commentary and books see Mises.org, and for political commentary see LewRockwell.com. By the way, many of the books listed above are available online.