The book list was largely compiled by Tom Palmer in his book Realizing Freedom, although I have made some additions of my own. First, this book is a great compilation of revised talks and essays he's given regarding libertarianism. I really can't recommend it enough for both people who identify as libertarian and those who disagree with it but want to learn more nonetheless.
For the most part, I put his recommendations in list form. I've included them because they are books regarding the history, formulation, application, defense, and, most importantly, criticism of libertarian philosophy, and therefore would be useful for resources for anyone interested in the subject. He expounds upon his reasoning behind placing them on this list; I do not. You can buy the book for that. Here is the shorter, online version.
Obviously if you have any suggestions just post them and I'll likely add them here. It would be really helpful if you offered a brief description and an Amazon link as well!
Finally, some of the links - particularly Twitter - are not consistently libertarian but they often offer insightful political comments and critiques on libertarianism.
As a disclaimer, I'm also going to include the same Henry Hazlitt quote:
Quote:
In an effort to answer as many as possible of such objections in advance, I should like to say here that the inclusion of a book in this bibliography certainly does not imply that I myself subscribe to every doctrine or sentence in that book or that I think every opinion it enunciates is an essential part of the libertarian or individualist tradition. What inclusion does imply is that in my judgment the book, to repeat what I have said earlier, makes on net balance a factual or theoretical contribution to the philosophy of individualism, and that at least some readers may derive from it a fuller understanding of that philosophy.
Books and Essays:
I. General Works on Libertarianism
- For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto by Murray Rothbard
- Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Robert Nozick
- Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand
- Liberalism by Ludwig von Mises
- The Road to Serfdom; The Constitution of Liberty; Law, Legislation, and Liberty by F.A. Hayek
- Capitalism and Freedom; Free to Choose by Milton Friedman
- On Classical Liberalism and Liberalism by Norman Barry
- The Libertarian Idea by Jan Narveson
- Choice, Contract, Consent: A Restatement of Liberalism by Anthony de Jasay
- Simple Rules for a Complex World by Richard Epstein
- The Libertarian Reader by David Boaz
- The Libertarian Alternative by Tibor Machan
- Liberty for the 21st Century by Tibor Machan and Douglas B. Rasmussen
- Liberty Against Power: Essays by Roy A. Childs, Jr. by Joan Kennedy Taylor, ed.
- Libertarianism: A Primer by David Boaz
- What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation by Charles Murray
II. History of Civilization from a Libertarian Perspective
- Selected Writings of Lord Acton, Vol. 1: Essays in the History of Liberty by J. Rufus Fears, ed.
- Freedom and Domination: A Historical Critique by Alexander Rüstow
- Community in Historical Perspective by Otto Von Gierke (Antony Black, ed.)
- Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Growth of Trade by Henrie Pirenne
- The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages by Robert S. Lopez
- Consumption and the World of Goods by John Brewer and Roy Porter, eds.
- How the West Grew Rich by Nathan Rosenberg and L.E. Birdzell, Jr.
- The European Miracle by E.L. Jones
- The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism by F.A. Hayek
- "The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with That of the Moderns" by Benjamin Constant*
- Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition by Harold Berman
III. Imprescriptible Individual Rights
- Natural Rights Theories: Their Origin and Development by Richard Tuck
(Supplemental essay: "Tuck on Rights: Some Medieval Problems," Brian Tierney; "The 'Modern' Theory of Natural Law" in The Languages of Political Theory in Early-Modern Europe by Richard Tuck)
- Nature, Justice, and Rights in Aristotle's Politics by Fred D. Miller, Jr.
- Christians for Freedom: Late-Scholastic Economics by Alejandro Chafuen
- "On the American Indians" by Francisco de Vitoria, available in Political Writings (Anthony Pagden, Jeremy Lawrance, eds.)
- The Crisis of Church and State by Brian Tierney, ed.
- In Defense of the Indians; The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account by Bartolomé de las Casas
- "An Arrow Against Tyrants" by Richard Overton*
- Two Treatises of Government by John Locke
- The Lockean Theory of Rights by A. John Simmons
- "Philosophies of Toleration by George H. Smith, available in Atheism, Ayn Rand, and Other Heresies
- Natural Law and the Theory of Property: Grotius to Hume by Stephen Buckle
- The Ethics of Liberty by Murray Rothbard
- "The Fundamental Moral Elements in Rand's Theory of Rights," available in The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand by Douglas J. Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen, eds.
- Individuals and Their Rights by Tibor Machan
- Liberty and Nature: An Aristotelian Defense of Liberal Order by Douglas B. Rasmussen and Gouglas J. Den Uyl
- Personals, Rights, and the Moral Community by Loren E. Lomasky
- The Foundations of Bioethics by H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr.
- "Agent-Relativity of Value, Deontic Restraints, and Self-Ownership" by Eric Mack, available in Value, Welfare, and Morality by R.G. Frey and Christopher W. Morris, eds.
- "Labour, Property, and the Morality of Markets" by Robert Sugden, available in The Market in History by B.L. Anderson and A.J.H. Latham, eds.
- "A Positive Account of Property Rights," by David Friedman, available in Property Rights by Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr., and Jeffrey Pauls, eds.
- "Are There Any Cultural Rights?" by Chandran Kukathas
- Freedom, Feminism, and the State by Wendy McElroy
- In Defense of Modernity: Role Complexity and Individual Autonomy by Rose Laub Coser
- Reclaiming the Mainstream: Individualist Feminism Rediscovered by Joan Kennedy Taylor
IV. Spontaneous Order
- The Rights of Man Part I, The Rights of Man Part 2* by Thomas Paine
- "The Results of Human Action but Not of Human Design" in Studies in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics by F.A. Hayek
- "A Memorial Concerning the Coyn of England" by Charles Davenant, available in Economic Thought and Ideology in Seventeenth-Century England by Joyce Appleby
- The Scottish Enlightenment and the Theory of Spontaneous Order by Ronald Hamowy
- The Logic of Liberty by Michael Polanyi
- The Open Society and Its Enemies; Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge by Karl Popper
- Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought by Jonathan Rauch
- Freedom and the Law by Bruno Leoni
- Economic Behavior and Institutions by Thráinn Eggertsson
- The Economic Institutions of Capitalism by Oliver E. Williamson
- The Economics of Rights, Co-operation, and Welfare by Robert Sugden
- The Possibility of Cooperation by Michael Taylor
- The Evolution of Cooperation by David Axelrod
- The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
- Problems of Economics and Sociology; Principles of Economics by Carl Menger
- Free Banking in Britain: Theory, Experience, and Debate 1800-1845 by Lawrence H. White
- The Theory of Free Banking: Money Supply Under Competitive Note Issue by George A. Selgin
- "The Use of Knowledge in Society" by F.A. Hayek*
V. Free Markets and Voluntary Organization
- Collectivist Economic Planning: Critical Studies on the Possibilities of Socialism by F.A. Hayek
- Socialism by Ludwig von Mises
- "The Firm, the Market, and the Law" by Ronald Coase
- Public Goods and Market Failures: A Critical Examination by Tyler Cowen
- Social Contract, Free Ride: A Study of the Public Goods Problem by Anthony de Jasay
- The Limits of Government: An Essay on the Public Goods Argument by David Schmidtz
- Free Market Environmentalism by Terry L. Anderson and Donald R. Leal
- The Ethics of Redistribution by Bertrand de Jouvenel
- "The Market Economy and the Distribution of Wealth" by Ludwig Lachmann in Capital, Expectations, and the Market Process (Walter E. Grinder, ed.)
- Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1930-1980 by Charles Murray
- Working Class Patients and the Medical Establishment: Self-Help in Britain from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to 1948; Reinventing Civil Society: The Rediscovery of Welfare Without Politics by David Green
- "Mutual Aid for Social Welfare: The Case of American Fraternal Societies" by David Beito
- Reclaiming the American Dream: The Role of Private Individuals and Voluntary Associations by Richard Cornuelle
- Markets and Minorities by Thomas Sowell
- The State Against Blacks by Walter Williams
- "Roots of the 'Underclass': The Decline of Laissez-Faire Jurisprudence and the Rise of Racist Labor Legislation"; "Licensing Laws: A Historical Example of the Use of Governmetn Regultory Power against African-Americans" by David Bernstein
- The Affirmative Action Fraud by Clint Bolick
- Capitalism by Arthur Seldon
VI. Justice and Political Organization
- Institutes by Gaius
- Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Volume Two, The Age of Reformation by Quentin Skinner
- Moral Principles and Political Obligation; On the Edge of Anarchy: Locke, Consent, and the Limits of Society by A. John Simmons
- "The Constitution of No Authority" by Lysander Spooner*
- "Pursuing Justice in a Free Society: Part One -- Power vs. Liberty"; "Part Two: Crime Prevention and the Legal Order" by Randy Barnett
- The Enterprise of Law by Bruce Benson
- Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland by William I. Miller
- Medieval Iceland by Jesse Byock
- "Government by Contract" by Donald J. Boudreaux and Randall J. Holcombe
- Public Good and Private Communities: The Market Provision of Social Services by Fred Foldvary
- The Calculus of Consent by James Buchanan and Gordon Tollock
- The Limits of Liberty: Between Anarchy and Leviathan by James Buchanan
VII. Violence and the State
- Common Sense by Thomas Paine
- The State by Franz Oppenheimer
- "War Making and State Making as Organized Crime" in Bringing the State Back In (Peter Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Theda Skocpol, eds); Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990-1992
- "Military Organization and the Organization of the State" by Otto Hintze in The Historical Essays of Otto Hintze (Felix Gilbert, ed.)
- Death by Government by R.J. Rummel
- Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government by Robert Higgs
- The Sovereign State and Its Competitors by Hendrik Spruyt
- Sociological Writings by Vilfredo Pareto
- "The Fundamental Principles of a Pure Theory of Public Finance" by Giovanni Montemartini in Classics in the Theory of Public Finance (Richard Musgrave, Alan Peacock, eds.)
- "'LaScienze delle Finanze': The Italian Tradition in Fiscal Theory" by James Buchanan in Fiscal Theory and Political Economy
- "The State" by Frederic Bastiat in Selected Essays on Political Economy
- Toward a Theory of Rent-Seeking Society by James Buchanan, Robert D. Tollison, and Gordon Tollock, eds.
- The Portable Jefferson by Merrill D. Peterson, ed.
- George Washington: A Collection by W.B. Allen, ed.
VIII. Critics of Libertarianism
- The Republic by Plato
- Real Freedom for All: What (If Anything) Can Justify Capitalism? by Philippe Van Parijs
- Anti-Libertarianism: Markets, Philosophy, and Myth by Alan Haworth
- Equal Freedom by Stephen Darwall
- Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality by G.A. Cohen
- Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction by Will Kymlicka
- A Political Theory of Rights by Attracta Ingram
- "Lockean Self-Ownership: Towards a Demolition"; "Property Rights in Persons" by Richard Arneson
- Modern Political Thought by Raymond Plant
- An Introduction to Modern Political Theory by Norman P. Barry
- The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy by Albert Hirschman
- "Atomism"; "What's Wrong with Negative Liberty" both in Philosophy and the Human Sciences: Philosophical Papers by Charles Taylor
- Liberalism and the Limits of Justice by Michael Sandel
- On Nationality by David Miller
- "Libertarians: The Chirping Sectaries" by Russel Kirk, available in Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate (George W. Carey, ed.)
- Liberty, Equality, Fraternity by James Fitzjames Stephen
- Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality by Robert George
* Available in The Libertarian Reader by David Boaz
Blogs:
Agoraphilia
Bottom-Up
Cafe Hayek
Cato@Liberty
Causes of the Crisis
Bill Easterly
Kerry Howley
Knowledge Problem
Jacob T. Levy
Marginal Revolution
Megan McArdle
Neighborhood Effects
Tom Palmer
Political Math
Julian Sanchez
Andrew Sullivan
Transcapitalist
The Volokh Conspiracy
Will Wilkinson
Organizations and Think Tanks:
The Acton Institute
The Atlas Network
American Civil Liberties Union
The Buckeye Institute
The Cato Institute
The Competitive Enterprise Institute
Copenhagen Institute
The Fraser Institute
The Independent Institute
Institute for Humane Studies
James Madison Institute
Liberales Institut
The Library of Economics and Liberty
Ludwig von Mises Institute
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
The Mercatus Center
The Progress and Freedom Foundation
The Reason Foundation
Magazines/E-Zines:
Cato Unbound
The Economist
Reason Magazine
Twitter:
Atlas Network
John Perry Barlow
Michael Cannon
Cato Institute
The Economist
EconTalker
Jonah Goldberg
Hayek Blog
Melody Hildebrandt
Kerry Howley
Garret Jones
Kiva
Jacob Levy
Liberty Ideals
Liberty Papers
Mercatus Blogs
Mercatus Center
Neighborhood Effects
Political Math
Reason Magazine
Julian Sanchez
John Stossel
Peter Suderman
Adam Theirer
Will Wilkinson
Matt Yglesias
Miscellaneous:
Cato Daily Podcast/Cato Institute: Event Podcast
The Economist Podcast
Econstories.tv
Econtalk Podcast
Libertarian Papers
Reason.tv
Critiques of Libertarianism
