There are literally thousands of books that promote Lincoln as the finest President. More often than not they focus on how Lincoln supposedly ended slavery, won a war against terrorists, and provided for the democracy that we live under today. Unfortunately for most readers (and students), Lincoln was not a great man, and his politics were likely the cause of the great tyranny we live under today.

DiLorenzo’s book is now available in paperback form, but I own both copies. He dives deep into Lincoln’s past, producing a wealth of information focusing on Lincoln’s own words through his life, his own letters to others, and the beginnings of the Republican Party. Lincoln was first and foremost a tutor of Hamilton and Clay, and a hardcore believer in Clay’s American System. Clay was a Whig (as were Hamilton and Lincoln) and the Whigs believed in a huge central government that taxed some producers to pass the money on to “internal improvements” — or corporate welfare as we know it.

Lincoln also hated the black race, and he believed that the country should expel all slaves and free blacks and ship them to Africa or Haiti. When he ran for President, he admitted that he had no desire to end slavery in the South. The reason for the War between States, according to DiLorenzo and the facts he digs up, was to tax the Southern producers so that Lincoln could give his friends in the North money as corporate welfare.

Even worse, Lincoln destroyed the Constitutional limits on the President by actually jailing hundreds of anti-war advocates and news reporters. He threatened newspaper owners with jail if they spoke out against the war. Lincoln went so far as expelling a Congressman from the U.S. because of his anti-war views.

For those unfamiliar with Lincoln and the Republican Platform, DiLorenzo’s book is an eye-opener, one that has battled years of attacks and has come out relatively unscathed. I highly recommend this book not just for the politically inclined, but the apolical and even high school students. Lincoln’s actions must be brought to light, and we have to see that much of what he believed in is now part of our society and our government. The actions that are most hated by those with libertarian or anarcho-capitalist beliefs may have started with Lincoln, and most praise this tyrant because of the slavery issue, which the book proves was one of Lincoln’s worst accomplishments. Every other civilized country in the world ended slavery because of industrialization, and only the U.S. ended it in a war.

The story focuses on a fantasy island where the citizens are always increasing taxation and the power of the state, with the island’s businesses having problems overcoming the increased bureacracy. The language of the book is better suited to kids over the age of 9, but the wonderful image prints and fun poetry (a la Seuss) captivates the younger kids as well. I doubt most children would understand some of the finer topics, but this is one of those stories that older kids will go back to read and realize that a book they loved as a tiny child has some valid educational points later on in life. Even adults can read it and get a good idea of how much socialism has crept into our own society.

The quality of the hardcover build is wonderful, and the price of the book is decent for something built to last a generation or more. The art is top notch, and the poetry isn’t too over-reaching, just the right amount of rhythm and rhyme while still keeping the topics understandable.

The book is meant to be shared between a parent and a child and read out loud. It is a quick read and doesn’t focus necessarily on negativity and anger, but on the hopes for the future and the success of humans living without force. If you’re looking for new ways to teach your child individuality with voluntary cooperation, here is a great tool that will become more powerful as your child ages.

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This book is the epitome of understanding what money is. The late Rothbard captured the very essence of money from a free market perspective. Rather that confuse the reader with economic mumbo jumbo and charts and graphs, Rothbard leads the reader in a simple way to seeing that money is not confusing and not intimidating but a simple way to exchange our labor with the world.

The beginning chapters of the book teach you exactly what money is. Reading these chapters in just an hour or two is enough to make the book worthy of a purchase. Rothbard continues the rest of the book to teach the reader the mistakes government has made with money for 2 centuries — most of these mistakes have been very specific manipulations to mask the crimes and frauds that have plagued money for not just centuries but millenia.

Rothbard comes down hard on many accomplices in the destruction of wealth and value — the Federal Reserve, various executive and congressional politicians, economists and educators. He helps one realize that money is simple, and it is only when others try to make it complex can we see what their true intentions are: wealth transfer and power. His story is magnificent, and the first read of this book will not be your last. After reading it, many people I know went out and bought more copies for their children, their friends and their elders. They likely won’t put it down either.

Rothbard calls for a de-evolution in money — a return to money that can’t be manipulated, can’t be inflated by force, and can’t be used to control the lower and middle classes. His solution for fixing the money supply would also fix many of the economic and politican headaches we have all come to expect and just live with. Rothbard’s book was a life-changing event for me, more powerful than almost any other read, even though his words are simple and his thoughts are easy to understand for even the youngest reader.

If you don’t own it, this is a requirement. For those who purchase the book and don’t immediately love it, I offer to buy it back for the cost you paid including shipping. I have had this offer for 10 years and have only bought the book back once. The person I bought it from bought it back from me 3 years later.

I received this book form a regular reader of mine on Tax Day of 2006, up until that day I hadn’t even heard about it. Ravi Batra 288 page book was publish back in May of 2005, but the title is very impressive. I’ve been criticized for years for calling Greenspan a fraudster, so I can give a little smile to see a book with that title.

Overall this is a decent book, if not a little to neoliberal bent. It is rare to see someone a little on the left criticize the man that made Clinton famous for his artificially balanced budget and artificially prosperous economy. I recommend it for the facts and information he brings, but not entirely for all of his opinions. He’s an anti-supply sider, and he’s definitely pro-taxation. Nonetheless, this is one purchase I can recommend that isn’t completely backed by free market thinking.

Mr. Batra works at Southern Methodist University in Texas as the Professor of Economics. The book is an easy read, taking me only 2 days of casual reading to get through it. The various chapters are separated very nicely, covering all the fraudulent aspects of Greenspan’s long career as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. It covers not just the inflationary cycle that has created the boom and bust of the dotcom sector, but also dives into the problems we face today in the housing markets throughout the country. Easy money brings hard problems later on, especially for the middle and lower class. While Mr. Batra doesn’t go as far as I do in showing the reader how inflationary money is a wealth transfer mechanism (from the late-coming middle class to the early-entry elite), the book does condemn Greenspan’s various manipulations from an economist’s perspective.

The second chapter of this book talks about something we often forget about — how Greenspan’s excess was part of the Social Security scam of the early 1980’s, and how that manipulation is causing great financial stress for that welfare agency today.

I don’t think Batra is a free marketeer, though, and he finds blame in Bush’s lowering of the upper tax rate, and says that the nation prospered when Clinton raised taxes. The book definitely has neo-liberal leanings, but it has many good statistics to show how money supply manipulations have long lasting negative effects on the economy down the line. I’m not one to believe that all bubbles follow a certain multi-year cycle, or that we can predict the next bubble in terms of months and years when comparing it to previous ones. The Internet has opened the market to new places for money to run to, which can cause inflation in some markets and deflation in others — this is the reality of inflation.

Batra also doesn’t see that you can walk away from the inflation-employment see saw by ending preferential and paternalist treatment of certain industries and companies. Inflation does lower unemployment, but only temporarily — it pushes it back for another decade or generation. When the market understands that slow deflation is healthy, and workers understand that a pay-cut can actually mean gaining more value (when everyone works more productively and lowers their prices as well), we can see a slow deflation with higher employment. How an economist can’t understand that is beyond me.