Citizens for Sensible Change

A Reading List for Freedom Loving Americans

Friedman, Milton. Money Mischief: Episodes in Monetary History. Boston: Mariner Books, 1994.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedman examines the role of money backed by gold and silver and our current world of fiat backed by faith. After an initial restatement of the essence of his monetary views, Friedman traces the historical impact of bimetallism in the United States and elsewhere. He devotes the remainder of the book to the principles and problems of modern money unlinked to any commodity.  In this prophetic book, Friedman predicted that, in the face of massive deficits, the federal government would sharply increase the money supply and fuel hyper-inflation.  He also predicted, correctly, that foreign countries would stop buying our debt, as China, for its part, has recently announced.

Friedman, Milton and Rose. Free to Choose. New York: Harvest Books, 1990.
Although published in 1980, this classic exposition of the principles of the free market is more timely than ever. Friedman lays out a systematic argument for free markets, the tyranny of government controls, and the benefits of cooperation through voluntary exchange. In an era marked by the growing power of the Federal government and corresponding erosion of personal freedoms, expanded benefits programs and bureaucracies, and the continuing debates over the merits of free trade, it is instructive to read Friedman's admonition that increases in government power and control come at great cost, not only to individual and economic freedoms, but economic growth. Like Hayek and von Mises before him, Friedman explodes the Keynesian mythology that government spending is actually good for the economy. We are simply transferring money to that segment of the economy least likely to spend it wisely and efficiently. This book is a follow-up to Friedman’s successful PBS series of the same title, which may be viewed online at: http://workforall.net/Free-to-choose-milton-friedman.html

Hayek, Friedrich. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
This now classic book was originally published in 1944, near the close of World War II, when the forces of freedom and collectivism were squaring off across a great philosophical and physical divide. At the time of its publications, Hayek was taking on much of the intellectual elite which supported socialist economic ideas and gave comfort to the former Soviet Union. Chief among Hayek’s contentions was that Nazism and Communism were two sides of the same collectivist coin, enshrining the state over individual rights and liberties. Although the Evil Empire has now collapsed, the economic and political ideas which gave it sustenance are still with us in a number of Statist manifestations, variously described as liberalism, welfare state socialism, or progressivism. Modern day “liberalism” is simply a perversion of the term itself, an antithesis of what it meant in the 19th century, namely individual rights, free market capitalism, and limited government, ideas all anathema to our current president whose formative years were shaped by communist poet Frank Marshall Davis, and a politically correct education.

Hazlitt, Henry. Economics in One Lesson. New York: Three Rivers Press (Random House), 1988.
Originally published in 1948, this classic volume argues that economics is haunted by more fallacies than other study known to man. Hazlitt’s basic premise is that fallacious economic policies almost invariably seek to benefit one group at the expense of all others, or to bring about short-term benefits at the expense of long-term benefits. Hazlitt applies this theory to a variety of economic problems and policies, including tariffs, minimum wage, rent controls, taxes, unions, wages, profits, savings, credit, and unemployment, among others. His analysis is remarkable prescient as applied to the Obama administration and the interest groups to which it panders. This book is a model of intellectual clarity and readability. An ideal introduction to economic ideas for the layperson.

Sowell, Thomas. Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy. 3d ed. New York: Basic Books, 2007.
One of the world’s leading scholars and intellectuals, as well as a nationally syndicated columnist, Thomas Sowell provides an in-depth explanation of economic principle and practices from a free market perspective. He examines prices and markets, industry and commerce, work and pay, time and risk, the national economy, the international economy, and special economic issues. Sowell writes with a clarity of expression which makes the most complex economic topics understandable. Although written before the ascension of the Chosen One, this book provides the intellectual firepower for understanding the economic illiteracy of our current president and the dangerous direction in which he is taking our country.

Woods, Thomas E., Jr. Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2009.
A layman’s guide to the causes of the recent financial meltdown, including the Federal Reserve System, the Community Reinvestment Act, Bill Clinton, Christopher Dodd, Barney Frank, most Democrats, and some Republicans as well. Rather than a failure of the free market, the financial collapse was caused by misguided intervention by the Federal Reserve and the federal government into the market economy, and forcing banks to grant mortgages to individuals without sufficient creditworthiness. Yet, how can we find solutions when pandering politicians refuse to recognize the root causes and create oceans of debt to buy off their political constituencies?

Bryce, Robert. Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence.” New York: Public Affairs, 2008.
A sober-minded look at the global energy market and futility of the trying to achieve “energy independence.” According to Bryce, energy independence is neither desirable nor doable in light of America’s demand for energy and our inability to obtain that energy solely from domestic sources. Bryce explains in detail how politicians and pundits alike get it wrong, including the influential Thomas Friedman who knows next to nothing about the international energy business. Bryce rejects the dire predictions of “peak oil” gloomsters and quotes with approval Vaclav Simil, who argues that energy transitions are “deliberate, protracted affairs, meaning that wind and solar cannot begin to satisfy America’s energy demands and that we will require fossil fuels for decades to come. He also exposes the ethanol scam and its dire consequences for taxpayers and the world’s poor whose food costs have risen sharply.

Gingrich, Newt, with Vince Haley. Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less: A Handbook for Slashing Gas Prices and Solving Our Energy Crisis Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2008.
An action plan for addressing America’s energy needs. Gingrich correctly observes that America is suffering from an artificial energy crisis created by radical environmentalists and the craven politicians, like Barack Obama, Joe Lieberman, Barbara Boxer and Henry Waxman, who pander to them. Vast stores of oil, natural gas, and coal are available domestically and off-shore if we only remove the regulatory and legal impediments to their extraction and use. Moreover, nuclear power offers a way to supply our increasing demand for electricity without harmful emissions. At the root of environmentalist opposition is a desire for Americans to completely change their lifestyles to conform to an extremist vision of environmental absolutism. What most Americans don’t realize is that the elitists who control the leading environmental organizations are opposed to any abundant source of energy because they see man as a blight upon the planet. Consequently, they hope to starve the developed world and, indirectly, the undeveloped world by cutting off its energy supply. The book also addresses the chief objections to various forms of energy use.

Milloy, Steve.Green Hell. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2009.
An in-depth examination of the extreme environmentalists who now control most formerly mainstream environmental organizations and pursue a radical agenda designed to slow the wheels of the modern industrial age. Milloy reveals that this agenda is aimed less at finding alternative energy sources than it is at opposing any forms of energy which propel our advanced civilization. Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, discovered this when he began campaigning on behalf of nuclear power, and became the object of vitriol from these groups. What they promote is, in reality, a culture of death, poverty (particularly in countries which have never achieved prosperity), and a rejection of progress itself. Steve Milloy is an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and founder of the JunkScience.com, a web site devoted to exposing the false claims and junk science disseminated by the socialist Greens.

Murray, Iain. The Really Inconvenient Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don’t Want You to Know About--Because They Helped Cause Them. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2008.
Murray addresses seven environmental scares peddled by the environmental movement and the drive-by Media and systematically demolishes each one of them, employing hard evidence and unquestionable logic. He exposes Al Gore’s scientific illiteracy on the question of so-called global warming (now called “climate change”), the environmentalist’s role in the resurgence of malaria, the false promise of ethanol, the pseudo-religion of EcoPaganism, the green lobby, the dangers of liberal dogma, the Endangered Species Act, and more. He argues that Al Gore’s vision of greater state control over the environment has already produced some of the greatest environmental disasters in history. He concludes with The Promise of Stewardship: The Conservative Answer for the Environment. Educated at Oxford, the University of London, and the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Murray is a senior fellow in energy, science and technology at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The “cap and trade” (translation: cap and tax) plan being proposed by scientific illiterate Barack Obama and his minions in Congress will thrust a dagger into the heart of the American economy, and all for no reason. If enacted, it will constitute the biggest case of economic masochism in American history, costing each American family more than $3,900 annually in increased energy costs. Incredibly, most people who believe in global warming as a crisis have no knowledge of the underlying science and mindlessly accept its premises, despite the fact that there is ample evidence that the modest upturn in temperatures at the end of the 20th century may be almost entirely attributable to natural causes. The books listed below provide an excellent review of the underlying science as well as the propaganda campaign designed to mislead the American public.

Horner, Christopher C. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2007.
This highly readable guide to the global warming scam and the authoritarian nature of modern environmentalism draws upon the latest scientific evidence to prove that (1) there is no consensus on global warming; (2) climate is always changing—with or without man; hurricanes are not getting worse; (4) the Medieval Warming Period was significantly warmer than temperatures today; (5) sea levels have been rising at the same rate since the end of the last Ice Age 12,000 years ago; (6) the scientific bankruptcy of Al Gore’s alarmist ”documentary” which contains no less than 33 major errors, lies and distortions.
Chris Horner is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a leading expert on global warming legislation and regulations.

Michaels, Patrick and Robert C. Balling, Jr. Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don’t Want You to Know. Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2009.
For those who wish to examine the scientific evidence of climate change, this book provides ample ammunition. In the view of Michaels and Balling, there is a consistent body of scientific literature that argues cogently for global warming, but against the “gloom and doom” vision of climate change. The primary question are, however, (1) how much has it warmed; (2) how much of it is caused by human activity; and (3) how the relationship between human activity and present temperatures can be translated into a reliable estimate of future warming and its effects. The authors contend that the current state of global warming science is far from settled, that both modeled and observed surface temperatures are rising at a constant rate, and that perhaps the sensitivity of climate to carbon dioxide has simply been overestimated. The authors also devote considerable attention to the gross exaggerations, misstatements, and falsehoods being peddled by the mainstream media and global warming alarmists, and to the thought control being exercised by some state governors over state climatologists who fail to toe the correct party line on global warming.

Monckton, Christopher. Apocalypse? No !: Why “global warming Is not a global crisis. Frazer, PA: GreatSwindle.com,
Former science advisor to Margaret Thatcher, Christopher Monckton is one of the world’s leading experts on so-called “global warming” and the hysteria which surrounds its advocacy. He has issued a challenge to Al Gore to debate the issue publicly, but has been rebuffed because Al Gore will not subject his views to scrutiny. Most recently, he was denied an opportunity to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the proposed “Cap and trade” legislation because he would have appeared at the same day as Al Gore, and House Democrats feared Gore’s humiliation. This DVD is a point-by-point refutation of Al Gore’s claims.

Singer, S. Fred and Dennis T. Avery. Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1,500 Years. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007.
This book is dedicated to the thousands of climate scientists who have documented the 1,500 climate cycle over the entire globe, particularly Willi Dansgaard of Denmark, Hans Oeschger of Switzerland, and Claude Lorius of France. Singer and Avery discuss a variety of climate issues and demolish a number of myths regarding such imagined effects as sea level rise, disappearing islands, species loss, famine, drought, more frequent storms, and the like. They also examine the political machinations which drive the U.N.’s IPCC reports on climate change, whose executive summaries are drafted by politicians and upon which the scientists involved are never asked to sign off. Singer and Avery also reveal that the standard greenhouse theory is simply incorrect because CO2 levels are an 800-year lagging indicator of global warming, not a causal factor.

Solomon, Lawrence. The Deniers: The World-Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and Fraud. Minneapolis, MN: Richard Vigilante Books, 2008.
Based on a series of profiles written for the National Post (Toronto), this book examines the views of a number of world-class climatologists who reject the pseudo-science of Al Gore and other “global warming” alarmists. Solomon set out to profile a few “deniers” and discovered that they were far more ubiquitous than he had ever imagined. These include Dr. Syun-Ichi Akasofu, founding director of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska, who has documented a linear and fairly consistent change in global surface temperatures since the end of the Little Ice Age, unrelated to any so-called greenhouse or other manmade cause for the warming of the 20th century.

Spencer, Roy W. Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies That Hurt the Poor. New York: Encounter Books, 2008.
A Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and formerly a Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA, Roy Spencer is co-developer of the original satellite method of precise global temperature monitoring. With incisive logic, and a warm sense of humor, he addresses both the science and the cult of irrationality that drives global warming hysteria and the radicals who now control most environmental organizations. His web site EcoEnquirer.com reveals that those persons most gullible on environmental matters, including global warming, tend to be less critical thinkers willing to swallow uncritically Spencer’s satirical news postings.

Chavez, Linda and Daniel Gray. Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics. New York: Crown Forum, 2004.
There is no influence over the political process more pernicious than that of organized labor. Ostensibly existing to represent workers in collective bargaining negotiations, labor unions, particularly in the public sector, have developed into an unrivalled political force. Under oppressive labor laws, which force workers in many states to join a union as a condition of employment, unions use their control over member dues to advance the candidacy of those who will do the unions’ bidding. In the public sector, that means that taxpayers not only finance the salaries and benefits of government employees, but, indirectly, they also bankroll the candidates who will do the unions’ bidding and grow the size of government. The amount of money spent by labor unions in each election cycle has now reached one billion dollars, almost all of it derived through forced dues extractions from their members. Linda Chavez is a former labor union official and President George Bush’s original nominee for Secretary of Labor. She is currently president of Stop Union Political; Abuse. [The mislabeled “Employee Free Choice Act” (card check) is the latest outrage coming from organized labor]

Goldberg, Jonah. Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning. New York: Doubleday, 2007.
Goldberg explores the political and intellectual roots of modern progressivism and finds that the policies and principles advocated by politicians from Woodrow Wilson to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are remarkably similar to those which were advocated by Benito Mussolini and Hitler’s National Socialism. Contrary to the contention that Fascists were people of the Right, Goldberg clearly explains that they were people of the Left, i.e. socialists who believed in state control over most aspects of daily life, including national health care, education, guaranteed employment, confiscation of wealth, and loathed the free market. And while modern “progressives” are clearly not in the genocidal tradition of Nazism, they do share the National Socialists support of abortion, euthanasia, gun control, and campus speech codes. There is a clear connection between the eugenicists of the early 20th century, such as Margaret Sanger, and the modern abortion industry of Planned Parenthood which lionizes her. The similarities to the current crop of liberals/progressives/socialists who infest the Democratic Party are unmistakable.

Levine, Mark R. Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto. New York: Threshold Editions, 2009.
An eloquent defense of liberty as manifest in core conservative political principles. Levin explains how the liberal assault on Constitution-based values has led to the erosion of civil society, particularly since the New Deal. Conservatism, on the other hand, reflects the principles upon which our nation was founded, namely individual, as opposed to group, rights, federalism, limited government, private property, and free markets. Levin explains how the various forms of Statism, namely liberalism, progressivism, socialism and communism, have had a corrosive effect upon many aspects of our daily lives, including health care, the economy, immigration, taxation, global warming hysteria, and the welfare state. And he outlines the common sense principles by which we can restore government to the limited role the founders intended.

Schweitzer, Peter. Makers and Takers: Why Conservatives Work Harder, Feel Happier, Have Closer Families, Take Fewer Drugs, Give More Generously, Value Honesty More, and Less Materialistic and Envious, Whine Less…and Even Hug Their Children More Than Liberals. New York: Doubleday, 2008.
A fascinating comparison of the differences between conservatives and liberals as revealed by an examination of a variety of independent public opinion research surveys, tax records, and scholarly data. Contrary to the opinions of various liberal academics and left-wing ideologues, the personal characteristics of conservatives are far more likely to advance a healthy civil society. Liberals, on the other hand, are far more likely to hold irrational views (e.g. astrology), display destructive behaviors, and harbor jealousies, and advance selfish tendencies than conservatives. And while liberals may predominate among college faculty, where they infect the minds of their students, independent surveys have revealed that conservatives are far better informed about government and economics than liberals, a gap which several scholars have quantified as the equivalent of 2-3 years of formal education. Peter Schweitzer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Skousen, W. Cleon. The 5000 Year Leap: The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World. Malta, ID: National Center for Constitutional Studies, 1981.
At a time in our history when our Constitutional principles are under assault by the forces of Statism, this book illuminates the 28 principles that our Founding Fathers believed were essential to preserving peace, prosperity and freedom, among them the role of Natural Law, the role of religion, equal rights, unalienable rights, sovereignty of the people, free-market economics, separation of powers, checks and balances, minority rights, property rights, strong local self-government, government by law rather than by men, avoiding the burden of debt and more, The volume should be a core text for every student in American schools.