What’s your political type?
Find out right now by taking The World’s Smallest Political Quiz.
Folks who are serious about liberty can be notoriously difficult to buy for. You don’t know what prepping gear they already have (and nobody needs a third fold-up solar oven). You worry about offending them with reading material that’s “not NAP enough!” (or perhaps, “too NAP!”). And they’ve already read everything by Thomas Sowell, Sam Konkin, and Hans Hermann Hoppe.
Hence, this carefully curated list. Many of these are certain to be new to your liberty-loving friends and family members. And there’s not much here to offend, no matter which end of the (short but contentious) liberty spectrum folks hail from. You might even be able to get away with gifting some of these to the “non-liberty” people in your life … if you still have any.
Author Dominic Scarcella asks provocative questions: Can one be a good neighbor and also a good citizen? What is the difference between the two? Has modern Christianity become more aligned with “good citizenship” than with good neighborliness? And the big question on everyone’s mind … was Jesus an anarchist? Scarcella has a lot to say about it all in this slim volume. The perfect stocking stuffer!
2. Economics and the Spiritual Life of Free Men
Spencer Heath was a visionary who few today have heard of. Fortunately, his grandson, Spencer MacCallum, and free-cities advocate Joyce Brand recently took on the project of publishing speeches he gave in 1961 at Chapman College, California. The result is this book.
In these profound talks, Heath expounds upon his view that economic activity is inherently linked with our spirituality. Heath believed that we humans are co-creators with God; that we are meant to create, to prosper, and to serve one another; and that the best way we can do this is through the machinery of the marketplace.
An uplifting piece of work that serves as a powerful antidote to the narrative that free markets are soulless and materialistic. Nothing says “Spirit of Christmas” better!
3. Abundance, Generosity, and the State
Along similar lines to Economics and the Spiritual Life of Free Men is Dr. Guido Hulsmann’s Abundance, Generosity and the State, published in 2024. Hulsmann takes on the narrative of “unfettered dog-eat-dog capitalism,” in which the strong profit at the expense of the weak and society becomes selfish and atomized, with its members caring only about making money and not about each other.
Hulsmann tackles this caricature with solid economic analysis, systematically demonstrating the ways in which people naturally help each other and produce goods and services that do not directly benefit them in any material way. He then shows how state intervention and monetary policy work to stifle and even squash much of this activity—from encouraging irresponsible financial behavior and discouraging voluntary donations to the tragic outcomes of the welfare state.
This is an important work that turns the standard narrative on its head. It demonstrates, in painstaking detail, that it is not freedom but coercive intervention that creates a society of self-centered and atomized individuals.
There are plenty of books about the political takeover of medicine by the pharmaceutical industry, and the concomitant squashing of non-pharmaceutical modalities. But in terms of depth and impeccable sourcing, none come close to this masterwork by Harris Coulter. Coulter’s painstaking research and lively storytelling bring to life the intimate details of this history, including many of the unique personalities of those responsible for the takeover, and those who did their best to stop them.
It is important for us to have real-life examples of people who have taken risks to protect those whose lives and liberty were threatened. This is one such story: Villagers in the town of Chambon, in Vichy France, came together to break the law, forge documents, and do whatever else they believed was necessary to save the lives of the 3,500 Jews whom they concealed from the government. In a world in which it often seems that not many are capable of this kind of courage, it is good to be reminded that we all are.
As with A Good Place to Hide, Corrie Ten Boom’s classic real-life account tells of her Dutch Christian family’s work to save Jews and others from the Nazi government. Concealing people in their own home, the Ten Boom family saved around 800 people before they were themselves betrayed and sent to concentration camps. Corrie was the only member of her family to survive, and she went on to travel the world telling her family’s story and spreading the message that “there is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”
Originally published in 1921, this collection is not explicitly about liberty, but provides a delightful window into our world before every aspect of life became immersed in political ideology and divisiveness. The My Book House books were written to accompany children from infancy into young adulthood—my mother grew up with them. The series begins with nursery rhymes and concludes with Shakespeare, Goethe, Dickens, Cervantes, Tolstoy, and a long list of literary greats. All beautifully illustrated.
8. Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal
Renegade regenerative farmer Joel Salatin’s 2007 book lays out pretty much everything you need to know about how and why our food system is so dysfunctional. He explains the impact of regulations on farmers’ ability to produce and distribute high-quality products and how state intervention in farming has skewed the market in favor of large, industrial agricultural producers—to the detriment of local, organic, and regenerative farmers. A great place to start in understanding why our food is the way it is and what we need to change if we’re going to make it better.
One of today’s absolute best fantasy writers, Naomi Novik would likely shudder if you were to describe her as “libertarian.” Nevertheless, she has created here an absorbing tale that features an entrepreneurial moneylender as the heroine. Spinning Silver is a surprising and magical take on a classic fairy tale that also offers a refreshingly positive take on turning a profit.
10. Life of Fred
Whether you are homeschooling or not, if you have children, you should know about the Life of Fred books. Through simple, engaging stories, the Life of Fred presents basic concepts—in mathematics especially, but also in physics, economics, and biology—in a clear and easy-to-grasp manner, with respect for the young reader’s intelligence. A fantastic asset for any family wishing to nurture strong, independent minds.
11. OK, just one prepping item:
If you feel a strong need to buy someone a portable solar generator, I like this one, by Jackery.
12. Urban Yogini: The Christmas Episode
By yours truly. The sequel to Urban Yogini: A Superhero Who Can’t Use Violence, The Christmas Episode picks up where we left our heroine: on the run from the authorities because she had foiled the plans of the giant octopus who lives under the Federal Reserve to inject the population with mind-control serum and throw them into “payback camps” to work off the government’s debt. As Christmas approaches, she has no place to sleep, everyone in the world is at everyone else’s throats, and a menacing figure approaches a bridge in the Big City…
Bretigne Shaffer is a former journalist who now writes fiction and commentary and hosts a podcast. She blogs at Bretigne, and her fiction writing can be found at Fantastical Contraption.
What do you think?
Did you find this article persuasive?