• "Well written, well researched, and the thesis put forth is well argued.... Woods has opened up an area of historical analysis that should invite further study."
    -Journal of American History

  • "During these times that challenge our freedoms there is no one more qualified to make U.S. history relevant to the fight against big government than Thomas Woods."
    -Barry Goldwater Jr.
    Former Member of Congress

  • "I strongly recommend Woods's work."
    -The Honorable Ron Paul,
    U.S. House of Representatives

  • "Written with great clarity and fluency, making the complex philosophical and theological concepts approachable."
    -Journal of American Studies

  • "A must-read."
    -Barron's

  • "An excellent reading source for anyone interested in financial markets, and much more so for anyone interested in learning about capitalism without all the misinterpretations being thrown about in the financial media."
    -Asia Times

  • "Provocative, well-written, and deserves to be read."
    -Catholic Historical Review

  • "An engaging and important contribution to scholarship on the history of American Catholicism."
    -Journal of the Historical Society

  • "Woods and [co-author Kevin] Gutzman appeal to both left and right in this constitutionalist jeremiad…. The authors' exegeses of the Constitution and court decisions, heavy on original intent arguments, are lucid and telling."
    -Publishers Weekly

  • "A marvelous read. Every chapter taught me something new and unexpected."
    -Tom Bethell, senior editor,
    The American Spectator

  • "The hottest book today is Meltdown, by my friend Tom Woods."
    -Judge Andrew Napolitano, senior judicial analyst,
    FOX News Channel

  • "Should be required reading."
    -Economic Affairs (London)

  • "Woods, one of the best classical liberal [libertarian] scholars of his generation, has once more placed us in his debt with this lucid and tightly argued book."
    -David Gordon, The Mises Review

  • "Tom Woods is one of my dearest allies in the struggle against wrong-headed and dangerous economic policy."
    -Peter Schiff

Down with the Seventeenth Amendment

I’m heading to Austin (where I’ll see you tomorrow, right?) tonight, but wanted to post this before leaving.  The Seventeenth Amendment, which provided for the direct election of U.S. senators (who had previously been chosen by the state legislatures), is one of the many episodes in American history that your seventh-grade teacher portrayed to you as unambiguously wonderful and progressive, so much so that no opposing view need even be mentioned.  Only a pigheaded idiot could oppose something as super as this, and you students aren’t pigheaded idiots, right?

Law professor Todd Zywicki has done some of the best work on this subject.  This book review he wrote is from 1997, but it gives a good overview of the real intent and the actual consequences of the Seventeenth Amendment, as opposed to the comic-book version we all got in school.

  • http://dagnysrebuttal.com Jeremy

    Tom,

    Your cynical and sarcastic remarks about what we were taught in our youth really never gets old. The brashness that your present it with should not be reigned in: you hit the nail directly on the head.

    I just finished reading “Nullification.” The information in it is invaluable, but I was under the impression that it was going to be organized as a “handy little reference book.” I wish it fit in my pocket and had a practical index system.

    Keep up the great work.

  • http://www.thomasewoods.com Tom Woods

    Thanks. I intended it to be like that, but that’s how the publisher wanted it.

  • http://aidemediagroup.com Joshua

    Tom, is there an audiobook version of Nullification available? If so, where can I get a copy?
    P.S. NEVER stop writing books. I LOVED PIG to American History as well as 33 Questions!!

  • http://www.thomasewoods.com Tom Woods

    Yes, click on the Nullification book page on this site: http://www.thomasewoods.com/books/nullification/

  • http://users.eastlink.ca/~angusjbmaclean/ Stephen MacLean

    I also recommend Zywicki’s ‘Repeal the 17th Amendment?’ Cato podcast.

  • http://www.johntsharp.blogspot.com John T. Sharp

    Right on Mr. Tom. The states have no voice in the federal government with the 17th.

  • http://theaandy.wordpress.com y

    hi Dr. Woods,

    do you know if the lectures from Mises U will be posted online somewhere after they are recorded? I know they will be on Ustream, but I won’t be able to watch them live. thanks a lot.