From the Tom Woods Letter, September 25, 2018.

What should Trump read?

I can already hear the criticisms.

"Woods, Trump got elected without the book learnin' you nerds want him to have. You clueless libertarians may have all the arguments, but Trump knows how to connect with his base!"

No argument there.

But he'd sure be a lot better if he could do both things: connect with his base, and really, really understand the ideas (the good ones, anyway) he represents.

For instance, although he's far from consistent, and half the time even here he makes me crazy, Trump has spoken enough about nonintervention and related ideas to make the Deep State (which does exist) berserk. If he understood it better, he'd be a lot more consistent about it.

What's more, it would obviously have benefited Trump to be aware of who the various scholars are out there who hold some of the ideas he favors, so he wouldn't wind up surrounding himself by people who want to, you know, remove him from office.

So here's a handful:

, by Pat Buchanan. Since Pat is a right-winger, his noninterventionism would get a more respectful hearing from Trump and his supporters than a left-wing version would. This is an excellent work of American history, and its foreign-policy recommendations are just right.

, by Ron Paul. This is the kind of book that converts people. And it hones your instincts: once you hear its arguments, you instinctively know the right position on matters ranging from money to foreign policy to the Constitution.

 by Murray N. Rothbard. Short, but you'll understand an enormous amount after reading it.

, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. That has to be one of the dullest book titles of all time. But it is an astonishingly brilliant and challenging work. This is way past the "prices help coordinate production" level. This book explains how the world works.

, ed. Richard Ebeling. This short collection of essays explains why the economy moves in a boom-bust pattern, and what we can do about it. It is essential for people to understand this. Never again will you say, "We'd better make sure the Fed keeps interest rates low in order to keep the economy strong."