"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
Wally Conger's Recommended Books
I refuse to recommend the obvious libertarian “classics.” You already know about them. So . . . .
There’s often more truth in fiction than there is in history. And some of the best “revisionist history” now comes from crime novelist James Ellroy. Both American Tabloid and its sequel, The Cold Six Thousand, reveal more about late 20th century American history than anything written by today’s official court historians. These novels are filled with mobsters, the CIA, Jimmy Hoffa, Howard Hughes, Cuban exiles, and J. Edgar Hoover. If you want to learn something about the Kennedy assassinations and the war in Vietnam, skip Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin and read these two Ellroy “novels.”
When I'm tired of boo-hoo-hooing about the day’s news and need an attitude adjustment, I read a chapter or two from Up From Slavery, by Booker T. Washington. This great autobiography, written in 1901, always puts my day-to-day problems in proper perspective. Born a slave, Washington taught himself to read, fought discriminatory laws, and preached personal responsibility and the spirit of enterprise. Washington wasn’t a libertarian, but unlike most contemporary black leaders, he advocated self-help and shunned government handouts. Up From Slavery inspires and re-inspires, and I’ve had a copy on my bedside table for several years.