Freedom Book of the Month for September, 2001:

The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible
by Ken Schoolland, Small Business Hawaii 2001, paperback, 118 pp., $15.95

One of my hobbies is procuring, as possible, books like Rose and Milton Friedman's Free to Choose, R.W. Grant's The Incredible Bread Machine, and Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson. I find them at garage sales and used book stores; I hand them out to friends who just don't "get" free-market economic ideas.

The average reader is simply not going to wade through Human Action, at least without first being provided with a good reason to do so. There exists a great need for books that introduce the basic concepts of capitalism in a friendly, unthreatening, but logical manner. The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible is such a book, and it has the virtue of being an entertaining yarn as well.

Originally released in 1981, Jonathan Gullible has been published in more than twenty languages and is now available in a new, revised and expanded, edition. It's written at the level of junior high or high school readers, and encompasses the story of a young man, lost to the sea and swept ashore in a foreign land. Gullible wanders the island of Corrumpo, talking with people and learning some basic truths as he goes.

Over the course of 39 short chapters, Gullible encounters workers, politicians, tenants and businessmen and sees every economic fallacy imaginable, described in language that exposes its basic flaws. Schooland's storytelling is rich and humorous.

Excerpt:

"Your program. What's your plan for next year?" asked the reporter impatiently.

"Of course," said the High Lord, pausing to draw deeply from his cigar. "Uh huh. Ahem. Well, I believe that it is appropriate for me -- to take the opportunity of this special press conference -- to announce that next year we plan to pay everyone on the great island of Corrumpo not to produce anything."

There was a collective gasp from the audience. "Everyone?" "No kidding." "Wow, that'll cost a fortune." "But will it work?"

"Work?" said Lord Ponzi, shaking himself out of his torpor.

"Will it stop people from producing?"

"Oh sure," he said, barely concealing a yawn. "We've had a pilot project in our front agency for years, and" said the Lord, a note of sleepy pride crept into his voice, "We've never produced anything."

With school back in session, it's worth picking up a copy of _The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible_ for the student in your home. It's just what the doctor ordered to combat the damage done by the government schools' versions of Economics 101. Adults will find it an equally worthwhile read, and discussion groups would do well to consider placing it alongside other introductions to free-market ideas.

Order The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible from Laissez Faire ($15.95)

July 2001: Dissenting Electorate edited by Wendy McElroy and Carl Watner

June 2001: Tethered Citizens by Sheldon Richman

May 2001: Lever Action by L. Neil Smith

April 2001: The Cato Handbook for Congressfrom the Cato Institute

March 2001: The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley

February 2001: Crypto by Steven Levy

January 2001: Total Freedom by Chris Matthew Sciabarra

Freedom Book of the Year 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith

December 2000: The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto

November 2000: Escape from Leviathan by J.C. Lester

October 2000: The Art of Political War by David Horowitz

September 2000: An Enemy of the State by Justin Raimondo

August 2000: The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell

July 2000: A Generation Divided by Rebecca Klatch

June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman

May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith

April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben

March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand

February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler

January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood

Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz

November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell

October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy

September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe

July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman

June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant

May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz

April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille

March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary

February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra