Tuesday, February 05, 2008

How you can study under the great Milton Friedman.

Laissez Faire Books is running a special on Milton Friedman DVDs including a 15 lecture series by Friedman on various issues. This is almost equal to a semester's worth of classes with the late, great economist. There are about 12 1/2 hours of lectures and another six hours worth of questions and answers. I've managed to see the first part of this and it is a great deal of fun -- and I urge people to never forget the Q&A part as some of the best comments come there. This entire set is now available for $299.95 with free priority mail shipping anywhere in the US.

In addition LFB is offering a huge discount on a selection of Friedman DVDs. You can buy the 15 course lecture series, plus the 10 part Free to Choose series, plus the 3 part Tyranny of the Status Quo series, plus one interview with Friedman on the nature of money along with the recent documentary on Friedman, The Power of Choice. All together this is almost 33 hours worth of material. With the free US shipping your cost would be $429.95, which is a savings of more than $100 off the cost if each DVD were purchased individually. If you wish to order this set call 1-800-326-0996 or email them at laissezfairebooks@gmail.com

Laissez Faire also now has a new blog that has gone up where these sorts of specials will be mentioned. In addition they have a link on their blog where you can sign up for weekly information on new titles that they are stocking. They also have a shop page up through the Amazon site where you can find out what they are offering. You can find it here. You can browse on line and then give LFB a call at the 800 number. From what I can see that will save you a bit in shipping fees since the fees that Amazon puts on books offered through their affiliated shops is actually higher than LFB's normal shipping fees.

From the Amazon LFB shop page I see two items that I think ought to be of particular interest. One is the DVD of the film Harry's War with Edward Herrmann, Geraldine Page and David Odgen Stiers. This has to be one of the most anti-IRS films ever produced. Laissez Faire tells me that they did some sleuth work and tracked down the last 164 copies of the DVD in stock (unless it gets reissued again -- which is not guaranteed). These DVDs were not being offered at all in recent years and were just sitting. And the original distributer went out of business. Laissez Faire is selling copies for $19.95 each. That's reasonable, the film is great and impossible to find anywhere else. You might order a few as presents.

Also, I was happy to see that one of the first major works on libertarianism is available again. That is Prof. John Hosper's book Libertarianism. From what I can see you can buy the book for $1 less directly from Amazon BUT Laissez Faire is offering autographed copies which Amazon isn't. This is a massive work in a limited reprint for $29.95 and a rare chance to get a signed copy.

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