Well, I was going to compile a list myself, but most helpfully an extensive one already exists here. I'll just replicate it. I'll add some additional works anyway in a separate post, and highlight those which I think are of great importance. I'll leave the thread unlocked for a while should anyone have suggestions or comments.
Agorism.info Against Politics Albert Loan’s Institutional Bases of the Spontaneous Order: Surety and Assurance Alfred Cuzán’s Do We Ever Really Get Out of Anarchy? (PDF file) Anarchism.net Anarcho-Capitalism: An Annotated Bibliography Anthony de Jasay’s The State Arthur Silber’s I Accuse: To Those Who Pave the Way for the New Fascism Anti-State.com Birgir Runolfsson Solvason’s Institutional Evolution in the Icelandic Commonwealth (PDF file) Birgir Runolfsson Solvason’s Ordered Anarchy, State, and Rent-Seeking: The Icelandic Commonwealth, 930-1262 [Note: whenever links in this piece don’t work change www.hag.hi.is to www.hi.is] Bob Black’s The Libertarian as Conservative Bob Murphy’s Private Law Bob Murphy’s Insuring Chaos Theory Bob Murphy’s Minerva Bob Murphy’s But Wouldn’t Warlords Take Over? Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade Brad Edmonds’ Why Government Must Be Abolished Brad Edmonds’ Why Abolishing Government Would Not Bring Chaos Brad Edmonds’ How to Abolish Government Brad Edmonds’ Abolishing Government Improves the Roads Brad Edmonds’ How to Persuade Others to Abolish Government Brad Edmonds’ Government Will Be Abolished Brad Edmonds’ Why the Public Puts Up With Abusive Cops Bruce Benson’s The Enterprise of Customary Law Bruce Benson’s Customary Law With Private Means of Resolving Disputes (PDF file) Bruce Benson’s Enforcement of Private Property Rights in Primitive Societies (PDF file) Bruce Benson’s Guns for Protection and Other Private-Sector Responses to Crime (PDF file) Bruce Benson’s Reciprocal Exchange as the Basis for Recognition of Law (PDF file) Bruno Leoni’s Freedom and the Law Bruno Leoni’s Law and Politics Bryan Caplan’s Anarchist Theory FAQ Bryan Caplan’s articles on anarchist economics Bryan Caplan’s articles on anarchist political theory Bryan Caplan and Ed Stringham’s Networks, Anarcho-Capitalism, and the Paradox of Cooperation (PDF file) Butler Shaffer’s What Is Anarchy? Center for a Stateless Society Chris Matthew Sciabarra’s Government and the Railroads During World War I: Political Capitalism and the Death of Enterprise Chris Matthew Sciabarra’s Labor History Revisionism: A Libertarian Analysis of the Pullman Strike Chris Matthew Sciabarra’s Understanding the Global Crisis: Reclaiming Rand’s Radical Legacy Daniel C. Burton’s Libertarian Anarchism (PDF file) David Friedman’s Anarchy and Efficient Law David Friedman’s Police, Courts, and Laws – on the Market David Friedman’s Do We Need a Government? David Friedman’s Law as a Private Good: A Response to Tyler Cowen on the Economics of Anarchy David Gordon’s The Trouble With Democracy David Gordon’s Review of George Smith (PDF file) David Osterfeld’s Anarchism and the Public Goods Issue (PDF file) David Osterfeld’s Internal Inconsistencies in Arguments for Government (PDF file) Economic Government Group Dead Anarchists Edward Stringham’s Market-Chosen Law (PDF file) Eric Frank Russell’s The Great Explosion Eric Knauer’s Response to Robert Bidinotto on the Contradiction in Anarchism Explorations in the Public Choice Theory of Government François-René Rideau’s Du droit de porter les armes – la liberté individuelle d’organiser sa propre defense Fredric C. Young’s Nozick and the Individualist Anarchist (PDF file) Free Life Index Free-Market Alternatives to the State Gael J. Campan’s Does Justice Qualify As An Economic Good? (PDF file) Gene Callahan’s We Need the State – Otherwise, Something Bad Might Happen! George H. Smith’s In Defense of Rational Anarchism George H. Smith’s Justice Entrepreneurship in a Free Market (PDF file) George H. Smith’s Justice Entrepreneurship Revisited (PDF file) Gerard Casey’s Reflections on Legal Polycentrism (PDF file) Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s The Private Production of Defense (PDF file) Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis (PDF file) Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Natural Elites, Intellectuals, and the State Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s The Idea of a Private Law Society Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Myth of National Defense (large PDF file) Individualist Anarchist Resources Individualist Anarchist Society James Boyd’s From Far Right to Far Left – and Farther – with Karl Hess James Dale Davidson’s Note on Anarchy, State, and Utopia (PDF file) James J. Martin’s Business and the New Deal James Redford’s Jesus Is An Anarchist (PDF file) Jan Narveson’s Is Government A Mistake? Jarret Wollstein’s Society Without Coercion (PDF) Jeremy Weiland’s Two Sides of the Skeptic’s Coin Journal of Libertarian Studies Joe Peacott’s Individualism Reconsidered Joe Peacott’s An Overview of Individualist Anarchist Thought (PDF file) John D. Sneed’s Order Without Law: Where Will Anarchists Keep the Madmen? (PDF file) (another version, non-PDF) John Hasnas’ Myth of the Rule of Law John Hasnas’ Reflections on the Minimal State John T. Sanders’ The Free-Market Model vs. Government (PDF file) Joseph R. Peden’s Property Rights in Celtic Irish Law (PDF file) Joseph Stromberg’s Political Economy of Liberal Corporativism Joseph Stromberg’s The Role of State Monopoly Capitalism in the American Empire (PDF file) Joseph Stromberg’s English Enclosures and Soviet Collectivization Karl T. Fielding’s The Role of Personal Justice in Anarcho-Capitalism (PDF file) Karl T. Fielding’s Stateless Society: French on Rothbard (PDF file) Karl T. Fielding’s Nonexcludability and Government Financing of Public Goods (PDF file) Karl Hess’s The Death of Politics Ken Knudson’s Critique of Anarchist Communism Kevin A. Carson’s Studies in Mutualist Political Economy Kevin A. Carson’s Austrian and Marxist Theories of Monopoly Capital: A Mutualist Synthesis Kevin A. Carson’s Libertarian Forum: A Resource for UnCapitalists? Left & Right Leonard Brewster’s The Impossibility of the State? (PDF file) Leslie Siddeley’s The Rise and Fall of Fraternal Insurance Organizations Lew Rockwell’s How States Fall and Liberty Triumphs Lew Rockwell’s The National Defense Myth Lew Rockwell’s Working Around Leviathan Lex Liberatis Privately Produced Law Libertarian Forum The Libertarian Nation Foundation’s journal Formulations Links Worth A Look Linda and Morris Tannehill’s The Market for Liberty (partial) Linda and Morris Tannehill’s The Market for Liberty (complete – PDF) Literature of Liberty Lysander Spooner Mary Ruwart’s Healing Our World Memory Hole Michael S. Rozeff’s An Economic Analysis of Power Michael S. Rozeff’s How the Power to Tax Destroys Michael S. Rozeff LRC Archives Movement of the Libertarian Left Murray Rothbard’s Anatomy of the State Murray Rothbard’s Defense Services on the Free Market Murray Rothbard’s The Ethics of Liberty Murray Rothbard’s For a New Liberty Murray Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State / Power and Market Murray Rothbard’s Pennsylvania’s Anarchist Experiment: 1681-1690 Murray Rothbard’s Nations By Consent: Decomposing the Nation-State (PDF file) Murray Rothbard’s Nozick and the Immaculate Conception of the State (PDF file) Murray Rothbard’s Origins of the Welfare State in America Mutualist.org Nicholas Dykes’ Mrs. Logic and the Law: A Critique of Ayn Rand’s View of Government Panarchy.org Patrick Tinsley’s Private Police: A Note (PDF file) Peter Vallentyne’s Libertarianism Rampart Journal Randy Barnett’s “Pursuing Justice in a Free Society,” Parts One and Two Randy Barnett’s Whither Anarchy? Has Nozick Justified the State? (PDF file) Richard Wall’s Who’s Afraid of Noam Chomsky? Richmond Under Lockdown Rick Tompkins’ Libertarian Class Theory: How the Political Class Exploits the Economic Class Robert H. Chappell’s Anarchy Revisited: The Public Education Dilemma (PDF file) Robert Higgs’ The Political Economy of Fear Robert LeFevre’s The Nature of Man and His Government Roger Bissell’s Reslving the Government Issue Roger Bissell’s More on the Government Controversy Roy A. Childs’ Objectivism and the State Roy A. Childs’ The Invisible Hand Strikes Back (PDF file) Roy A. Childs’ Big Business and the Rise of American Statism Roy Halliday’s Enforceable Rights: A Libertarian Theory of Justice Samuel E. Konkin III’s Interview Samuel E. Konkin III’s The New Libertarian Manifesto Samuel E. Konkin III and Wally Conger’s Building a New Libertarian Movement Sheldon Richman’s The Goal Is Freedom: For Equality; Against Privilege Sheldon Richman’s Full Context (PDF file) Spencer Heath blog Stefan Molyneux’s The Stateless Society: An Examination of Alternatives Stefan Molyneux’s Disproving the State Stefan Molyneux’s Life Without Government Stefan Molyneux’s Inviting Freedom: Releasing Everyone’s “:Inner Libertarian” Stefan Molyneux’s Market Anarchism: Are You Guys Crazy? Stephan Kinsella’s What It Means To Be An Anarcho-Capitalist Steven A. Peterson’s Moral Development and Critiques of Anarchism (PDF file) Tatiana Nenova and Tim Harford’s Anarchy and Invention (PDF file) Terry Anderson and P. J. Hill’s An American Experiment in Anarcho-Capitalism: The Not So Wild, Wild West (PDF file) The Onion’s Americans Don’t Want a Country Tom Bell’s Polycentric Law Tom Bell’s Privately Produced Law (PDF file) Tom Palmer’s Do We Need a Government? (PDF file) Virgil Storr’s Defining Anarchy as Rock-n-Roll The Voluntaryist Wally Conger’s What’s Left? Wally Conger’s Rediscovering Left & Right Walter E. Grinder and John Hagel III’s Toward a Theory of State Capitalism (PDF file) Wendy McElroy’s articles on individualist anarchism Wikipedia article on anarcho-capitalism Wikipedia article on individualist anarchism Wikipedia article on mutualism Wilton Alston’s Where Have All the Black Libertarians Gone? www.polyarchy.org Yo AnarchyRoderick Long's articles:
Libertarian Anarchism: Responses to Ten Objections (HTML, PDF file, MP3 audio file, or Spanish translation – Mises University, 6 August 2004) Why Objective Law Requires Anarchy The Absent State? Anarchism as Constitutionalism: A Reply to Bidinotto, Parts One, Two, and Three The Great Divorce: A Reply to Machan, Parts One and Two The Nature of Law, Parts One, Two, Three, and Four Virtual Cantons: A New Path to Freedom One Nation, Two Systems: The Doughnut Model The Decline and Fall of Private Law in Iceland Privatization, Viking Style: Model or Misfortune? Anarchy in the U.K.: The English Experience with Private Protection Defending a Free Nation The Return of Leviathan: Can We Prevent It? Rule-following, Praxeology, and Anarchy (PDF file) Finding the Brake Just Ignore Them A Plea for Public Property A Virtual-Canton Constitution, plus Commentary Parts One, Two, Three, and Four An Open Letter to the Peace Movement Equality: The Unknown Ideal Liberty: The Other Equality (PDF file)
Some additional works I wanted to add (the original list most consipicuously does not include works on minarchism, for obvious reasons):
Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia
Jan Lester, Escaping From Leviathan
David Gordon, Resurrecting Marx
Richard Garner, Response to the Anarchist FAQ
Stephan Kinsella, How We Come to Own Ourselves
Causation and Aggression
Against Intellectual Property
A Libertarian Theory of Contracts: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability
In Defense of the Corporation
Defending Argumentation Ethics: Reply to Murphy and Callahan
Roderick Long, Reason and Value: Aristotle vs Rand
Anarchism vs Minarchism: Is a Government Part of a free country?
Foundations of Libertarian Ethics
Philosophy Seminar with Roderick Long
Hayek, Law, Legislation and Liberty (3 vols)
The Road to Serfdom
Hoppe, The Economics and Ethics of Private Property
A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism
Democracy - the God that Failed
Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
Atlas Shrugged
The Fountainhead
Leonard Peikoff, Objectivism
David Kelley, A Life of One's Own
The Logical Structure of Objectivism
Douglas Rasmussen and Douglas Den Uyl, Norms of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis for Non-Perfectionist Politics
Liberty and Nature: An Aristotelean Defence of the Liberal Order
Douglas Rasmussen, A groundwork for rights: Man's Natural end
Douglas Den Uyl, In Defense of Natural End Ethics
Joseph Salerno, Ludwig von Mises as Social Rationalist
James Otterson, Actual ethics
Henry Veatch, Rational Man: A Modern Interpretation of Aristotelean Ethics
For an Ontology of Morals: A Critique of Contemporary Ethical Theory
Geoffrey Allen Plauche, On the Social Contract and the Persistence of Anarchy
Aristotelian-Liberal Autonomy (Working Paper)
Moral Legislation and Democracy: The Devlin-Hart-Dworkin Debate Revisited
Chris M. Sciabarra, Total Freedom: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue
Larry Eshelman, Ludwig von Mises on Principle
Pascal Salin, Liberalisme
H. L. A Hart, Are there any natural rights?
John Hasnas, The Obviousness of anarchy
Benjamin Barros, Property and Freedom
Mises Institute Media Resources (esp. seminars; good for those who don't like or don't have the time for reading)
The following homepages are also worthwhile visiting:
Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Stephan Kinsella (publications)
Roderick Long
Geoffrey A. Plauche (publications)
Kevin Carson
Alliance of the Libertarian Left
Molinary Institute
Ludwig von Mises Institute
PIN PRZ
The Origins of Capitalism
And for more periodic bloggings by moi,
Leftlibertarian.org
It's funny...most of the books and essays I would have thought to recommend are conspicuously absent from your list. Specifically, those which require one to refine what it means to be a libertarian, and how libertarianism differs from other views, aren't really there. Glad to see that at least Nozick made the cut! But with that in mind, I'll offer my own reading list:
John Stuart Mill: On Liberty
Ludwig von Mises: The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality
John Locke: On Civil Government (the "second treatise")
Robert Nozick: Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Judith Jarvis Thomson: Rights, Restitution, & Risk
Joel Feinberg: Social Philosophy
Freidrich August von Hayek: "The Use of Knowledge in Society"
Henry Hazlitt: Economics in One Lesson
Ronald Coase: "The Problem of Social Cost"
Garrett Hardin: "The Tragedy of the Commons"
Dan Hausman and Michael McPherson: Economic Analysis and Moral Philosophy
Lionel Robbins: "Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility: A Comment"
John Harsanyi: "Does Reason Tell Us What Moral Code to Follow and, Indeed, to Follow Any Moral Code at All?"
G. A. Cohen: Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality
Michael Otsuka: Libertarianism Without Inequality
Becky Mansfield: "Privatization: Property and the Remaking of Nature-Society Relations"
Randall Holcombe: "Common Property in Anarcho-Capitalism"
Roy Cordato: "Market-Based Environmentalism and the Free Market: They're Not the Same"
Peter Hill: "Market-Based Environmentalism and the Free Market: Substitutes or Compliments?"
Mark Pennington: "Liberty, Markets, and Environmental Values: A Hayekian Defense of Free-Market Environmentalism"
David Roodman: "Another Take on Free-Market Environmentalism: A Friendly Critique"
Walter Block (ed): Economics and the Environment: A Reconciliation (especially Murray Rothbard's "Law, Property Rights, and Air Pollution")
Gerald Sauer: "Imposed Risk Controversies: A Critical Analysis"
Douglas Lackey: "Taking Risk Seriously"
Kristian Skagen Ekeli: "Environmental Risk, Uncertainty, and Intergenerational Ethics"
Kenneth Templeton, Jr. (ed): The Politicization of Society
William Graham Sumner: What Social Classes Owe to Each Other
David Beito, Peter Gordon, and Alexander Tabarrok (eds): The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society
Donny with an A:It's funny...most of the books and essays I would have thought to recommend are conspicuously absent from your list. Specifically, those which require one to refine what it means to be a libertarian, and how libertarianism differs from other views, aren't really there. Glad to see that at least Nozick made the cut! But with that in mind, I'll offer my own reading list:1. John Stuart Mill: On Liberty
1. John Stuart Mill: On Liberty
WHOA! Dan, I did not see that one coming.
Here's my suggestion, if anyone wants to tackle it: To create a good reading list which can be done in one summer (for a college kid or a teacher.) In other words, not "where would you start?" and not "what do I ever need to read?" but something in between, a good overall coverage from which to begin a lifetime of study. I have some ideas, and if I ever get some free time (after the race) I will make my own list.
I'll do you one better. Here's a short list that'll teach you the basics of libertarianism over the course of a summer without needing to quit your day job. If you're familiar with everything here, there shouldn't be any conversation you'll be completely in the dark about. Austrian economics, of course, is an entirely different matter, but I'll leave that to others.
John Stuart Mill: On Liberty (It shouldn't be surprising to hear that this is probably my favorite book in political philosophy. It's rough, imprecise, and ultimately isn't completely successful, but it provides a lot of the intuitive punch for pursuing the philosophy of libertarianism, and gives shape to a lot of intuitions that are critical for studying it.) - 200 pages or so.
Ludwig von Mises: The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality (Philosophically, it's not so interesting, but the kind of case it makes for libertarianism is fundamentally different from the kinds made in the others, and so it's definitely important. Mises' passion is contagious, and the more outward-looking nature of his discussion is worth thinking about. Ultimately, this too fails to provide a definitive argument, but I still think it's an indespensible part of the process of developing one's intuitions.) - a little over 100 pages.
John Harsanyi: "Does Reason Tell Us What Moral Code to Follow and, Indeed, to Follow Any Moral Code at All?" (This essay is another one of my favorites. It builds on the same sort of thinking as Mises, and should be kept in mind when reading Nozick. It finally starts to move into more technical ground, and offers one kind of philosophical framework for thinking about morality and justice. It will contrast sharply with Nozick's account, but it raises some questions that can feed endless contemplation.) - I think around 15 pages?
Robert Nozick: Anarchy, State, and Utopia (This is probably the most important book in libertarian philosophy, period, and represents a complete change of direction from Harsanyi's sort of thinking. Though many libertarians disagree with Nozick's justification of the minimal state, the ideas Nozick presents are invaluable and widely used. Anyone talking about libertarianism without having read this is doing himself and others a profound disservice.) - somewhere between 300 and 350 pages, I think.
Judith Jarvis Thomson: Rights, Restitution, & Risk (Read chapters 4 and 5; they're excellent and add a lot to what Nozick said. Thomson's approach to moral philosophy is excellent, and these chapters get right to the meat of what are probably the biggest questions in libertarianism.) - I think 30 pages or so.
If you read all of this, and really think about it, you'll instantly be at a level above that of almost any non-academic philosopher. I promise.
For Veatch, there is also his book Human Rights: Fact or Fancy? And I think his essay "Natural Law: Dead or Alive?" is online somewhere.
For Rasmussen and Den Uyl, there is also their book Liberalism Defended.
Yours in liberty,Geoffrey Allan Plauché, Ph.D.Adjunct Instructor, Buena Vista UniversityWebmaster, LibertarianStandard.comFounder / Executive Editor, Prometheusreview.com