Reading List

Introduction
What we have in common.

Top Ten List
Liberals and Libertarians
Can Agree On These

Quotes
Henry David Thoreau;
The Tao Te Ching

Reading List
Actual books!

FAQs

Links

Feedback

• Beyond Government. Read Harry Reid's essays, letters and speeches.

Periodicals:

• Liberty. A lot of intelligent, well-informed criticism and debate, and some really entertaining essays.
• Critical Review. Almost nothing but criticism and debate between libertarians, liberals, communitarians and the like. Can be a little dry..
• Reason Magazine. Read Virginia Postrel's essays. Especially check out their feature interview with humor columnist Dave Barry.

General books

• Healing Our World by Mary Ruwart. Ms. Ruwart is a new-age left-libertarian. Some of her sources include the Bible, the Tao Te Ching and Richard Bach. If you describe yourself as a bleeding-heart liberal, this book's for you. Beware: a few of her environmental arguments are influenced by Dixie Lee Ray, who is not exactly an unimpeachable source.
• Libertarianism by David Boaz. A thoughtful, history-based guide to the whole philosophy. You can get a preview off the web.
• Free to Choose, by Milton and Rose Friedman. A practical defense of limited government from an economist and his wife who [sigh...] vote Republican.
• The Machinery of Freedom by David Friedman. David goes a bit farther along the trail his father blazed and ends up defending a system in which essentially *everything* is private and voluntary. He does an excellent job of defending what he calls "anarcho-capitalism." Like his father, David is practical, not ideological. He advocates freedom because it works, not just because it is moral or provably correct in some Randian sense.
• Why Government Doesn't Work: How Reducing Government Will Bring Us Safer Cities and Better Schools by Harry Browne. A campaign book. Distills each argument down to the bare-bones essence, and tells you what he would do if elected president and why. A preview titled "What the President Can Do," is available at Harry's campaign site.

Specific books

• Licit and Illicit Drugs by the editors of Consumer Reports. A lot of powerful information, just what you expect from such a source. Hilights the vast gulf between what we think we know and the actual truth about various drugs.
• The Farm Fiasco by James Bouvard. Describes how and why government programs intended to help farmers ended up not just hurting farmers but hurting consumers and destroying the environment as well.
• The Libertarian Party's Suggested Reading List contains a lot of great books on other subjects.
• So does the catalog of Laissez-Faire Books.