If you could pick one book to introduce people to free-market, anti-statist thinking, what would it be? Think of something easy to read and fun. It can certainly be fiction, in fact that might be preferable. I ask because I want to get a book as a gift for my sister. I can tell her mindset already leans toward liberty, but a good pro-capitalist book might do her a lot of good. :) I appreciate your suggestions!
Pro-capitalist? Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics" is well-written and easy to follow.
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it" - Thomas Jefferson.
I'll second that. Sowell explains the economic theory and then applies it to real world examples, which makes it an interesting and easily accessible read. It doesn't get more fun than that.
Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson was a great primer for me. Easy to read, fun, mind-opening and short.
Ah yes, I have the Sowell book and I enjoyed it. Hazlitt's was of course a good one as well. ;)
As I think more about it though, I think fiction might be a better introduction. I personally gobble up non-fiction, but she is kinda put off by it. I have a feeling a book with "economics" in the title isn't going to get read haha. Any fiction suggestions, other than Ayn Rand? I saw few in the Mises store.
Sowell "Basic Economics" for economic theory and Skousen "The Big Three in Economics" for the history of modern economic thought
Mind also to read Friedman`s work: Free To Choose.
For fiction,
"Time Will Run Back" is a great book
"Withur We" by Matthew Alexander rocks
What we need, and would be my dream to work on, is a Rothbardian graphic novel!
Read until you have something to write...Write until you have nothing to write...when you have nothing to write, read...read until you have something to write...Jeremiah
http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Our-World-Age-Aggression/dp/0963233661/ref=pd_sim_b_1
It's non-fiction but it's written by a woman so there might be some appeal there. Also 19/19 reviews on Amazon were 5-stars. Customers who bought this item also bought books by Henry Hazlitt, Thomas Woods, Murray Rothbard, Frederic Bastiat, Ron Paul . . . sounds like it's full of win right there.
It's a really good book. And the best part is: she doesn't believe in IP: http://www.ruwart.com/Healing/ <= If you want to download the book. ;)
The state is not the enemy. The idea of the state is.
''What we need, and would be my dream to work on, is a Rothbardian graphic novel!''
A graphic novel featuring Rothbards themes & cameos of his books already exists. Although in the novel universe he is Mary Ross-Byrd author of 'Toward a new Liberty'
The Probability Broach
nuksukow: If you could pick one book to introduce people to free-market, anti-statist thinking, what would it be? Think of something easy to read and fun. It can certainly be fiction, in fact that might be preferable. I ask because I want to get a book as a gift for my sister. I can tell her mindset already leans toward liberty, but a good pro-capitalist book might do her a lot of good. :) I appreciate your suggestions!
I have a lot of Sowell books and 'Basic Economics' was really well written.
Anti-Statism as a primer would be Hazlitt's 'Man v. The Welfare State'.
Is it accurate that Economics in One Lesson explains common fallacies, but doesn't get down to the very basics, like explaining how prices work?
The book certainly spends more time on debunking common fallacies (very roughly) than explaining the basics. There actually is a chapter 'How the Price System Works' but is seven pages long. Weirdly, for a beginner, I'd find the usual economist textbooks (the heavy ones for colleges) more engaging, since they're more practical and follow a certain logical structure (build on previous knowledge).
But Hazitt's book is a good read, recommending.
I sincerely recommend Time Will Run Back by Hazlitt, it's seriously like Economics In One Lesson but with a somewhat decent plot, I find it a much better primer for the common person than any other sort of book I've ever read, if someone would someday go back and brush up on the story line and possibly improve the writing to make it slightly more interesting then it'd be a classic.
For a New Liberty is a wonderful piece of work but the problem is that it's nonfiction and it has that terrible word "Manifesto" in it which right off the bat makes people think of radicalism and political boring.
I think one of the strongest characteristics of "Basic Economics" is that it is (largely) apolitical. It can help someone understand the absurdity of things like price controls without scaring them off by the kind of thinking that follows naturally once you accept his premises.
I'm actually surprised more people haven't recommended How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes. (I have to assume that's because few have read it)...But it's exactly what the OP was asking for...