Many wonderful people, through their books, magazines, newsletters, or organizations, have contributed their ideas to the unique “work/study/adventure” curriculum offered at Freedom Mountain Academy.
In the mountaineering adventure portion, we have enjoyed a mutually profitable relationship with the National Outdoor Leadership School, founded by Paul Petzoldt, as well as the Outward Bound program, which originated in nearby North Carolina.
From our earliest days, the farmwork portion has owed much to the informative, very savvy Countryside and Small Stock Journal, produced by Jerry Belanger. The original Organic Gardening Magazine of the 1960s was another useful source. More recently, another excellent journal that has provided a rich source of information and inspiration is the Backwoods Home Magazine, produced by Dave Duffy. Gardening with Nature, by Leonard Wickenden, has always been our favorite source to consult when we need information about intelligent gardening or managing chicken flocks.
Believing that the quality of ideas taught at a school can best be evaluated by knowing the important books that have contributed to those ideas, we list below the titles of 50 of the more than 200 books that have had the most impact upon our thinking through the years. We would not have heard of most of these books, let alone been able to obtain them, except for the excellent service provided by such organizations as: Laissez Faire Books, The Foundation for Economic Education, Liberty Press, Blue Stocking Press, Conservative Book Club, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Reason Foundation, and the Cato Institute:
Adams, Charles: Fight, Flight, and Fraud
Andrews, Donald Hatch: The Symphony of Life
Bastiat, Frédéric: Economic Harmonies
Bastiat, Frédéric: The Law
Blumenfeld, Samuel: Is Public Education Necessary?
Butler, Gen. Smedley, USMC: War Is a Racket
Chamberlain, John: The Enterprising Americans
Chodorov, Frank: The Rise and Fall of Society
Cole, Franklin: They Preached Liberty
Collins, Marva: “Ordinary” Children, Extraordinary Teachers
du Nouy, Pierre Lecomte: Human Destiny
Gatto, John T.: The Underground History of American Education
Harper, F.A: Liberty — A Path to Its Recovery
Harper, F.A: Why Wages Rise
Hayek, F.A.: The Road to Serfdom
Hazlitt, Henry: Economics in One Lesson
Hazlitt, Henry: The Foundations of Morality
Korzybski, Alfred: The Manhood of Humanity
Lane, Rose Wilder: The Discovery of Freedom
Lane, Rose Wilder: Give Me Liberty
LeFevre, Robert: The Fundamentals of Liberty
LeFevre, Robert: The Nature of Man and His Government
Mises, Ludwig von: The Anti-Capitalist Mentality
Mises, Ludwig von: Human Action
Neff, Ronald N.: Polite Totalitarianism and Other Essays
Nock, Albert Jay: Memoirs of a Superfluous Man
Nock, Albert Jay: The Theory of Education in the United States
Oates, Whitney J.: The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers
Opitz, Edmund: Religion and Capitalism: Allies Not Enemies
Parkinson, Northcote: The Evolution of Political Thought
Paterson, Isabel: The God of the Machine
Quigley, Carroll: The Evolution of Civilization
Quigley, Carroll: Tragedy and Hope — A History
Quigley, Carroll: of the World in Our Time
Rand, Ayn: The Romantic Manifesto
Read, Leonard: Comes the Dawn
Read, Leonard: The Truth Will Out
Rothbard, Murray: Man, Economy, and State
Rothbard, Murray: What Has Government Done to Our Money?
Sennholz, Hans: Money and Freedom
Smith, Adam: The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Snow, C.P.: Science and Government
Sowell, Thomas: Inside American Education
Sowell, Thomas: Knowledge & Decisions
Spencer, Herbert: The Man versus the State
Strakon, Nicholas: Dark Suits and Red Guards
Tansill, Charles: Back Door to War
Twain, Mark: A Pen Warmed Up in Hell
Williams, Walter: Do the Right Thing
The Holy Bible, in particular the books of Exodus and First Samuel and the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as well, of course, as the books of Psalms and Proverbs.
