• "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

Thomas Sowell Reflects on Writing

A lot of this won’t apply to you — much of it is taken up with criticisms of copyeditors — but that doesn’t mean it isn’t thoroughly enjoyable to read Thomas Sowell, one of my favorite writers, on writing.

The best way to improve as a writer is to read the work of good writers, just as the best way to improve at chess, in addition to doing lots of tactics puzzles, is to play through the games of the masters. Murray Rothbard recommended H.L. Mencken as a good choice.

Also relevant to all this is my cautionary piece “Nobody Sells ‘Millions of Copies.’” Nonfiction books sell far, far fewer copies than the general public assumes.

Unlearn the Propaganda!

  • Anonymous

    Well, I do read your books. ;)

    I will definitely give this article a read. I respect Sowell and enjoy his writing, so he’s probably got a lot of good info in there.

    As you know, I am not as confident in my writing abilities as I probably should be, but that is true of most anything that I am supposedly good at. Aside from reading good writers (which has certainly influenced my own style) I think that an even more important thing is to simply write more. I don’t write articles or anything, but I do write a ton in terms of commentary. Over the years I have noticed dramatic improvements in my writing, such that people have told me that I should have a blog or write articles.

    There are two things that have hampered my initiative to write:
    1) Horrid grammar
    2) Simple fear

    Grammar isn’t as much of a hinderance as is fear. I think that most probably there are a lot of great writers out there but that they don’t write because of some fear that they have. Unfortunately, fear is often a very hard hump to get over and I can only imagine how many great endeavors never materialized because of it.

  • Robert

    Hey Tom, if you’re still checking the comments, I wonder if you have any stories similar to Thomas Sowell about overbearing copy editors trying to re-write your work. Many other authors repeat the same point 40 times over the course of an unnecessarily long 300+ page book. Rollback seems so painstakingly self-edited that I can only imagine it being made worse by an editor. However, maybe you have had luckier experiences with your publishers than Sowell.

  • http://www.TomWoods.com Tom Woods

    I’ve had good experiences with editors, for the most part. Anneke Green, my editor on Nullification, was the best I have worked with. She’s with the Washington Times editorial page now. She completely understood what I was doing in that book and her suggestions were uniformly for the good.

    I had a so-so experience with Columbia University Press. They wanted p.c. language, gender neutrality even when it made the prose grotesque, etc. I did fight back and did manage to reverse a good many of the proposed changes.

  • Matt

    H.L. Mencken is without a doubt the most enjoyable person to read I’ve ever come across. One has to read through the six volumes of the Prejudices series and other works to truly appreciate his style and the way he thought. Quotes don’t do him justice.

    What does it take to be a writer like Mencken? Aside from intelligence and an ear for pleasing rhythm in prose, one must also know how to say what one needs to without being stuffy. That sort of steadiness can’t be taught; it must be cultivated in those who are born with the gift for it. To echo what Mencken once said, most of the so-called writers out there would be better off in other jobs. Not including Mr.Woods, of course.