• "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

Conservatism and War

A great many books and articles on the moral and strategic imperative of nonintervention have been written; my aim here is simply to introduce the reader to some of the key ideas.

A few of my own pieces on the subject:

Do Conservatives Hate Their Own Founder? Russell Kirk on Militarism by Thomas Woods
Come Home, Conservatives — To the Antiwar Conservative Movement by Thomas Woods
The Conservative Case Against the War: A Review by Thomas Woods
No Patronizing, No Sloganeering by Thomas Woods

Daniel P. McCarthy, editor of The American Conservative magazine, gives a good overview of the correct conservative foreign policy in this extended interview (part one deals primarily with domestic issues):

Beyond this, one can profit a great deal from reading Ron Paul’s books, including his recent New York Times bestseller Liberty Defined, A Foreign Policy of Freedom, and his #1 New York Times bestseller The Revolution: A Manifesto.

My own work on the subject includes the military chapter of Rollback (read a summary here) and the book I co-edited with Murray Polner, We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now.  Another good introduction is Bill Kauffman’s Ain’t My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle American Anti-Imperialism.

And finally, read these essays with an open mind and you will never think about war or the state the same way again:

Anatomy of the State by Murray N. Rothbard
War, Peace, and the State by Murray N. Rothbard
The Justice and Prudence of War: Toward a Libertarian Analysis by Roderick T. Long