[jla]

fyi

[Mr. Mojo]

That's a laborious read. For Mises, I'd have chosen Bureaucracy. ...by far his most concise and well-written.

[Talisker]

The Gulag Archipelago

[Mr. Mojo]

Hayek's The Road to Serfdom would've been better as well.

[darkangel82]

You cannot reason with someone like that, no matter what book you give them to read.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I suppose you could have given him The Black Book of Communism that came out some years ago.

[Maigrey]

There is always 1984 by George Orwell...

[Rocko]

Liberty and Tyranny by Mark R. Levin is another worthwhile title.

[KarlInOhio]

Human Action is a little too heavy for a rookie book. I usually recommend “The Law” by Bastiat. Short, to the point and if it doesn't start the light glowing over his head the filament might be broken.

[wardaddy]

The 5000 Year Leap or Levin's Tyranny

or any Martin Gross book

actually just go to Amazon and buy them a 1950s era sophomore level book of Western Civilization...that would be a great start

[dajeeps]

“Free to Choose” by Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman is also a good one.

http://www.amazon.com/Free-Choose-Statement-Milton-Friedman/dp/0156334607/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253470916&sr=1-1

[devere]

For most people I’d prefer starting with something more easily accessible, like Milton and Rose Friedman’s “Free To Choose”.

[Talisker]

“This is surely the main problem of the twentieth century: is it permissible merely to carry out orders and commit one’s conscience to someone else’s keeping? Can a man do without ideas of his own about good and evil, and merely derive them from the printed instructions and verbal orders of his superiors?

Oaths! Those solemn pledges pronounced with a tremor in the voice and intended to defend the people against evildoers: see how easily they can be misdirected to the service of evildoers and against the people!”

- The Gulag Archipelago, Part V, Ch. 9

[calex59]

Just give the guy a history of the USSR, complete with purges and killings and the tyranny the people had to put up with(and aren’t completely free of now). Then follow up with a history of communist China and the purges and killings that still go on today in a so called enlightened China. If those two things don’t do it then he is beyond hope.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

you could start by just printing #20.....but here are some Friedman videos:

In honor of Milton Friedman, we are streaming the ground-breaking Free to Choose series as it originally aired in 1980 as well as an updated 1990 version. http://www.ideachannel.tv/

[parsifal]

The Epic of Gilgamesh, preferably the John Gardener, translation. DO NOT under any circumstances give them anything by Ayn Rand.

parsy, who says there is reason behind his madness

[Billthedrill]

I definitely wouldn't start with Human Action. Great book, but it's seriously dense, terminology-laden, and of a distinctly specialist appeal. Socialism, by the same author, is a little more accessible, IMHO.

The Gulag Archipelago is a great choice, as is The Black Book of Communism. These are all pretty meaty volumes, though. Depending on how sincere your friend was about finishing your offering they might be a bit much. You might consider Reflections on a Ravaged Century by the brilliant Robert Conquest. It encapsulates the issues revolving around both of the 20th Century's great totalitarianisms rather nicely. Best of luck.

[The Great RJ]

Orwell's Animal Farm

[beefree]

The story of the Little Red Hen: Even a child can understand it. Hen does all the work, moochers demand the fruit of her labor.

[grey_whiskers]

C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity or The Abolition of Man.

Rush Limbaugh The Way Things Ought to Be (though dated).

P.J. O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores OR All The Troubles In The World.

Mark Levin Liberty and Tyranny

Ann Coulter Treason

Mark Stein America Alone

Jonah Goldberg Liberal Fascism

Joseph Ratzinger Values in a Time of Upheaval -- give this book to the guy incognito, then *after* he's read it, explain the author is the Pope, and watch his head explode.

Cheers!