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I'm currently a freshman in college and planning on majoring in economics. I'm taking macroeconomics right now, and am alittle disturbed with the textbook, which is purely Keynesian. I don't want to get brainwashed by default with Keynesian economic views, and so I'm wondering if any of you knew of a good, pro-capitalist economics book (not necessarily a text book) that I could read?

Thanks!

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George Reisman's "Capitalism: A Treatise On Economics". Available for free pdf viewing here.

I'll say the same thing I always say when people recommend this book: it's long, complex and technical -- not necessarily a good place for a relative novice to start. I recommend Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson as a starting point. Move on to Reisman's The Government Against the Economy or perhaps Sowell's Basic Economics. After that you'll be much better prepared to tackle something like Reisman's magnum opus.

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I don't think the book is overly technical. It just takes highlighting certain parts you may not understand and looking it up later. Some parts are for sure thicker than others, but if he's already taking economics courses, he's got a foot ahead on someone like myself that hasn't had a moment of formal economic teaching.

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I'm currently a freshman in college and planning on majoring in economics. I'm taking macroeconomics right now, and am alittle disturbed with the textbook, which is purely Keynesian. I don't want to get brainwashed by default with Keynesian economic views, and so I'm wondering if any of you knew of a good, pro-capitalist economics book (not necessarily a text book) that I could read?

Thanks!

Time Will Run Back, by Henry Hazlitt

Non technical

http://mises.org/books/time.pdf

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I'm currently a freshman in college and planning on majoring in economics. I'm taking macroeconomics right now, and am alittle disturbed with the textbook, which is purely Keynesian. I don't want to get brainwashed by default with Keynesian economic views, and so I'm wondering if any of you knew of a good, pro-capitalist economics book (not necessarily a text book) that I could read?

Thanks!

If you're particularly interested in macroeconomics, the book "Time and Money" by Roger Garrison puts forth an alternate macroeconomics and contrasts it extensively with the Keynesian apparatus (as well as Monetarism, New Keynesian, and New Classicism to some extent). You will learn much about Keynes' macroeconomics, like what assumptions he made that led him to his models, and you will be presented with an alternative which is more truthful to the workings of a market economy. It really is an excellent book, and the diagrams greatly help the reader to understand the different models.

Incidentally, the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics devoted an entire issue to discussing the book when it came out. It's one of the major developments in Austrian theory in the 21st century.

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George Reisman's "Capitalism: A Treatise On Economics". Available for free pdf viewing here.

I think it's around the same length as Atlas, so tread lightly and get ready for one hell of a read.

It has fewer pages than Atlas, but each page is the size of a textbook page, and it's much denser reading than most sections of Atlas. Reading it is a monumental undertaking. I'd recommend specific books which are more focused on particular topics.

I'm about 60 pages into Capitalism. It's quite good and quite comprehensive, but reading it alongside my school reading will probably take me months.

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It has fewer pages than Atlas, but each page is the size of a textbook page, and it's much denser reading than most sections of Atlas. Reading it is a monumental undertaking. I'd recommend specific books which are more focused on particular topics.

I'm about 60 pages into Capitalism. It's quite good and quite comprehensive, but reading it alongside my school reading will probably take me months.

I do agree it's a pretty hard task. If you go into reading it, like with any magnum opus, treat it like it is course material. Take extensive notes, highlight key sections, read pages multiple times if needed.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hazlitt's "One Lesson" is an excellent book, but it has a narrow focus. Basically, if one is a layperson, who wants to get a grip on some on the common macro-economic ideas bandied about, this book is great.

If one wants to study Economics more formally, one should probably start with Jean Baptiste Say. His book was used as an economics text book many decades ago, in the U.S. Of course, Adam Smith (Librivox) is a required read at some point.

Once one has some flavor, The Making of Modern Economics - Skousen is a good book to take a survey of the major authors, to help you decide where to go next. It also helps lay out some of the main themes and controversies that economists have addressed.

von Mises is a good economist, but not easy to read. I would not recommend anything by him until you have read a few other books, and decide that you want to go deeper. Similarly, I would not recommend Reisman's book as one of the first 5 that you read in Economics..

Edited by softwareNerd
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Be sure to read Principles Of Economics by Carl Menger. I would recommend it as one of your first reads. It lays out the basis for the field in simple terms and is an easy read. And since it precedes the "mathematical model" era of economics it will serve as a great reference to keep you from thinking economics is math.

Available online.

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Frederic Bastiat's "Essays on Political Economy" are now available in audio from Librivox.
As I searched for an audio alternative, also available in reader versions at gutenberg.org, as a random PDF available online right now, and what seems to be as part of another collection available in two parts (opens) at Ludwig von Mises Institute.
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