Books for Freedom?

[bishal]

Hi Everyone,

I just want recommendation about good books which i should not miss about freedom, economics, etc. In my place (i don´t even want to use my country name now a days) people have very low level understanding about philosophy, real economics, law and almost everything. Until i knew the idea about freedom, which was already put in place 300 years ago, i was shocked. How can a Idea this liberating this real and true be hidden form the people. Here, people are fan of Socialist or even Communist so the Mao Party won the election 5 years ago to write constitution but failed. There is going to be election again and people are never going to learn here Here, people still think politics is backbone of a society. You can just imagine this level of illiteracy. I think i will learn more and advocate the ideas of free society. But first i need to learn more for myself. So, anyone here can recommend books (from old days 18th century to modern days) about freedom which i especially should read for the complete idea about what i am talking about or the author i need to know who helped for the cause of freedom?

Regards

Bishal

[MysterionMuffles]

A nice and cute girl from Chapters recommended the book 1984 by George Orwell to me for an insight on society. It takes place where Thought Police exist and the government pretty much watches peoples every move. The movie's boring, stick with the book, it could open up your mind. I'm sure it will for me if I could find it and read further, but from the opening chapters I remember, I do remember seeing where this kind of setting would go.

[Guest darkskyabove]

The one book I know that "actually" did something for freedom is Common Sense, by Thomas Paine. Before its publication there was a tiny minority of colonists rallying to (Samuel Adams') the cause. After publication, people were given the chance to understand, in plain terms, the injustice they had accepted as the normal state of affairs.

Next stop, barefooted farmers, and their teenage sons, rose up to cast off the yoke of oppression. (Yes, that's highly dramaticized, but not far from the truth. If it didn't happen, I'd be speaking with a Cockney accent.)

Little did they realize, that by casting off one oppressor they opened the door to a new one.

Second, I would suggest Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. It is a long read, 1168 pages. And you'll probably need to read it at least twice. Written under guise of a novel, it is a treatise on "practical" philosophy. It is also the ONLY prediction to have been stated clearly and to have come true. The U.S. Empire and the Euro-Socialist Union are going through every thing she wrote of more than fifty years ago.

I don't assume that you need this, but: be careful. These two books, and many others, could get one imprisoned, or worse, in some nations.

Good fortune!

[Loonie]

I agree with those recommendations and would add a few more, available free online.  'The Law' by Fredrick Bastiat, 'Complete Liberty' by Wes Bertrand, and 'The Market For Liberty' by the Tannehills.  These last two are available here along with 'Healing Our World' by Dr. Mary Ruwart. 

Stefan has contributed a great deal to this subject, if you have not read his works from 'On Truth' to 'How (NOT) To Achieve Freedom', I cannot promote them strongly enough.  It's great that you found this forum, I feel Mr. Molyneux has created a space for the conversation that will free the world.

Thank you for making the effort to educate yourself, it's always the first step.

 

[bishal]

Thanks all for recommendation and more recommendation is always appreciated

[Bridges]

I would recommend Escape From Freedom by Erich Fromm. Fromm takes a psychoanalyst's perspective to the question of why freedom can be frightening for some people and authoritarianism can make people secure. His thesis is that the industrial revolution liberated man in some ways economically and socially but certain masochistic tendencies left a vacancy that attracted the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century. A section of the book questions the Nazi mentality specifically. I think his overall analysis resonates with the psyche of people today and I thought the subject was personally easy to relate to and held some insight into my own tendencies towards authority.

I also suggest Liberty Defined by Ron Paul, in it he tackles the problem of how a lack of liberty in areas of the American situation has caused more harm than good. 

The Law by Frederic Bastiat is a great book to read too. It's concise and I've though that it seemed like the fountainhead for a majority of literature on liberty. Bastiat's Economic Harmonies and his other book Economic Sophisms are good expositions on how freedom in the economic sphere is beneficial to all classes.

[ribuck]

If you will consider fiction, you may enjoy "Homeland" by Cory Doctorow. The story weaves together all the current "hot buttons" such as Wikileaks, DHS, TSA, quadrocopters, cryptoanarchism, crony capitalism, bankster gangsters, etc.

[PreDeadMan]

 I would recommend Murray Rothbard's book entitled " The Ethics of Liberty". For an economics book Henry Hazlitt's Economics In One Lessons is a very good book.