Thomas Woods

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 by analyzing Krugman's viewpoints through the lens of free market Austrian economics. The podcast seeks to teach economics "by uncovering and dissecting the errors of Krugman."

Woods is a controversial figure in the libertarian movement, owing to his alignment with paleoconservatism, the ideas and legacy of Murray Rothbard, and the Ludwig von Mises Institute. His role as a founding member of the League of the South—an organization currently devoted to promoting white supremacy, neo-Nazism and conspiracy theories about Jews—has repeatedly engendered criticism. In his defense, Woods argues that the League has changed its politics over the years, and claims that the League was not at all racist or anti-semitic when he co-founded it in 1994. Woods has also provoked controversy for his past writings for the League of the South's journals, which defended the position of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War and condemned the 19th-century abolitionist movement (positions from which Woods has more recently distanced himself).

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.

His 2009 book Meltdown also made the bestseller list in 2009. His writing has been published in numerous popular and scholarly periodicals, including the American Historical Review, the Christian Science Monitor, Investor's Business Daily, Modern Age, American Studies, Journal of Markets & Morality, New Oxford Review, The Freeman, Independent Review, Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines, AD2000, Crisis, Human Rights Review, Catholic Historical Review, the Catholic Social Science Review and The American Conservative.

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.

Woods is the author of twelve books. His book The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History was on The New York Times Best Seller list for paperbacks in 2005. The book has been criticized by journalist Cathy Young as being inaccurate, as well as by Ronald Radosh and Max Boot.

Since completing his doctorate in history from Columbia University in 2000, Woods has mostly written for political and popular audiences. He first received media attention for writing the highly controversial Politically Incorrect Guide to American History in 2004, which promoted a paleolibertarian interpretation of American history and was a New York Times bestseller. His subsequent writing has focused on promoting libertarian economics and political philosophy, and libertarian political figures such as former Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul. His 2009 book Meltdown, which attempted to exonerate capitalism from blame in the 2008 economic crisis, also became a New York Times bestseller.

In a 1997 essay for the Southern Patriot (the League of the South's journal), Woods characterized nineteenth-century abolitionists as "utterly reprehensible agitators who put metaphysical abstractions ahead of prudence, charity, and rationality".

In an article for the Southern Partisan magazine in 1997 Woods writes: "The Bill of Rights, moreover, erroneously invoked by modern Civil 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." However, more recently, due to his change to libertarianism, he has abandoned the idea of which governments control rights, and instead now advocates natural rights philosophy.

Woods was an ISI Richard M. Weaver Fellow in 1995 and 1996. He received the 2004 O.P. Alford III Prize for Libertarian Scholarship and an Olive W. Garvey Fellowship from the Independent Institute in 2003.

Woods was a founding member of the League of the South, which is currently a white supremacist and neo-Nazi organization. Woods is frequently criticized for his role in the League; in his defense, he argues that the League has changed its politics over the years, and claims that the League was not at all racist or anti-semitic when he co-founded it in 1994. Woods was an early contributor to the League's journal, The Southern Patriot, for which he wrote articles defending the position of the Confederacy in the American Civil War, and vilifying the nineteenth-century abolitionist movement.

Thomas Ernest Woods Jr. (born August 1, 1972) is an American author, historian, and libertarian who is currently a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Woods is a New York Times Best-Selling author and has published twelve books. He has written extensively on subjects including the history of the United States, Catholicism, contemporary politics, and economics. Although not an economist himself, Woods is a proponent of the Austrian School of economics. He hosts two podcasts, The Tom Woods Show and Contra Krugman.