Charles G. Koch’s Reading List – OpEd

Charles G. Koch and his brother David have for many years run one of the highest value privately held companies in America. From their business they have both become billionaires. And they have contributed a substantial amount of their money to political activities in the form of both funding nonprofits and contributing to and aiding candidates in elections.

Some people praise these two Koch brothers for helping the promotion of libertarianism while others criticize their actions as counterproductive to accomplishing that objective. Whatever your position — if any — in that divide, you may find value in the list of 34 book recommendations posted at the website of Charles G. Koch, a smart and well-read individual with a long-time interest in libertarian ideas.

I expect most libertarians will find Koch’s reading list, for the most part, is made up of books that, to the extent they deal with political philosophy and economics, express ideas largely in line with libertarianism.

For more libertarian-related reading ideas, consider also the reading list of 48 books that libertarian communicator Ron Paul included at the end of his 2008 book The Revolution: A Manifesto.

Both Koch and Paul’s lists include books by Andrew Bacevich (America’s War for the Greater Middle East in Koch’s list and The New American Militarism in Paul’s list), Friedrich A. Hayek (The Road to Serfdom in both lists and The Fatal Conceit and Law, Legislation and Liberty in Koch’s list), and Ludwig von Mises (Human Action in both lists and Bureaucracy in Koch’s list). Paul did not include in his reading list Frédéric Bastiat’s The Law, which appears in Koch’s list. Yet, Paul, in an August of 2016 Tom Woods Show interview, mentioned the book in answer to host Tom Woods’ query of what one book Paul would recommend as an introduction to Paul’s views.

This article was published by RonPaul Institute