Where to Start Reading for a Free Market Education?
I get this question a lot, so it makes sense for me to blog the answer. Whether you’re a homeschooling parent or a nerdy teenager who decides that learning is more important than dating, here is my suggested approach to learning free market economics in general, and Austrian economics in particular. Note that I am not endorsing 100% of everything on the below list, but if you asked a philosopher what books to start out with, he would recommend stuff he didn’t totally agree with too.
(1) Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson (pdf here).
(2) Robert Murphy’s Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism. (The Amazon link is to the left somewhere; the capitalist pigs at Regnery wouldn’t dare put up a pdf of it.)
(3) Milton & Rose Friedman’s Free to Choose.
(4) Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics.
(5) Gene Callahan’s Economics for Real People (pdf).
(6) Murphy’s Home Study Course in Austrian Economics. (This will be some $$.)
(7) Murray Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State With Power and Market, scholar’s edition here and my study guide here (pdf).
(8) Ludwig von Mises’ Human Action, online here (pdf) and my study guide here (pdf).
I will leave two slots open because I’m sure Free Advice readers will recommend obvious titles I’m forgetting.
