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Tom Woods | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Woods in February 2021 | |
| Born | Thomas Ernest Woods Jr. (1972-08-01)August 1, 1972 (age 53) |
| Spouse | Jenna Woods (m. 2022) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) Columbia University (MPhil,PhD) |
| Thesis | Ever ancient, ever new: Catholic intellectuals and the Progressive Era (2000) |
| Doctoral advisor | Alan Brinkley[1] |
| Influences | Aquinas ·Rothbard ·Hoppe |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | History |
| Sub-discipline | History of the Catholic Church |
| School or tradition | Austrian School |
| Website | tomwoods |
Thomas Ernest Woods Jr. (born August 1, 1972) is an American author, podcast host, andlibertarian commentator who is currently a senior fellow at theMises Institute.[2][3][4] A proponent of theAustrian School of economics,[5] Woods hosts a daily podcast,The Tom Woods Show, and formerly co-hosted the weekly podcastContraKrugman.[4][6][7]
Woods'The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History in 2004 interpreted U.S. history through apaleoconservative and, as described by some writers,pro-Confederate lens.[8][9][10] This, and his 2009 bookMeltdown on the2008 financial crisis, becameNew York Times bestsellers.[11] His subsequent writing has focused on promoting libertarianism and libertarian leaning political figures such as former Congressman and presidential candidateRon Paul. Woods also teacheshomeschooling courses onWestern civilization and government calledThe Liberty Homeschooler as part of theRon Paul Curriculum.[12]
Woods holds aBA fromHarvard (1994) and anMPhil andPhD fromColumbia (2000), all inhistory. His thesis[13] becameThe Church Confronts Modernity: Catholic Intellectuals and the Progressive Era,[14] which he says "has nothing to do with libertarianism."[15]
Woods is a senior fellow of theMises Institute and is on the editorial board for the institute'sLibertarian Papers.[16] He was a founding member of theLeague of the South (see§ Affiliation with League of the South,[17][18] which he has since denounced. Woods was aRichard M. Weaver Fellow at theIntercollegiate Studies Institute in 1995 and 1996.[19] In August 2020, Woods joined the advisory board of theMises Caucuspolitical action committee[20] where he continues advising as of April 10, 2022.[21]
Woods is the author of 20 books. Two of his books,Politically Incorrect Guide to American History andMeltdown were onThe New York Times Best Seller list in 2005 and 2009, respectively.[22][23] At the time he wrotePolitically Incorrect Guide to American History, he was teaching atSuffolk County Community College onLong Island, New York.[10]
Woods' articles have appeared in publications includingThe American Historical Review,The Christian Science Monitor,Investor's Business Daily,Modern Age,American Studies,Journal of Markets & Morality,New Oxford Review,The Freeman,The Independent Review,Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines,AD2000,Crisis,Human Rights Review,Catholic Historical Review, theCatholic Social Science Review,The Latin Mass: A Journal of Catholic Culture, andThe American Conservative.[24]
Woods is aRothbardianlibertarian andanarcho-capitalist.[25]
Tom Woods subscribes to the libertarian strain of thought known as theRothbardian oranarcho-capitalist worldview[failed verification] which asserts thatindividual rights,property rights, peace, thefree market, and thenonaggression principle are paramount and thatcollectivism, violence, and coercion should be opposed.[26] Like some[who?] anarcho-capitalists,Woods has stated that his anarchism is philosophical in nature, rather than practical; pragmatically, Woods has referred to himself as a "pragmatic minarchist" andJeffersonian democrat. Woods' view of libertarianism emphasizes the importance ofagorism (a belief that is popular with many left-libertarians),[27]alternative currencies (such ascryptocurrency andprecious metals),[28] and political activism[29] to reduce state power.[need quotation to verify][time needed]
Woods co-authoredWho Killed the Constitution? withKevin Gutzman, Professor of History at Western Connecticut State University. Woods and Gutzman criticize what they view asunconstitutional political overreach spanning fromWorld War I to theObama administration.[30] Woods has promoted the views ofLysander Spooner, who argued thatthe Constitution holds no authority because the public has not explicitly consented to it and because theFederal Government in his view has not followed its obligations and limits.[31][32][33][34]
Woods advocates thecompact theory and promotes the legal theory ofnullification,[35][36] which, he has said, was espoused byThomas Jefferson andJames Madison in theKentucky and Virginia Resolutions. In his bookNullification, he details the history of and justification fornullification and its adoption by various political movements includingabolitionists,slave holders, and those opposed totariffs. He goes on to suggest nullification as a tool that states can use tocheck the powers of the federal government. As such, Woods is a supporter of theTenth Amendment Center,[37][38] which aims to resist what it views as federal overreach through state action.[independent source needed]
Woods views theBill of Rights as a limitation solely on federal power, and not on the power of the states. In an article for theSouthern Partisan magazine in 1997 Woods writes: "The Bill of Rights, moreover, erroneously invoked by modernCivil Libertarians, was never intended to protect individuals from the state governments. Jefferson is far from alone in insisting that only the federal government is restricted from regulating the press, church-state relations, and so forth. The states may do as they wish in these areas."[39]
In a 2011 interview, Woods said that he entered Harvard as a "middle-of-the-roadRepublican, the very thing that drives me most berserk today" and then later became a "fully-fledged libertarian."[3] He has criticized those he deemsneoconservative and previously identified himself astraditional conservative.[40]
Woods'Politically Incorrect Guide to American History has been described as havingneo-Confederate themes; in it, "Woods contends that slavery was benign", according to the bookNeo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction.[41][9] It was scathingly reviewed by commentatorMax Boot ofThe Weekly Standard. Boot accused Woods of being overly sympathetic withSoutherners such asJohn C. Calhoun and their belief in astate's right tosecede and instate nullification, while exaggerating the militarism ofFranklin D. Roosevelt,Harry S. Truman, andBill Clinton.[17] Woods responded by criticizing Boot as an embodiment of "everything that is wrong with modern conservatism."[42] HistorianDavid Greenberg dismissed the book as "a brisk tour of U.S. history fromColonial toClintonian times, filtered through a lens offar-rightdogma, circa 1939" that is "incorrect in more than just its politics" and that "would be tedious to debunk."[43] Judge James Haley, by contrast, praised the book in the conservativeWeekly Standard as "a compelling rebuttal to the liberal sentiment encrusted upon current history texts."[44]
Woodsopposes immigration. He argued in a 1995The Freeman article "Liberty and Immigration" that libertarians have made a mistake to welcome immigration (legal as well as illegal), because he viewsopen borders as infringing on the property rights of homeowners.[45]
Woods has been an advocate ofhard money,[46] and is critical of theFederal Reserve and othercentral banks which he views as responsible for unnaturalinflation and thebusiness cycle.[47] EconomistSteven Horwitz has pointed out that Woods'monetary theory and definitions of inflation anddeflation rely on aRothbardian100%reserve requirement, which is not the only perspective in theAustrian School.[48]
Woods believes that thegender pay gap results because "women often intend to leave the labor force for extended periods of time in order to have children, they do not consider certain high-paying fields where their knowledge would be obsolete after so long an absence."[49]
Woods has been highly critical ofKeynesian economics.[50] Woods co-hosted theContra Krugman podcast (from September 2015 to June 2020) with economistRobert P. Murphy, which critiquedNobel Prize winningNew Keynesian economistPaul Krugman'sTimes columns through the lens of free marketAustrian economics and said it taught economics "by uncovering and dissecting the errors of Krugman."[6][7]
In 1994, Woods was a founding member of theLeague of the South, for which he has been criticized.[41][17][51] Woods has argued that the League has changed its politics and was notracist orantisemitic in 1994.[52] A 2005 article inReason Magazine called out Woods for his background in theneo-Confederate organization, stating his views meant he was not a libertarian. The author also noted his frequent writing in the group's magazine,The Southern Patriot, up through 1997 and received a quote from Woods stating that he didn't disagree with most of the views he made in said publications.[53] An article in the same year by a member of theLeague of the South published inThe American Conservative praised Woods' background in the group, his book, and the views expressed within, especially those concerning theConfederacy and how its defeat was the "defining moment when the United States took its steps towards the abyss of the monstrous centralised state, rootless society and decadent culture that we have today."[54]
In 2013, an article by the non-profitPolitical Research Associates, which studiesright-wing white supremacist and extremist groups, noted that Woods was a frequent speaker atneo-Confederate events throughout the 1990s and since then, along with contributing to theAmerican Secession Project started in 2000. The authors noted that a 1997 article written by Woods in the neo-confederateSouthern Partisan magazine had him include in the author byline that he was a "founding member of the League of the South."[55] An article from 2014 inAlan Keyes'Renew America organization criticized Woods for his "secessionist libertarianism" and his ongoing involvement with members of "thewhite supremacist League of the South", though pointed out that it was likely he was naive in his viewpoints, but not racist.[56]
Woods contended in 2018 that the League was founded as a "decentralist" organization and then later took a "dramatic" and "vicious" turn towardracism andanti-semitism. Woods argued: "To show that the organization has undergone a dramatic change, I don't exactly need to hire a private detective. The League’s president himself wrote of having made a 'conscious change' to the League, such that 'we have radicalized by openly and directly addressing theNegro Question and theJew Question.' Here is express admission of what was already obvious to anyone of good will: this is not the LeagueJeffrey Tucker and I joined in 1994. Anyone who says otherwise has no idea what he’s talking about. This in fact is why all the PhDs present at the League’s founding, including one of the world’s top David Hume scholars, by all accounts, are long gone – as even theSouthern Poverty Law Center now concedes."[52] In an interview with Reason TV'sMatt Welch, Woods stated, "Anyone who knows or listens to me, knows I would not be involved with anything sinister. The problem is I will not apologize because the group I joined were a bunch of nerdy academics like me and there was nothing wrong with that group. I could save myself an enormous amount of grief if I would apologize but I will not apologize for this because I am sick and tired of cowards who give in to this type of pressure."[57][independent source needed]
During theCOVID-19 pandemic, Woods has criticized public health measures meant to control the spread of COVID-19, questioning their efficacy and expounding on the supposed dangers ofsocial distancing,masking, andmandatory lockdowns.[58] His claims in a November 7, 2020, speechDangers of the Covid Cult[59] opposing thesenon-pharmaceutical interventions were labeled misleading and rebutted byHealth Feedback (a member ofWHO'sVaccine Safety Net),[60] which Woods disputed.[61]YouTube removed theMises Institute's upload of the video for violating the website's policy onmedical misinformation.[62] On April 6, 2022, Woods called for "a full-blown book-length demolition of whatpublic health has been up to for the past half century."[63]
Woods conducts interviews on economic topics, foreign policy, and history in his dailypodcast,The Tom Woods Show, since September 2013.[6]
Woods received the 2019Hayek Lifetime Achievement Award from the Austrian Economics Center inVienna[64] and awards from theIndependent Institute and theInstitute for Humane Studies atGeorge Mason University.[65] Between 1995 and 2005, he was awarded $8,000 from theEarhart Foundation.[10] His bookThe Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy (2005) won the $50,000 first prize in the 2006Templeton Enterprise Awards.[66]
Woods is atraditionalistRoman Catholic. In 2002, he married his first wife Heather, a daughter of his coworker,[67] with whom he had two daughters.[68] In 2020 he announced his engagement to Jenna Laino, and the two were married in 2022.[69]
Homeschool courses by Tom Woods, Prepared for the Ron Paul Curriculum.
Thomas E. Woods, Jr. is interviewed by Die Tagespost
Woods includes a nice refutation of a number of arguments against gold and other commodity standards. These two chapters are valuable, although I wish Woods had acknowledged that his implicit monetary theory, including his definitions of inflation and deflation, is not the only one in the Austrian tradition. (It relies on a Rothbardian 100-percent-reserve perspective on money and banking.)
What we need now is a full-blown book-length demolition of what "public health" has been up to for the past half century.
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