General

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

Taelor — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:29:27 GMT

Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon (all by Neal Stephenson) served as good introduction to libertarianism for me. They work especially well on people who are into Science Fiction. Also, The Cathedral And The Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond, although I should stress that this one will only work on people with a computer science background.

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

WisR — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:26:11 GMT

Economics in One Lesson and Bastiat's essay are both beginner level material - they are very easy to understand, all it takes is the willingness to read through them and consider the positions, and the lesson they teach is essential to distinguish economic truth from nonsense.

Also, I think these are intermediate, not advanced:

No Treason - Spooner
What Has Gov't Done To Our money - Rothbard

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

filc — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:07:46 GMT

Alright I think we have a good list. Now comes part 2. Organizing them from Beggining, Intermediate, Advanced. Here is what I have as a preliminary list.

If you haven't done so yet you should read what we are trying to accomplish on this thread here.

That said I want to take the following list I will post below and attempt to filter them out to the most relevant reading list pertaining to a modern liberal. My concept was to find the books they will most relate to first and gradually tear down the walls over time. Here is the list you all provided for me in a rudimentarily organized by me. Let me know what needs to be changed/moved/removed/added. The list will act as a reading guide/lesson plan. I'd like to keep the books limited between 15-30 if possible so we can leave room for video's and other types of media.

Introduction and Beggining

Roderick T Long's Seminars
Animal Farm - Orwell
Why Government Doesn't Work -Harry Browne
(Perhaps some literature specifically addressing extreme altruism and welfare concepts at a philosophical level, not necessarily at an economic level))

Intermediate

Capitalism and Freedom - M. Friedman
The Road To Serfdom -Hayek
Economics in One Lesson -Hazlitt
That which is seend, and that which is not seen -Bastiat
Constitution of Liberty - Hayek

Advanced

Fatal Conceit - Hayek
Socialism -LVM
Human Action -LVM
Democracy: The God that Failed -HHH
No Treason - Spooner
What Has Gov't Done To Our money - Rothbard
Power and Market - Rorhbard
For A New Liberty -Rothbard
The State - Oppenhiemer
Chaos Theory -Robert Murphy
Lysander Spooner Let's Abolish Government, Natural Law
Ludwig von Mises Liberalism, Marxism Unmasked, Theory and History
Defending the Undefendable - Walter Block

Other or Final

Enterprise Of Law - Bruce L. Benson (Where should I place this?)

Obviously things need to be weighted out a bit. I don't have many books in the beggining and have too many in advanced. I am reluctant to introducte something too radical however too soon as some folks may not understand Murphy's "Chaos Theory" if they are still stuck on other beleifs.

Also most moder liberals seem to follow some type of philanthropist or altruistic ideology. I am wondering if we need to add some literature specifically addressing those issues early on so they can see that economic growth will not best be realized under such a concept.

In addition the Intermediate section may be split up into sub-categories. So we may want to categorize the literature out for what it will most specifically address. Specifically (History, Philosophy, Economics). If you have read any book on the above list I'd appreciate your recommendations on where a book should be placed and what category tag or tags it should have. Thanks!

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

MatthewF — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:16:06 GMT

filc:

wow, that easy?

Well like I said , I've been working on him for YEARS. It seems to me that no person with a brain can make a case for government being able to accomplish squat after reading Harry Browne's book.

After that I think people simply (Ha!) have to fill in some of the gaps in their imagination and answer the what if's. Who will provide service X? What would happen in situation A? That is why I asked him to read Chaos Theory. It is very short and provides a very basic map of how a free society might function.

Not sure how this would work with a mass audience, I'll leave that up to you.

By the way, I think this is a great idea. Good luck.

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

Libertarian_for_Life — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:32:56 GMT

I was a liberal, three books specifically helped me get to an anarchocapitalism position I am in today

First I read a short book Economic is One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt

That got me onto a more minarchist path, then I read a short article The Anatomy of the State by Murray Rothbard which really got me questioning why we need a state at all.

Then I read the Market for Liberty by Morris and Linda Tannehill, a short book which helped me explain how a anarchic society really could function practically. That was the final bullet that put death to any belief in the necessity of any state whatsoever. They were are relatively short, so I what recommend it for people who want to start out, idk, it helped me a lot.

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

filc — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:45:59 GMT

wow, that easy? Can you elaborate on the experience at all. Basically our project needs to be catered to accomplish what you did.

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

MatthewF — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:37:44 GMT

I have a friend that I've been working on for years...

Last month I had him and his wife read Why Government Doesn't Work by Harry Browne.

Solid conversion to Minarchism.

last week he read Chaos Theory by Robert Murphy.

He is now an Anarchist.

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

filc — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:36:47 GMT

Kind of got caught up on some things last night. I'm going to compile a list of everything everyone posted here and than I will need some help ordering that list from beginner-advanced. Thanks guys!

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

Conza88 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:42:10 GMT

Cam Nedland:

It started for me with the concept of self-ownership and the non-aggression principle. Does that help at all?

Yes it does. Cheers.

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

Wanderer — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:03:34 GMT

A man named Matthew Jones and I were talking on an Obama discussion board on facebook, and he kept using Mises links. It started for me with the concept of self-ownership and the non-aggression principle. Does that help at all?

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

Conza88 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:58:38 GMT

Cam Nedland:

I definitely qualify as such. I just started reading tons of Mises and Cato, and now I'm an ancap. Whodathunkit?

Is there anything that first kicked it off?

An article in relation to a specific issue? Someone posted you something to read?

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

Wanderer — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:56:39 GMT

I definitely qualify as such. I just started reading tons of Mises and Cato, and now I'm an ancap. Whodathunkit?

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

Andrew — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:21:36 GMT

Liberal

Animal Farm - Orwell

Capitalism and Freedom by M. Friedman

The Road to Serfdom

Libertarian

Economics In One Lesson

Constitution of Liberty - Hayek

Socialism - Mises

Fatal Conceit - Hayek

Minarchist

No Treason - Spooner

What Has Gov't Done To Our money - Rothbard

Power and Market - Rorhbard

For A New Liberty -Rothbard

The State - Oppenhiemer

An-Cap

Enterprise Of Law - Bruce L. Benson

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

filc — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:58:42 GMT

Thanks Everyone! I'll be compiling a list a bit later today. Keep em comin if you have em!

Re: Liberals who came to be Ancaps, Minarchists, Libertarian, Whatever..

ThomasC — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:51:31 GMT

"That which is seen, and that which is not seen" by Frederic Bastiat and "Economics in one lesson" by Henry Hazlitt are still very good and very quick reads for people without the slightest understanding of economics.