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Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
Woods in February 2011.
Born	Thomas Ernest Woods, Jr. (1972-08-01) August 1, 1972 (age 52) Melrose, Massachusetts
Occupation(s)	Historian, scholar
Academic career
School or tradition	Austrian School
Alma mater	Harvard University (A.B.) Columbia University (M.Phil., Ph.D.)
Influences	Ludwig von Mises, Murray N. Rothbard, Ralph Raico, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Ron Paul, Robert Nisbet, Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
Website	tomwoods.com

Thomas Ernest "Tom" Woods, Jr. (born August 1, 1972) is an American historian,  political commentator, author, and podcaster. Woods is a New York Times Best-Selling author and has published twelve books. He has written extensively on the subjects including the History of the United States, Catholicism, contemporary politics, and Economics. Woods is a libertarian scholar, and although not an economist himself, a firm proponent of the Austrian school of economics. Woods hosts two popular libertarian podcast, Tom Woods Show and Contra Krugman.

Education and affiliations

Woods holds an A.B. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University, both in History. He is a senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama an organization that “teaches the scholarship of Austrian economics, freedom, and peace. The liberal intellectual tradition of Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) and Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995) guides us.” and a member of the editorial board for the Institute's Libertarian Papers.

Woods is also an associate scholar of the Abbeville Institute, in McClellanville, South Carolina. The mission of the Abbeville Institute is to preserve and present what is true and valuable in the Southern tradition. The fellowship has grown to over 170 scholars and associates. Among other activities, the Institute has conducted annual summer schools for college and graduate students, conferences for academics, and educational programs for the public.

Woods was an ISI Richard M. Weaver Fellow in 1995–96. He received the 2004 O.P. Alford III Prize for Libertarian Scholarship and an Olive W. Garvey Fellowship from the Independent Institute in 2003.

He has additionally been awarded two Humane Studies Fellowships and a Claude R. Lambe Fellowship from the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. His 2005 book, The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy, won the $50,000 first prize in the 2006 Templeton Enterprise Awards.

Publications

Woods is the author of twelve books, most recently Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Card of Allowable Opinion, Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse and Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century. His other books include the New York Times bestsellers Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse (read Ron Paul’s foreword) and The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, as well as Who Killed the Constitution? The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to Barack Obama (with Kevin R.C. Gutzman), Sacred Then and Sacred Now: The Return of the Old Latin Mass, 33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed to Ask, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, and The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy. His critically acclaimed book The Church Confronts Modernity was released in paperback by Columbia University Press in 2007. A collection of Woods’ essays, called W obronie zdrowego rozsadku, was released exclusively in Polish in 2007.

Woods’ books have been translated into Italian, Spanish, Polish, Lithuanian, German, Czech, Portuguese, Croatian, Slovak, Russian, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.

Woods edited and wrote the introduction to five additional books: Back on the Road to Serfdom: The Resurgence of Statism, We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now (with Murray Polner), Murray N. Rothbard’s The Betrayal of the American Right, The Political Writings of Rufus Choate, and Orestes Brownson’s 1875 classic The American Republic. He contributed the preface to Choosing the Right College and the foreword both to Ludwig von Mises’ Liberalism and to Abel Upshur’s A Brief Enquiry into the True Nature and Character of Our Federal Government. He is also the author of Beyond Distributism, part of the Acton Institute’s Christian Social Thought Series.

Woods’ writing has appeared in dozens of popular and scholarly periodicals, including the American Historical Review, the Christian Science Monitor, Investor’s Business Daily, Catholic Historical Review, Modern Age, American Studies, Intercollegiate Review, Catholic Social Science Review, Economic Affairs (U.K.), Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Inside the Vatican, Human Events, University Bookman, Journal of Markets & Morality, New Oxford Review, Catholic World Report, Independent Review, Religion & Liberty, Journal of Libertarian Studies, Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, AD2000 (Australia), Christian Order (U.K.), and Human Rights Review. For eleven years Woods served as associate editor of The Latin Mass  magazine; he is presently a contributing editor of  The American Conservative magazine. A contributor to six encyclopedias, Woods is co-editor of  Exploring American History: From Colonial Times to 1877, an eleven-volume encyclopedia.

Views

On Catholicism

Woods was received into the Roman Catholic Church from Lutheranism. He wrote How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. For eleven years, he was associate editor of The Latin Mass Magazine, which advocates traditional Catholicism. As a traditionalist Catholic, Woods is also recognized for his books attacking the post-Vatican II church.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page). Woods advocates what he calls the Old Latin Mass and cultural conservatism.

On Conservatism

Woods makes a sharp distinction between paleoconservative thinkers with whom he sympathizes, and neoconservative thinkers. In articles, lectures and interviews Woods traces the intellectual and political distinction between the older conservative, or paleoconservative, school of thought and the neoconservative school of thought.

Of the latter he writes:

The conservative's traditional sympathy for the American South and its people and heritage, evident in the works of such great American conservatives as Richard M. Weaver and Russell Kirk, began to disappear.... he neocons are heavily influenced by Woodrow Wilson, with perhaps a hint of Theodore Roosevelt.... They believe in an aggressive U.S. presence practically everywhere, and in the spread of democracy around the world, by force if necessary. (How they will reconcile their alleged commitment to democracy with the obvious fact that most freely elected governments in the Middle East would be anti-American will be interesting to see.) And they believe that any other country's opposition to their belligerence can be explained only by weakness or moral perversity. They are like spoiled children, both in their thinking and their behavior, not to mention their ignorance of history. It's embarrassing. And although the neoconservatives portray themselves as free-marketeers (as opposed to the allegedly anti-market traditional conservatives or paleoconservatives), this claim is misleading. Neoconservatives tend to want more efficient government agencies; paleoconservatives want fewer government agencies. They generally admire President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his heavily interventionist New Deal policies. Neoconservatives have not exactly been known for their budget consciousness, and you won’t hear them talking about making any serious inroads into the federal apparatus.

These views have provoked a strong response from some conservatives. On the release of Woods' Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, the book was scathingly reviewed by Max Boot of The Weekly Standard. Boot accused Woods of being overly sympathetic with Southerners such as John C. Calhoun while exaggerating the militarism of FDR, Truman, and Clinton. James Haley's Weekly Standard review of the book, in contrast, stated that it "provides a compelling rebuttal to the liberal sentiment encrusted upon current history texts..." the book is "ultimately about truth" and "his is a book everyone interested in American history should have in his library." Woods concluded his reply to Boot's review by saying "ince in my judgment Max Boot embodies everything that is wrong with modern conservatism, his opposition is about the best endorsement I could have asked for."

Podcasts

Tom Woods Show

Since September 2013, Woods has delivered a daily podcast, The Tom Woods Show, originally hosted on investment broker Peter Schiff's website. On the podcasts, which are now archived on Woods' own website, Woods conducts interviews on economic topics, foreign policy, and history.

Contra Krugman

In September 2015, Woods began Contra Krugman, a weekly podcast, with economist Robert P. Murphy that critiques the New York Times columns of economist Paul Krugman. The podcasts seek to teach economics "by uncovering and dissecting the errors of Krugman."

Bibliography

As author

• The Great Façade: Vatican II and the Regime of Novelty in the Catholic Church (co-authored with Christopher Ferrara; 2002) ISBN 1-890740-10-1
• The Church Confronts Modernity: Catholic Intellectuals and the Progressive Era (2004) ISBN 0-231-13186-0
• The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History (2004) ISBN 0-89526-047-6
• The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy (2005) ISBN 0-7391-1036-5
• How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization (2005) ISBN 0-89526-038-7
• 33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask (2007) ISBN 0-307-34668-4
• Sacred Then and Sacred Now: The Return of the Old Latin Mass (2007) ISBN 978-0-9793540-2-1
• W obronie zdrowego rozsadku (2007)
• Who Killed the Constitution?: The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush (co-authored with Kevin Gutzman; 2008) (ISBN 978-0-307-40575-3)
• Beyond Distributism (2008)
• Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse (February 2009) (ISBN 1-5969-8587-9) & (ISBN 978-1-5969-8587-2)
• Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century (2010) ISBN 1-59698-149-0
• Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse (2011) ISBN 1-59698-141-5
• Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Card of Allowable Opinion (2014) ISBN 1-50084-476-4

As editor

• Choate, Rufus (2002). The Political Writings of Rufus Choate. Gateway Editions. ISBN 0-89526-154-5.
• Brownson, Orestes (2003) . The American Republic. Gateway Editions. ISBN 0-89526-072-7.
• Rothbard, Murray (2007). The Betrayal of the American Right. Ludwig von Mises Institute. ISBN 978-1-933550-13-8.
• We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now. Basic Books. 2007. ISBN 1-56858-385-0. (Co-edited with Murray Polner.)
• Back on the Road to Serfdom: The Resurgence of Statism. ISI. 2010. ISBN 978-1-935191-90-2.

Notes

1. Cite error: The named reference NYT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. Naji Filali, Interview with Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Harvard Political Review, August 16, 2011.
3. https://www.libertyclassroom.com/learn-austrian-economics/
4. ^
5. https://mises.org/about-mises
6. "Editorial Board at Libertarian Papers". Libertarianpapers.org. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
7. Abbeville Institute website
8. "First Principles – Banana Republic, U.S.A". Firstprinciplesjournal.com. 2009-03-02. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
9. Inferno New Media. "About Tom Woods | Tom Woods". Thomasewoods.com. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
10. "ISI Announces 2006 Templeton Enterprise Award Winners".
11. Woods, Thomas E. (Presenter) (2008). The Catholic Church: Builder of Civilization (Television production). Vol. Episode 8: "Catholic Charity". Eternal Word Television Network. ASIN B00C30D3NG. Retrieved 2013-05-21. My personal favorite in this list is Martin Luther because I, myself, am a former Lutheran.
12. "A Profound Philosophical Commonality by Anthony Flood". Lewrockwell.com. 1987-11-22. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
13. Beirich, Heidi. "Two Treatises: A pair of recent books attack the Vatican and its current policies form the core of radical traditionalist teachings". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
14. Woods, Thomas E.; Ferrara, Christopher A. (2002). The Great Façade: Vatican II and the Regime of Novelty in the Catholic Church. The Remnant Press. ISBN 978-1890740108.
15. "Sacred Then and Sacred Now: The Return of the Old Latin Mass". BooksForCatholics.com. 2007-09-14. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
16. "History and Truth: An Interview With Thomas E. Woods, Jr. by Bernard Chapin". Lewrockwell.com. 2005-07-23. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
17. "Up From Conservatism – Mises Media". Mises.org. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
18. Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
19. E. Woods, Thomas. "The Split on the Right". LewRockwell.com. Retrieved 2016-09-14.
20. "The Split on the Right", interview of Thomas Woods by Die Tagespost
21. ^ Boot, Max (Feb 14, 2005). "Incorrect History". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 2016-09-14.
22. "Haley, James W., The Standard Reader, Weekly Standard 01/31/2005".
23. "Woods, Thomas, A Factually Correct Guide for Max Boot, The American Conservative, 03/28/2005".
24. On Woods' association with Ferrara, see "On Chris Ferrara"
25. Also on audio book, as read by the author Thomas Woods.
26. English translation of Polish title is In defense of common sense.
27. Woods, Thomas E. "Beyond Distributism". Acton Institute. October 2008.

External links

• Thomas Woods Official web site (with appearances schedule)
• The Tom Woods Show (Podcast)
• Liberty Classroom
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Tom Woods at IMDb
• Thomas Woods archive at LewRockwell.com
• Thomas Woods media archive at Mises.org
• Thomas Woods archive at TheAmericanConservative.com
• Thomas Woods archive at CrisisMagazine.com
• Thomas Woods archive at HumanEvents.com
• Thomas Woods archive at Independent.org
• Thomas Woods archive at ISI.org
• The Catholic Church: Builder of Civilization
• Template:Goodreads author

• 1972 births
• Living people
• American academics
• American classical liberals
• American historians
• American libertarians
• American Roman Catholics
• American Traditionalist Catholics
• Armenian American
• Christian libertarians
• Columbia University alumni
• Converts to Roman Catholicism
• Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism
• Harvard University alumni
• Libertarian historians
• Libertarian theorists
• Paleoconservatism
• People from Melrose, Massachusetts
• Roman Catholic writers
• Suffolk County Community College faculty
• Traditionalist Catholic writers