Okay, CL fans, I need your help.
An extremely earnest and enthusiastic student just wrote to me, and asked about starting a reading group in Classical Liberalism. This student wants the movement to spread, and wants the readings to be good. And s/he also wants Progressive counterpoint.
So, let me ask the smartest people I know, the readers of KPC!
In comments, please give the BEST (most important, but also most readable) books or articles for these categories (these are my correspondent's categories, btw). And NO MORE THAN THREE per category, please. Have at you!
Classical Liberal authors of history: _____
Classical Liberal authors of the contemporary period: ____
And Progressive authors of history: _____
And Progressive authors of the contemporary period: _____
Classical Liberal Authors in contemporary political theory:
ReplyDeleteLoren Lomasky, Persons, Rights and the Moral Community
David Schmidtz, The Elements of Justice
Gerald Gaus, The Order of Public Reason
John Tomasi, Free-Market Fairness
Older Stuff:
Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia
Murray Rothbard, The Ethics of Liberty
F.A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty or, better, Law, Legislation and Liberty Vols. I-III
Contemporary Progressive Political Theory:
Philip Van Parijs, Real Freedom for All, What (if anything) can Justify Capitalism
David Miller, Principles of Social Justice
Ronald Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue
Amartya Sen, Inequality Reexamined
Thomas Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights
Thomas Nagel and Liam Murphy, The Myth of Ownership (not good)
Great Progressive/Classical Liberal Debate Book on the Welfare State:
David Schmidtz and Robert Goodin, Social Welfare and Individual Responsibility
Older Progressive Stuff:
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice
John Rawls, Political Liberalism
Much Older Progressive Stuff:
L.T. Hobhouse, Liberalism
John Dewey, Liberalism and Social Action
Contemporary:
ReplyDeleteBasic Economics by Thomas Sowell
Actual Ethics by James Otteson
Fatal Conceit by F.A. Hayek
Historical:
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
The Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson: A Life by Willard Randall or a similar biography of one of the Founders
Historical:
ReplyDeleteOn Liberty by J.S. Mill
Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke
Second Treatise on Government by John Locke
Contemporary:
The Constitution of Liberty by F.A. Hayek
Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Robert Nozick
A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell
I would echo Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke.
ReplyDeleteAlso, stressing readability, Hazzlit's Econ in One Lesson and Bastiat's The Law (or anything by Bastiat really).
capitalism and freedom by friedman is a readable and informative more modern work.
the moral sciences club as per Will Wilkinson:
ReplyDeletehttp://bigthink.com/ideas/40153
good start
kb
The list would be worthless if you didn't include Milton Friedman in there somewhere...
ReplyDeleteTeddy Rooseveldt's autobiography has some really good explanations of progressive values set in a context of noblesse oblige / "traditional moral values".
ReplyDeleteFor historical classical liberal, don't forget Faustino Ballve's Essentials of Economics. Very readable, very important book.
ReplyDeleteProgressive historians: Lawrence Goodwyn (The Populist Persuasion), Rick Perlstein (Nixonland), Nelson Lichtenstein (Walter Reuther book), Steve Fraser (Every Man A Speculator).
ReplyDeleteNeglected by CL's is the work on political obligation and Locke by A. John Simmons. Rothbard's The Ethics of Liberty is not very good.
ReplyDeleteContemporary "progressive" work I recommend is Christiano's The Rule of the Many and his Constitution of Equality.
I always find wisdom in Jeremy Waldron, even though I usually disagree.