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Great BooksIn conjunction with Amazon.com--the world's largest online bookstore--Dave Kopel presents this selection of recommended great books. The link for each book will take to you Amazon.com's page for that book, where you can read reviews, and order the book--usually at a discount. For Movies on DVD and VHS, click here.
New: Ten on the Second. Ten great books (plus some bonus recommendations) on the right to arms. America's 1st Freedom, March 2007. PDF.
Magazines and Newspapers
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History
National Post. Canada.
Back to top of Books page. Go to the DVD Movies page. New Books
J.K. Rowling, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Available for pre-order. Ships on Dec. 4, 2008.
Back to top of Books page. Go to the DVD Movies page. Books by Kopel
Supreme Court Gun Cases (Bloomfield Press, 2003). With Alan Korwin and Stephen Halbrook.
Gun Control and Gun Rights: A Reader and Guide (New York University Press, 2002). With Andrew McClurg and Brannon Denning.
Editorial Board for Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law (ABC/Clio: 2002). Named an "Editors Choice," as one of the best new reference books of 2003 by Booklist, the magazine of the American Library Association.
Antitrust After Microsoft. (Chicago: Heartland Institute, 2001).
The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies? (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1992). Named Book of the Year by the American Society of Criminology Division of International Criminology.
No More Wacos: What's Wrong with Federal Law Enforcement and How to Fix It by David B. Kopel and Paul H. Blackman. The of the Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties, presented by the Center for Independent Thought.
RCRA Demystified: The Professional’s Guide to Hazardous Waste Law (Washington: Environmental Law Institute, 1996)( An annotated guide to Resource Conservation and Recovery Act), with Linda Rockwood and Kimberly Temple.
Guns: Who Should Have Them? (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1995).
Gun Control in Great Britain: Saving Lives or Constricting Liberty? (Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago, Office of International Criminal Justice, 1992).
Chapter in The New Prohibition: Voices of Dissent Challenge the Drug War (Accurate Press, 2004).
Children's BooksPreschool and YoungerBooks for small children need to stand up to literally hundreds of readings. It is a very special book that can engage an adult despite heavy repetition. The following books are classics which can handle heavy use, and in which parents (or other readers) can find continued joy. And of course kids will like them a lot too.
A is for America: An American Alphabet. By Devin Scillian. A collection of rhymes takes children through an illustrated alphabet, and shows them Bunker Hill, Huckleberry Finn, Thomas Jefferson, and lots of other people, places and things, that have made America great.
A Pocket for Corduroy. By Don Freeman. A gentle, but not sappy, first book in a series about girl and her teddy bear.
An Alphabet of Dinosaurs. By Peter Dodson. Perhaps the best illustrations of any dinosaur book. Amazingly vivid.
Bye-Bye Diapers. By Ellen Weiss. Illustrated by Tom Cooke. Young Miss Piggy makes a major step forward in her personal growth.
Goodnight Moon. By Margaret Wise Brown. Getting ready to sleep, a bunny says goodnight to everything around him.
I am a Little Bear, by Francois Crozat. A day in the life, from a young animal's perspective. There's also I am a Little Duck, I am a Little Monkey, and many more. So far, I am a Little Cockroach has not been added to the repertoire.
Good Dog, Carl. By Alexandra Day. Parents leave their child with their
babysitter, who happens to be Rottweiller named Carl! There is almost no text
(since dogs can't talk), so "readers" end up telling a story to accompany the
excellent illustrations. In another book, Carl and the baby sneak out on
Christmas Eve (Carl's
Christmas). Best of all is
Carl's Masquerade, in which the parents leave Carl and the baby alone
(again) to attend a costume party; Carl and the baby promptly head out to the
party, and everyone thinks the baby riding Carl is just someone with a clever
costume. Buy these books before the anti-dog lobby has them outlawed.
Eloise. By Kay Thompson. The famous little girl who lives at the Plaza Hotel in New York.
Katie's Picture Show. By James Mayhew. A delightful well illustrated child's fantasy in an art museum. Katie falls into the paintings, and has adventures therein.
Kittens Are Like That. By Jan Pfloog. This one delights two-year-olds.
The Puppy Book. By Jan Pfloog. Equally delightful.
McGuffey's Original Eclectic Readers. By William McGuffey.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. By Betty MacDonald. A multi-volume series in which Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle cures children of bad habits such as talk-backism, whispering, and bullying, with "magic" potions. Terrific for reading aloud as children love the "cures," while vowing never to behave like that. Adults will find the social commentary hilarious.
The Best First Book Ever. By Richard Scarry. Good for reading to toddlers, and for older children expanding their vocabulary.
The Seven Silly Eaters. By Mary Ann Hoberman. Mom runs herself ragged cooking special meals for every kid, until they finally learn to eat the same thing--a dish made from each of their favorite foods.
The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Raises the moral question: was the littlest Billy Goat Gruff right to tip off the troll that his older brother would be coming?
In
America. By Marissa Moss. A grandfather tells about leaving
Lithuania as a young boy, and coming to America to be free.
Mad About Madeline. By Ludwig Bemelmans. The classic story of the bold little girl, living in a boarding school in Paris in the 1930s.
Maggie and the Monster. By Elizabeth Winthrop. Maggie meets the monster, and resolves her conflict with him.
Mr. Putter and Tabby. By Cynthia Rylant. A retired man and his cat have small adventures, each with a twist. Suitable for young children, as well as 1st and 2nd grade beginning readers.
My New York. By Kathy Jakobsen. A colorful child's introduction to the wonders of New York City.
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes. By Du Bose Heyward. A classic story about Easter bunnies.
Squids
Will Be Squids. By Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. A collection of
morality fables in a delightful format. A major change in style and tone
from ordinary children's books.
The Polar Express. By Chris Van Allsburg. A beautifully illustrated childhood Christmas allegory. A winner of The Caldecott Medal.
Silent Night. By Joseph Mohr. The story of Christmas Eve, with
words from the hymn as text. Luminous, realistic, and very beautiful
illustrations.
Elementary SchoolMost of the books in the "pre-school and
younger" section above are suitable for early grade elementary students to read
to themselves. The "Junior High School" books, below, are suitable for parents
reading to their children. And elementary students with good reading skills can
also read (or enjoy having read to them), the following: The Chronicles of Narnia. By C.S. Lewis. A seven-volume series that helped define the fantasy genre. A Christian allegory, but suitable for children of any or no religious persuasion.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. By Lewis Carroll. Surrealism before surrealism was invented.
The Wizard of Oz. By L. Frank Baum. An allegory about William Jenning Bryan (the cowardly lion), the farm and labor movements (the Scarecrow and the Tin Man) and the Gold Standard (the Yellow Brick Road)? Maybe. But it's a great story even without the politics, and the book contains all sorts of subplots and interesting characters who didn't appear in the movie.
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. A very readable and well illustrated introduction to the classical Greek myths.
A Little Princess. By Deborah Hautzig. This is an adaptation for young readers of the Frances Hodgson Burnett book. Ten-year-old Sara Crewe is suddenly orphaned, and becomes a servant at a boarding school run by a harsh headmistress. Sara's imagination help to survive and triumph. Set in London in the early 20th century. Audio cassette edition of the original.
The Boxcar Children. By Gertrude Chandler Warner. One of 19 of the Alden family mysteries. Exciting stories about enterprising children suitable for readers that have graduated from picture books but aren't quite ready for the real thing. The originals are superior to the new additions to the series "created by" the author.
Frog and Toad Together. By Arnold Lobel. Two good friends hang out together. An excellent book for beginning readers.
How My Parents Learned to Eat. By Ina R. Friedman. An American sailor marries a Japanese woman; they learn to overcome their cultural differences.
If You Grew Up with George Washington. By Ruth Gelov Gross. A great look at everyday life in early America.
If you Sailed on the Mayflower. By Anne McGovern. Transplants young readers (ages 5 - 12) into great historical periods, one of a 5 volume set.
If You Lived With the Sioux Indians. By Anne McGovern, et al (one of a 5 volume series). Transports young readers into historical period
Koko's Kitten. By Dr. Francine Patterson. The story of a gorilla and his cat, produced by The Gorilla Foundation, Woodside, Calif.
Little House on the Prairie. By Laura Ingalls Wilder. An American pioneer family in the first part of the 19th century.
Mr. Popper's Penguins. By Richard and Florence Atwater. Mr. Popper, a poor housepainter, is fascinated by the Antarctic. Then he receives a penguin in the mail. Charming. Suitable for novice readers transitioning from picture books.
Repunzel.
By Paul O. Zelinsky. The classic fairy tale illustrated in an elegant Italian
Renaissance style. Very high quality art. Winner of The Caldecott Medal.
The Secret Knowledge of Grown Ups. By David Wisniewski. Explains the real rationale behind seemingly arbitrary grown-up rules. For example, the real reason that you can't jump on your bed is that the mattress is alive, and jumping will wake it up.
Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans. By Edward Eggleston. First printed in 1895, this book features short stories about the lives of Americans from George Washington to Kit Carson, Louisa May Alcott, and painter Benjamin West. The stories stress what their subjects did to make them great. They feature interesting vocabulary and varied sentence structure accessible to 2nd and 3rd grade readers. A delightful alternative to the sanitized history books deemed suitable for young children today.
How
Do You Lift A Lion? By Robert E. Wells. A picture book about
levers and pulleys. Good science, terrific presentation.
Harry Potter By J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter is a boy who goes off to a Scottish boarding school to learn how to be a wizard. Delightful adventures. Perhaps the best fantasy series since Lord of the Rings. Excellent for adults and children of all ages. The unabridged audio editions are read by Jim Dale, the well-known children's story-teller, and they hold up very well to repeated listening.
Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Volume 1. Harry is living with
his nasty aunt and uncle and cruel brother, when a letter from Hogwarts school
informs him that he is a wizard.
Audio.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Volume 3. Harry begins to learn about his parent's death, and the strange story of his godfather, a wrongly convicted prisoner. Audio.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Volume 4. The world's two other magical boarding schools bring their students and faculty to Hogwarts for the year. A notably darker tone than volume 1, especially the page-turning final chapters. Audio.
Junior High School
Johnny Tremain. By Esther Forbes. A teenage boy in Boston and
the beginning of the American Revolution.
Brain Quest Series Very fun quiz cards for kids of all ages. My First Brain Quest. Three-year-olds. Preschool. Kindergarten. First Grade. First Grade Reading. First Grade Math. Second Grade. Second Grade Reading. Second Grade Math. Third Grade. Third Grade Reading. Third Grade Math. Fourth Grade. Fifth Grade. Sixth Grade. Seventh Grade. For the Car. American History. Canada. Geography. Bible. Science.
For parentsFacts Not Fear: A Parent's Guide to Teaching Children about the Environment by Michael Sanera and Jane Shaw. Helps parents counter p.c. disinformation and panic about the environment.
The McGuffey Readers, beginning with McGuffey's Eclectic Primer. First printed in 1881, these books helped teach generations of people to read. Compare them to your child's current reader for interest (even 4 lines tell a story), emphasis on phonics, and their stress on moral behavior. Good supplement to any reading program
Back to top of Books page. Go to the DVD Movies page. Economics, Personal Finance, and Taxes
How Capitalism Saved America: The Untold History of Our Country, from the Pilgrims to the Present. By Thomas Dilorenzo.
Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics. By P.J. O'Rourke. The funniest economics book ever written.
Economics
in One Lesson. By Harry Hazlitt. Basic introduction to the fallacies
in government attempts to regulate private enterprise. A classic introduction to
economic thinking. Assumes no prior knowledge. If you want to
understand economics and plan to read only one book on the subject, this should
be it.
The Myth of the Robber Barons. By Burton W. Folsom. Why Rockefeller, Carnegie, et al. were great men who helped humanity.
Money
The Future of Money in the Information Age. James Dorn, editor. How electronic commerce can liberate us from the government monopoly on money.
Antitrust
Antitrust After Microsoft. By Dave Kopel (Chicago: Heartland Institute, 2001).
Antitrust: The Case for Repeal. By Dominick T. Armentano. Explains the flaws in the persecution of Microsoft and other recent cases, and shows why antitrust laws must be repealed, not reformed.
Winners, Losers & Microsoft. By Leibowitz and Margolis. Asking hard questions about the hi tech market and what anti-trust actions really achieve.
Trust on Trial: How the Microsoft Case is Reframing the Rules of Competition. By Richard B. McKenzie. How the Microsoft case is really about insulating Microsoft's rivals (such as Sun and Oracle) from competition, not about protecting consumers.
The Greatest Economists
The Wealth of Nations. By Adam Smith. Timeless economic classic.
Two Lucky People. By Milton and Rose Friedman. A Nobel Prize winner's life of discovery.
Capitalism and Freedom. By Milton Friedman. Why economic freedom is a necessary condition for political freedom.
Free to Choose: A Personal Statement by Milton and Rose Friedman. A classic exposition of free market and personal freedom. Less abstract than Capitalism and Freedom, it contains more detailed examples. Many people find it easier to digest.
Marxism by Thomas Sowell.
Taxes
For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization by Charles Adams. Not recommended around April 15, as Adams details how oppressive taxation shatters civilization with depressing regularity. Last chapter contains suggestions for taming the tax monster.
Taxing Choice. Edited by William Shughart II. How taxing "politically incorrect" activities actually benefits certain special interest groups.
Investments and Markets
A Random Walk Down Wall Street. By Burton G. Malkiel. A classic on investment theory. Argues that investors cannot use past price information to predict future prices. An accessible presentation of the "efficient markets" hypothesis.
The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need. By Andrew Tobias. A decades old primer that still provides one of the best introductions to personal finance around. Keep it handy for resisting temptation when your broker tries to sell you the latest hot investment vehicle.
Stocks for the Long Run: A Guide to Selecting Markets for Long-Term Growth by Jeremy J. Siegel. One of the most balanced and complete books ever written about equity investing.
Yes, You Can...Achieve Financial Independence. By James E. Stowers. The Founder and President of the Twentieth Century Mutual Funds explains money, interest, financial planning, and investing in a clear, concise fashion. Excellent for keeping one's perspective.
Back to top of Books page. Go to the DVD Movies page. Education
Bad
Teachers: The Essential Guide for Concerned Parents. By Guy Strickland. Offering innovative, on-target solutions to a pervasive problem. Homeschooling for Excellence: How to Take Charge of Your Child's Education-and Why You Absolutely Must. By David and Micki Colfax. A resource book on Homeschooling.
Home Schooling: The Right Choice. By Christopher Klicka. Practical information on Home Schooling.
The Montessori Method. By Maria Montessori. An educational method based on treating all persons with respect, individualized learning, and individual responsibility.
The
Twelve Year Sentence. By William F. Rickenbacker. Radical views on
compulsory schooling.
The
Exhausted School: The First National Grassroots Speakout on the Right to School
Choice.
Edited by John Taylor Gatto. Literature on reforming public schools.
The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn Hardcover by Diane Ravitch
Voucher Wars: Waging the Legal Battle over School Choice Paperback by Clint Bolick
The Schools We Need. By E.D. Hirsch, Jr. A history of the development of current thinking about education, why it impedes learning, and what can be done to restore American schools. A must read for anyone entering the education debate.
Books to Build On: A Grade-By-Grade Resource Guide for Parents and Teachers (Core Knowledge Series). by E.D. Jr Hirsch
The Core Knowledge Series edited by E.D. Hirsch. The Core Knowledge Foundation's suggested school curriculum for grades K through 6. A good reference for tracking what your child's school is doing. Titles in the series are: Higher Education The UnCivil University (Politics & Propaganda in American Education) by Gary A. Tobin
Profscam: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education. By Charles J. Sykes. Mr. Sykes excoriates the professoriate. While some professors still deserve respect for their devotion to scholarship and the seriousness with which they approach their professional responsibility to pass their knowledge to succeeding generations, many do not. Read why not in this informative polemic.
Inside American Education. By Thomas Sowell. How higher education reallys works. Read this before you start applying to college.
The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses. By Alan Charles Kors and Harvey A. Silverglate. A meticulous record of the social engineering, indoctrination, censorship, and double standards that University administrators now inflict on American undergraduates and what can be done about it.
The Diversity Hoax: Law Students Report from Berkeley. Produced by law students in The Federalist Society, Berkeley campus chapter. How the proponents of quotas and political correctness use intimidation rather than logic, in attempt to silence dissent.
Back to top of Books page. Go to the DVD Movies page. Environment, Science, and Animal Rights
The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World. by Bjorn Lomborg.
Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by
Scientists, Politicians, and the Media.
by Patrick J. Michaels.
The Precautionary Principle : A Critical Appraisal of Environmental Risk Assessment. By Indur M. Goklany. The "precautionary principle" says that we should never do anything unless we are certain that it is safe. The author explains the terrible dangers of this rule.
Junk Science Judo: Self-Defense against Health Scares & Scams. By Steven J. Milloy (Cato Institute). Twelve lessons to help you see though health and safety frauds perpetrated by interest groups and perpetuated by the media. No prior scientific expertise required.
Apocalypse Not : Science, Economics, and Environmentalism. By Ben
Bolch, Harold Lyons. Contrary to what you read in the newspapers, the sky
actually is not falling. Read a review of this book by Dave
Kopel.
Back to top of Books page. Go to the DVD Movies page. Fiction and Literary Criticism
Literature Lost: Social Agendas and the Corruption of the Humanities. By John M. Ellis. A scholarly demolition of the current orthodoxies in literary criticism. Explains how race, gender, and class criticism combined with the language of deconstruction and the doctrine of political correctness to destroy the study of literature in American universities. Worth reading for the historical perspective alone.
The
Oldest Dead White European Males: And Other Reflections on the Classics.
By Bernard Knox. Why the Greeks are still important, despite what the p.c. lobby
claims.
Animal Farm. By George Orwell. One of the greatest
allegories of all time. Animals revolt and take over a farm. Then some of the
animals trick the other animals into submitting to murderous communism.
Health and Health Care
Fatal Tradeoffs : Public and Private Responsibilities for Risk. By W. Kip Viscusi. The dangers of attempting to create a risk-free world.
Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey Schaler. Demolishes the doctrine of irresponsibility for one's addictions and actions.
Smoking
Smoking: Who has the Right? By Jeffrey Schaler & Magda E. Schaler. A libertarian view of the prohibition movements aimed at smoking and alcohol.
For Your Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health. By Jacob Sullum. The best expose of the junk science and petty tyranny which dominate the smoking prohibition movement.
Eating
The Food and Drink Police: America's Nannies, Busybodies, and Petty Tyrants by James T. Bennett & Thomas AJ. DiLorenzo.
Medical Care
Patient Power. By John Goodman and Gordon Musgrave. Health
care reform based on consumer choice.
Why We Spend Too Much on Health Care and What We Can Do About It. By Joseph L. Bast, Richard C. Rue, and Stuart A. Wesbury, Jr. An excellent introduction to health care policy. If you want a solid introduction to the subject and have time for only one book, read this.
Back to top of Books page. Go to the DVD Movies page. History
America
The Founders' Almanac: A Practical Guide to the Notable Events, Greatest Leaders & Most Eloquent Words of the American Founding. By Matthew Spalding (Editor). Just what it says, produced by the Heritage Foundation.
The Radicalism of the American Revolution. By Gordon S. Wood. How our revolution formed a democratic society.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Highlights from the life of the great man.
The Presidency of James Madison. By Robert Allen Rutland.
Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America. By Thomas G. West. West debunks the now popular notion that since the founding fathers of the U.S. owned slaves they were evil people and not worthy of respect. He carefully places the founding fathers in their historical context and examines their ideas and actions in that light. This book provides some much needed balance in an era where politically correct, and shallow, revisionist histories are all the rage.
The Ecological Indian: Myth and History by Shepard Krech III. An anthropologist shows that contrary the contemporary myth portraying American Indians as sublime ecologists at one with nature, they were pretty much like everyone else. Some conserved resources, some wasted them, and all sought to shape the natural world to their purposes.
The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America's First Military Victory. By Robert Remini. Wonderful celebration of one of the greatest days in American history. Read the review by Kopel.
Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville. The classic study of the American political character.
Yankee Leviathan. By Richard Bensel. How Lincoln's Civil War precedents continue to affect the presidency today.
The Roosevelt Myth. By John T. Flynn. First published in 1948, and now reprinted in a 50th anniversary edition. A useful, but disturbing, corrective to the mass of books which have glossed over Franklin Delano Roosevelt's failures and flaws. President Clinton is apparently right that he and FDR have more in common than is commonly recognized.
Witness. By Whittaker Chambers. What Alger Hiss and the Soviets were really up to in the United States, not what the media say they were. How one man's deepening religious conviction led him to take a stand against the establishment of the day at enormous cost to himself.
I Chose Freedom. By Victor Kravchenko. A survivor of Soviet System tells his story.
Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First. By Mona Charen.
Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties by Paul Johnson. An excellent history of the twentieth century.
Europe
History of the Peloponnesian War. By Thucydides. The first
book of military history. The decades-long war between Athens and Sparta.
The Black
Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. By Stephane
Courtois et al. A group of researchers meticulously document the terror,
torture, famine, mass deportations, and massacres perpetrated by Communist
regimes around the world.
The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis. By Rabbi David Dalin (Regnery 2005).
Righteous Gentiles: How Pius XII and the Catholic Saved Half a Million Jews from the Nazis. By Ronald J. Rychlak (Spence 2005).
Asia
Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban. By William Maley (Editor). Just because they're gone doesn't mean that you can't read about them. After all, people still read books about their spiritual ancestor, Adolph Hitler. The book cover the Taliban from their creation to 1998, addressing such issues as how they rose; their oppression of women; the role of other Saudi Arabia, Russia, and others; the problems of foreign aid agencies; and how radically different the Taliban were from all previous Afghan governments.
Back to top of Books page. Go to the DVD Movies page. History of Ideas
Closing of the American Mind. By Allan Bloom. Argues that modern intellectual life has forgotten that some ideas are better than others.
From Magna Carta to Constitution: Documents in the Struggle for Liberty. David Brooks, editor.
The Varieties of Religious Experience. By William James. The great American philosopher's investigation of comparative religion.
The Future and its Enemies. By Virginia Postrel. The growing conflict over creativity, enterprise, and progress.
The Killing of History; How Literary Critics and Social Theorists are Murdering Our Past. By Keith Windshuttle. About how certain major events have been rewritten and misinterpreted.
In Denial: Historians, Communism, & Espionage. by John Earl Haynes.
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. By Charles Mackay. Tulip mania, the Mississippi bubble, and other cases of mass delusion and hysteria.
Humor
The 776 Stupidest Things Ever Said. By Ross and Kathryn Petras. A collection of hilarious notes and quotes.
The Politically Correct Guide to American History. Tour de Force satire of tabloid journalism and loony political correctness.
Parliament of Whores. By P. J. O'Rourke. Not for everyone, but for those who share his sense of humor one of the funniest books ever written about how government works, or fails to. Some terrific description.
Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics. By P.J. O'Rourke. The great humorist explains why some countries are rich, and others are poor. A good introduction to basic economics, with far more laughs per page than most economics textbooks. The funniest economics book ever written.
Back to top of Books page. Go to the DVD Movies page. Law
The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. by Edwin Meese.
Clarence Thomas : A Biography. By Andrew Peyton Thomas. A sympathetic, although sometimes critical, biography of the man who is emerging as the most intellectually influential Justice on the Supreme Court.
The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction. By Akhil Reed Amar. The most important book ever written about the Bill of Rights.
Origins of the Bill of Rights. by Leonard Levy.
The Excuse Factory: How Employment Law is Paralyzing the American Workplace. By Walter K. Olson. This book should spur outrage at government interference in the workplace.
Hate Crimes: Criminal Law & Identity Politics. By James. B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter. The book addresses whether or not this class of laws help or exacerbate racial tensions in our society.
Jury Nullification: The Evolution of a Doctrine. By Clay S. Conrad. How our jury system is under political and social attack. And how jurors can--and should--exercise their rights to jury independence.
May It Please the Court: 23 Live Recordings of Landmark Cases As Argued Before the Supreme Court, Including the Actual Voices of the Attorneys and Justices. Peter Irons and Stephanie Guitton, editors. Audio cassettes of some of the greatest oral arguments before the Supreme Court. Irons' commentary introducing the cases is biased and sometimes inaccurate, but the great lawyers themselves still shine through.
The Enterprise of Law: Justice without the State. By Bruce Benson. How law has existed historically, and can exist in the future, without the state.
To Serve and Protect. By Bruce Benson. Innovative private sector efforts to fight crime make criminal justice accountable and reduce unchecked state power.
Are Predatory Commitments Credible? By John Lott, Jr. A study of government antitrust action against companies accused of "predatory pricing" for setting prices too low.
Why Sovereignty Matters. By Jeremy Rabkin. A law professor at Cornell University who is also an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute shows in this study the threat to our constitutional system from supranational institutions and international agreements.
The Diversity Hoax: Law Students Report from Berkeley. Produced by law students in The Federalist Society, Berkeley campus chapter. How the proponents of quotas and political correctness use intimidation rather than logic, in attempt to silence dissent.
Back to top of Books page. Go to the DVD Movies page. Politics and Government
Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts. by The Editors of Popular Mechanics. Especially needed by the sufferers of Bush Derangement Syndrome.
The Great Deception: Can the European Union Survive? By Christopher Booker & Richard North (Continuum 2005).
Shakedown : Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson. By Kenneth R. Timmerman. A disturbing biography of the blackmailer and scam artist who is hidden himself in the civil rights movement.
Dependent on DC: The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans. By Charlotte Twight. Explains the growth of government, with a particular focus on how government insiders raise the transaction costs of challenging or examining government programs.
The Strange Death of Vincent Foster : An Investigation. By Christopher Ruddy. The author comes to no conclusions, but does provide extensive evidence that the official version of Foster's death is implausible.
At Any Cost : How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election. By Bill Sammon. Details the incredible audacity of how an attempted election theft was portrayed as a demand for an honest count.
Official Lies: how Washington Misleads Us. By James T. Bennett & Thomas J. DiLorenzo. How government bureaucracy manipulates the public and wastes their money.
No One Left To Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton. By Christopher Hitchens. A cheerful attack on a crooked President and his corrupt administration.
The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy. By Thomas Sowell. The mindset behind the failed social policies of the last 30 years.
The 15
Biggest Lies in Politics. By Major Garrett and Timothy J. Penny. A
journalist and a former Congressman explain some of the hokum.
Justice and Law Enforcement
The
Politics of Bad Faith: The Radical Assault on America's Future. By David Horowitz. Essays outlining the evolution of the Left and why its
unwavering devotion to "social justice" logically requires that it crush
individual liberty the American experiment. A good lay
introduction to political philosophy.
Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty. By James Bovard. Covers abuses from the IRS to the BATF to the Department Justice, and more.
Absolute Power: The Legacy of Corruption in the Clinton-Reno Justice Department. By David Limbaugh. Best-selling expose of the most lawless Department of Justice in American history.
Above the Law : Police and the Excessive Use of Force. By Jerome H. Skolnick & James J. Fyfe. The best book every written about this subject.
Back to top of Books page. Go to the DVD Movies page. Political Philosophy
The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Readings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman. By David Boaz. Selections from dozens of great thinkers.
Libertarianism: A Primer. Edited by David Boaz.
What it Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation. By Charles Murray. Demonstrates how life in a free society will be better for many non-economic reasons.
What it Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation. By Charles Murray. Demonstrates how life in a free society will be better for many non-economic reasons.
The Road to Serfdom. By F.A. Hayek. The vicious cycle of government control.
The Constitution of Liberty. By F.A. Hayek. A systematic defense of individual freedom and rule of law.
The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism. Collection of Works by F.A. Hayek .The flawed logic behind government attempts to control the economy.
Two Treatises of Government. By John Locke. The 1689 masterpiece that laid the groundwork for the American Revolution.
The Spirit of the Laws. By Baron de Montesquieu. A classic that influenced the Founding Fathers.
The
Law.
By Frederic Bastiat. A compelling case for limited government, by one of the
early 19th century's most persuasive authors.
The Portable Thomas Jefferson by Merrill D. Peterson. A collection of the great man's writings.
Jefferson: Writings by Merrill D. Peterson. Public and Private Papers, Addresses and Letters, life chronology.
The Federalist Papers. By Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. (Clinton Rossiter, ed.)
The Anti-Federalist. By Herbert Storing. Arguments against centralized government
What the Anti-Federalists Were For. By Herbert Storing. A fresh look at a maligned group.
James Madison: Writings: Writings 1772-1836.
by James Madison
Democracy in America.
by Alexis de Tocqueville.
Telling the Truth: Why Our Culture and Our Country Have Stopped Making Sense- and What We Can Do About It. By Lynne V. Cheney. A treatise about the struggle to maintain intellectual freedom in an ever more politically correct society.
Cato's Letters: Essays on Liberty by John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon. These newspaper essays, published in Britain from 1720 to 1723, argued forcefully against despotism, and in favor of liberty. They were the single most important source of political philosophy in colonial America.
Reference
Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists. By Joel Best. Best surveys some of the worst "statistics" created by interest groups. He starts with "the worst social statistic ever," namely "Every year since 1950, the number of American children gunned down has doubled." Best points out that this would have meant 35 trillion child gun deaths in 1995. The book explains how interest groups invent or manipulate statistics, and how a gullible, biased media disseminate them. Among the infamous "statistics" which Best debunks are claims that 10% of Americans are gay, that 150,000 women die every year from anorexia, and the attendance at Louis Farrakhan's "Million" Man March. The book explains how interest groups invent or manipulate statistics, and how a gullible, biased media disseminate them. This book is a wonderful tool for learning how to separate good data from lies.
American Dictionary of the English Language. By Noah Webser. Facsimile of the 1828 First Edition.
Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History. William Safire editor.
The Privacy Rights Handbook. A guide to keeping your online activities hidden from prying eyes.
Back to top of Books page. Go to the DVD Movies page. Second AmendmentBookmarks to Second Amendment Section:
For the
Defense of Themselves and the State: The Original Intent and Judicial
Interpretation of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms by Clayton E. Cramer. The
best legal history of the right to arms, in both federal and state courts. The
Amazon website includes a review of this book by Dave Kopel.
A Right to Bear Arms by Stephen P. Halbrook. Examines the development of the right to arms in the thirteen original states plus Vermont.
Origins and Development of the Second Amendment: A Sourcebook, by David T. Hardy. A compact (95 pages) presentation of the 75 most important documents about the right to keep and bear arms. Each is a few paragraphs long, accompanied by commentary from Hardy. From ancient Saxon law all the way to American Supreme Court cases, this book provides an outstanding survey of original sources.
Gun Control and the Constitution, edited by Robert Cottrol (Garland Press). Law professor Cottrol has collected the most important state and federal cases dealing with gun control, as well as the leading law review articles on the topic. There’s an expensive three-volume collection (link to first volume), as well as an affordable one-volume paperback of the best of the best. Cottrol has scrupulously balanced the pro- and anti-rights articles, but in a fair fight, the anti-rights articles look very weak.
The Origin of the Second Amendment: A Documentary History of the Bill of Rights in Commentaries on Liberty, Free Government & an Armed Populace. David E. Young, editor. Every single original documentary source about the origin of the Second Amendment.
Concealed Weapon Laws of the Early Republic: Dueling, Southern Violence and Moral Reform. by Clayton Cramer. Great historical perspective.
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Current Laws
Gun Laws of America by Alan Korwin. All of the federal gun laws, collected in one volume, and explained in plain English. The Amazon website includes a review of this book by Dave Kopel.
Alan Korwin's guides to state gun laws: Arizona, California, Florida, Texas, and Virginia.
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Social Science, Criminology, and Current Policy Questions
Targeting Guns: Firearms and their Control. By Gary Kleck. This book is a paperback, updated edition of Kleck’s award-winning book Point-Blank. Everything that can be quantified about guns in America is in here: How many guns there are, how often guns are used for crime and use defensively, the impact of gun control laws on gun crime, public opinion: about guns, and much much more. If you can only afford one book about gun policy, this is the book.
Armed: New Perspectives on Gun Contr |