“some liberty-loving soul had donated a copy of John
Hospers’s Libertarianism: A Political
Philosophy for Tomorrow (1971) to my local public library. While I doubt I would find Hospers’s book
impressive today, at the time it was a thrilling read. I had never heard the
“standard libertarian arguments” before. (Bryan Caplan)
“When I was about
thirteen, I decided I wanted to read all of the good books in the public library. …. At the public library I found Ayn Rand; my
grandmother also recommended her to me. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal had a big
influence on me, as did Atlas Shrugged. Hayek and Rothbard followed shortly
thereafter.” (Tyler Cowen)
“I had some unusual early influences. In the eighth grade I
borrowed an H.L. Mencken book from the
city library. I couldn’t understand why everybody didn’t think and write
like he did. Also, I became enamored of the Barry Goldwater legend.” (Karen De
Coster)
“That experience led me to the public library and a host of books on economics, one of which
was a book whose table of contents I could not understand and which had never
before even been checked out: Mises’s Human Action.” (Robert Formaini)
1 comment:
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
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