Looking for new literature to read...

[progrock]

has anyone had an opportunity to read this book?
http://www.chelseagreen.com/2007/items/endofamerica


or can recommend any other good political minded books.

[RCA]

I've suggested that the admins set-up a sub-forum called "The Reading Room" for topics like this, but they have yet to do so.

:(

[monotony]

A People's History of America - Howard Zinn (http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-Present/dp/0060838655/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195972884&sr=8-1)
The Creature from Jekyll Island (http://www.amazon.com/Creature-Jekyll-Island-Federal-Reserve/dp/0912986395/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195972920&sr=8-1)
Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen (http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Chains-State-Demise-Citizen/dp/0312229674/ref=cm_lmf_tit_17_rsrsrs0)

There are also the well known books on Paul's reading list such as Imperial Hubris (http://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Hubris-West-Losing-Terror/dp/1597971596/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195973118&sr=8-1) and Blowback (http://www.amazon.com/Blowback-Second-Consequences-American-Empire/dp/0805075593/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195973145&sr=8-1)

[RCA]

How do you spot good books from slanted ones? For instance, we can safely assume that most school textbooks are extremely distorted. However, how can we spot these same distortions from regular books in the bookstore? To give you an example, I see David McCullough's books everywhere. However, I'm not sure if I should spend the money for one of his books because they seem so mainstream and that makes me think it would be biased. I know I could go to the library and read it for free, but I'm trying to figure out how to turn on my "distortion vision".

[LibertyEagle]

Naomi Wolf.

I find it interesting that she was a Rhodes Scholar.

[Shellshock1918]

www.mises.org

Most of the books are there for PDF download.

[OptionsTrader]

www.mises.org

Most of the books are there for PDF download.

I second Mises. You can spend hundres of hours with all of the video, audio, and text content.

[keemt]

Andrew Napolitano is great for finding out how far we've gone from the constitution, and Thomas Sowell is great for undeniable examples of how socialism doesn't work. I strongly recommend "The Road to Serfdom" by Hayek, which is not only short and smart, but was also something that inspired Ron Paul a very long time ago (it sparked the conservative movement after WW2). Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell both recommend as a very subtle and understanding book, and I personally loved it.

And to finish my recommendation with as much as possible, here is my favorite part from Road to Serfdom, where it explains the even deeper meaning socialism has on morality itself:

"Issues in this field have become so confused that it is necessary to go back to fundamentals. What our generation is in danger of forgetting is not only that morals are of necessity a phenomenon of individual conduct but also that they can exist only in the sphere in which the individual is free to decide for himself and is called upon voluntarily to sacrifice personal advantage to the observance of a moral rule. Outside the sphere of individual responsibility there is neither goodness nor badness, neither opportunity for moral merit nor the chance of proving one's conviction by sacrificing one's desires to what one thinks right. Only where we ourselves are responsible for our own interests and are free to sacrifice them has our decision moral value. We are neither entitled to be selfish at someone else's expense nor is there any merit in being unselfish if we have no choice. The members of a society who in all respects are MADE to do the good thing have no title to praise. As Milton said: 'If every action which is good or evil in a man of ripe years were under pittance and prescription and compulsion, what were virtue but a name, what praise should then be due to well-doing, what gramercy to be sober, just, or continent?'" - Hayek, The Road To Serfdom, p. 231 (50th anniversary edition)

The beauty of this piece is that he not only recognizes the immorality of forced charity, but he realizes that under accepting such a system morality and freedom must seem null and void -- which is why you hear a lot about "moral relativism" these days, and how "no one is really free."