Aspen Leaf Media

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Aspen Leaf Media’s current collection of audiobooks includes Louis L’Amour Western short stories, Horatio Alger rags-to-riches stories of the American Dream, Ronald Reagan’s abandoned plan to protect the world from nuclear annihiliation, Reagan on socialized medicine, the Carter and Mondale debates, Frederic Bastiat’s The Law and other writing, the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, Ben Franklin’sThe Way to Wealth, a biography of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the reaper, and John D. Rockefeller’s Random Reminiscences of Men and Events.

In addition to audiobooks, Aspen Leaf Media offers a 44-minute video on the history and morality of capitalism and socialism titled The Wealth of Nations. Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman provided the following testimonial: “… a clear and concise exposition of the fundamental difference between socialism and capitalism. It is clear, interesting and enlightening. It deserves to be widely viewed.” The video can be viewed at no cost at whyfreemarkets.org.

Aspen Leaf Media’s audiobooks are distributed through many excellent retailers, including Audible, Chirp, Apple, Google Play, and Kobo. Library distributors include Hoopla, Bibliotheca, Overdrive, and Baker & Taylor.

Hoopla is a digital platform that is widely available across the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Hoopla offers a good selection of our Louis L’Amour, Horatio Alger, and Ronald Reagan audiobooks at all of the many libraries that offer hoopla, and at no cost to the library patron.

The Wealth of Nations

Louis L’Amour Westerns

Horatio Alger Rags-to-Riches

Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832-1899) was the son of a minister, a top graduate of Harvard, and a great admirer of Benjamin Franklin and the virtues of industry, frugality, and temperance that Franklin advocated. Alger’s mission was to write exciting stories for young adults which showed that the virtues of study, work, thrift, temperance, honesty, generosity, and bravery lead to prosperity, while vice results in ruin.

Alger’s stories have inspired millions. According to Wikipedia’s “List of best-selling fiction authors”, Alger is one of the best-selling authors, not just in U.S. history but in world history. Alger wrote over 100 “rags-to-riches” novels exemplifying virtue and vice in the struggle to escape poverty.

Alger’s audiobooks provide an easy way to adopt habits that promote prosperity. Alger promotes virtue, not with boring sermons, but with thrilling stories of struggle, conflict, and adversity. Young adults and not-so-young adults might benefit from listening and adopting the virtues that Franklin and Alger advocate.

Many of Alger’s books are now available as digital audiobooks from libraries and retailers. Narrated and slightly edited for readability and current norms by Christopher Crennen.

Reviews of Alger’s books: “thrilling episodes”, “bright and lively”, “exciting and interesting”, “spirited adventures”, “causes the sympathetic tear”, “stirring”, “pure and simple”, “a delight”, “commendable”, “spirited and inspiring”, “most heartily recommend”, “admirable”, “entertaining”, “excellent”, “phenomenal”, “swell”, “rattling good”, “bully”, “full of inspiration to honesty and industry”, “virtue rewarded and evil punished”, “hard work, ambition, and high moral character”, “cheerfulness, honesty, and good deeds”, “self-reliance, self-discipline, decency”, “full of excellent lessons”, “impressive and wholesome”, “good practical advice”.

(1) Ragged Dick (1868), 4 hrs and 48 mins. The hero, Ragged Dick aka Richard Hunter, age 14, is an industrious, cheerful, quick-witted, but spenthrift and illiterate, orphan who shines shoes for a living in New York City. A wealthy customer and his nephew give Dick a used suit and inspire him to rent a room and improve his prospects. Dick befriends a younger, weaker, but well-educated bootblack named Henry Fosdick, and offers to share his room in exchange for lessons in reading, writing, and math.

(2) Fame and Fortune (1868), 4 hrs and 24 mins. The hero, Ragged Dick aka Richard Hunter, now 15, begins work for Rockwell & Cooper. Dick and Henry, continue to save and study and move to better rooms. A jealous bookkeeper at Rockwell & Cooper and a bootblack who hates Dick for defeating him in two street fights devise a plan to frame Dick for robbery, resulting in Dick’s confinement and trial.

(3) Mark the Match Boy (1869), 4 hrs and 25 mins. The hero, Mark, age 10, lives with a woman who beats him and requires him to sell matches and beg to make money for her. With the help of Richard Hunter and others Mark begins sleeping at the Newsboys’ Lodging House. He saves money and secures employment in a bookstore delivering parcels. When money is taken by a fellow employee to support his bad habits, Mark is suspected of the theft by his employer.

(4) Rough and Ready (1869), 5 hrs and 16 mins. The hero, Rufus aka Rough and Ready, age 15, is a thrifty, industrious New York newsboy who lives with his 6-year-old sister Rose and their lazy, alcoholic stepfather. Rufus and Rose leave their stepfather and Rufus finds a seamstress for Rose to live with. Their stepfather finds where they’re living and kidnaps Rose.

(5) Ben, the Luggage Boy (1870), 5 hrs and 21 mins. The hero, Ben, age 15, grew up with his mother and father in a good home in a town near Philadelphia. When Ben’s father punished him unjustly, Ben became angry and decided to run away. In New York, Ben works selling newspapers and as a baggage smasher, helping travelers with their luggage. He sleeps outside in good weather and at the Newsboys’ Lodging House in bad weather.

(6) Rufus and Rose (1870), 5 hrs and 17 mins. The hero, Rufus aka Rough and Ready, age 15, has recovered his kidnapped sister and acquired a position in a stock brokerage house on Wall Street. Rufus and Roses’ dissolute stepfather continues to plague them. He tries to follow them to find where they live, takes a job passing counterfeit money, robs Rufus of a tin box containing securities, and imprisons Rufus.

(1) Tattered Tom (1871), 4 hrs and 59 mins. The hero, Tom, a 12-year-old girl earns money for the old woman she lives with by sweeping the street and asking for pennies and by carrying luggage. She asks a kind-hearted sea captain to carry his large carpet-bag. He laughs, carries the bag and has her carry a doll, invites her to an expensive breakfast, and persuades his sister to take her as a housemaid and send her to school. Tom frightens a school bully. A dishonest daughter of the sister accuses Tom of theft and gets her fired.

(2) Paul the Peddler (1871), 4 hrs and 56 mins. The hero, Paul Hoffman, age 14, lives with his mother and younger brother. Paul has a street stand where he sells envelopes that contain candy and cash prizes. His mother is a poorly paid seamstress and his brother who is lame an aspiring artist. Paul works at a friend’s street necktie stand and wants to buy it. To raise money he tries to sell a ring his mother found to a pawnbroker but can’t agree on price. Paul meets a con man who entices him to a hotel, drugs him with chloroform, and steals the ring.

(3) Phil, the Fiddler (1872), 4 hrs and 57 mins. The hero, Phil aka Fillipo, age 12, grew up in Italy with a father, mother, and sisters. His father sold him to a padrone who provides food and lodging and requires boys to earn money for him as street musicians. The boys are beaten if they don’t earn enough. Phil’s violin is stolen by a bully and destroyed by the wheels of a heavy cart. Phil decides to run away. Paul the Peddler buys Phil a violin from a pawnshop so he can support himself. The padrone locates Phil and pursues him.

(4) Slow and Sure (1872), 4 hrs and 53 mins. The hero, Paul Hoffman, now 15, is running his necktie stand successfully. The tenement house where Paul lives with his mother and brother burns down. With the help of a wealthy gentleman, Paul and his family are able to move into an uptown mansion to take care of it while the owners are visiting Europe. Paul buys a meal for a hungry 12-year-old boy named Julius. In appreciation for Paul’s kindness, Julius tells Paul about a burglary he learns of that is being planned for the mansion where Paul and his family are living.

(1) Julius (1874), 4 hrs and 48 mins. The hero, Julius, now 15, sponsored by the Children’s Aid Society, travels by rail with other homeless New York boys to Wisconsin to find homes in the West. Julius thwarts a pickpocket on the train, helping him find a good home with a wealthy farm family. A trick played on an arrogant teacher causes conflict with the scholars. An Indian who is refused money for rum kidnaps the family’s daughter. A vengeful burglar from Julius’ past threatens Julius with death and robbery.

(2) The Young Outlaw (1875), 4 hrs and 19 mins. The hero, Sam Barker, age 12, becomes an orphan when his alcoholic father dies. Deacon Hopkins and his wife take Sam to help with the farm. Sam proves a poor worker, frightens his guardians with a nightime pantry raid, steals money from a letter he’s entrusted with, and uses the money to run away to New York. In New York Sam is robbed, works as a baggage carrier, a leaflet distributor, and in other trades, and loses a place when caught stealing. Sam helps a lost 4-year-old boy return home and is rewarded with a place.

(3) Sam’s Chance (1876), 4 hrs and 22 mins. The hero, Sam Barker, now 15, begins work as an errand boy. He finds a boarding place with Henry Martin, an errand boy in a nearby store. Henry is thrifty and studious while Sam spends his money on cigars, theaters, and a lottery ticket. Sam loses his job and decides to move to Boston. On the way to Boston, he meets a girl who inspires him to turn over a new leaf. In his search for employment in Boston Sam meets adversity and good fortune.

(4) The Telegraph Boy (1879), 4 hrs and 14 mins. The hero, Frank Kavanaugh, age 15, is sent to New York City by his uncle and aunt who have provided him a home since the death of his father. Frank gets a job guiding a blind man. He sells newspapers while sleeping at the Newsboys’ Lodging House. With the help of a wealthy patron, Frank gets a job as a telegraph boy who is called upon to provide various services to customers, including dog walking, rescuing a wayward son who is being cheated, helping a woman pawn a ring to raise money for her impoverished daughter, and acting as a detective to help a merchant discover how he is being robbed.

(1) Frank’s Campaign (1864), 7 hrs and 13 mins. The hero, Frank Frost, age 16, volunteers to take over management of the family farm so his father can join the Union Army during the Civil War. Squire Haynes hopes that Frank will fail to properly manage the farm so he can foreclose a mortgage coming due on the Frost farm. Frank faces challenges, including protecting a black boy from bullying by the squire’s son.

(2) Paul Prescott’s Charge (1865), 6 hrs and 40 mins. The hero, Paul Prescott, age 13, is a penniless orphan after his father, a carpenter, falls from a roof and, after a long, unsucessful recovery, dies. Paul’s father owes a $500 debt which Paul promises to repay. Paul is placed in the local poorhouse where he is treated badly. Paul runs away, finds his way to New York, and is adopted by a church sexton and his wife.

(3) Charlie Codman’s Cruise (1866), 5 hrs and 57 mins. The hero, Charlie Codman, age 14, is a poor newsboy in Boston who lives with his mother, a seamstress. Peter Manson, a miser who starves himself to hoard money, had years before embezzled $20,000 from Charlie’s grandfather causing his business to fail. Peter conspires with a sailor to kidnap Charlie and take him to sea, where Charlie faces a brutal captain and crew, fist fights, lashings, and a pirate attack.

(1) Luck and Pluck (1869), 7 hrs and 2 mins. The hero, John Oakley, age 15, discovers on the death of his wealthy father that everything was left to his stepmother. John is convinced that there is a later will. John’s stepmother mistreats him, favors her own son, and tricks John into going with her brother to live on the brother’s farm. John escapes to his aunt’s home in a nearby village where he prevents his aunt from being defrauded by a dishonest employee.

(2) Sink or Swim (1870), 7 hrs and 9 mins. The hero, Harry Raymond, age 15, a good student, loses his father in a railroad accident. Squire Turner has a mortgage on the home were Harry and his mother and sister live. Harry sees Squire Turner burning down one of the squire’s homes for the insurance money. To keep Harry quiet, Squire Turner has Harry kidnapped and sent to sea in a ship bound for China. On the way Harry is thrown overboard and the captain refuses to save him.

(3) Strong and Steady (1871), 6hrs and 24 mins. The hero, Walter Conrad, age 15, is preparing for college when his father dies. Because of a failed mining speculation, his father’s large estate may be worthless. Walter goes to the village of Stapleton to live with his father’s cousin, Jacob Drummond. When it’s discovered that Walter is not rich, he goes to work in Drummond’s dry-goods store for board wages. He’s treated poorly and falsely accused of theft. Leaving Stapleton, he finds employment as a door-to-door book agent.

(4) Strive and Succeed (1872), 5 hrs and 25 mins. The hero, Walter Conrad, age 15, is asked by his father’s executor to give up his successful book selling business and travel to Portville under an assumed name to investigate the mining speculation that damaged his father’s estate. After reaching Portville Walter obtains a position as teacher of about 50 students. Walter needs to deal with one disruptive student forcefully and strategically to maintain order in the school.

(1) Try and Trust (1873), 6 hrs and 20 mins. The hero, Herbert Mason, age 14, is left destitute on the death of his mother. Denied help by a rich New York uncle, Herbert is bound to a spiteful horse trader named Abner Holden who tries to rob and beat him. Harry escapes, undertakes the care of a wealthy blind man on a train trip to New York, and foils an attempted burglary. Obtaining a position in a warehouse counting-room, Harry is accused of theft, and discharged.

(2) Bound to Rise (1873), 5 hrs and 6 mins. The hero, Harry Walton, age 14, is the oldest of six children in a poor farm family. The family cow dies and Harry’s father sees no way of paying the note for the cow in six months. Harry leaves home for a job pegging shoes to help pay for the cow. Harry also obtains work as assistant to a magician and ventriloquist, and as a printing compositor for a newspaper. A publishing job had been Harry’s goal since winning a book, The Life of Benjamin Franklin, in school.

(3) Risen from the Ranks (1874), 6 hrs and 9 mins. The hero, Harry Walton, now 16, goes to work for the Centerville Gazette. Harry befriends Oscar Vincent who attends the local academy and is the son of a prominent publisher. Oscar helps Harry join the Clionian Society, a debating club. Harry spends his free time writing articles for Boston papers. When the owner of the Centerville Gazette needs to go West for his health, Harry with a fellow compositor, and a loan from the magician he worked for, buy the paper and Harry at 19 becomes the editor.

(4) Herbert Carter’s Legacy (1875), 5 hrs and 9 mins. The hero, Herbert Carter, age 15, is the son of a poor widow. Squire Leech has a mortgage on the Carter home which he would like to foreclose to provide a place for a new employee. The Carters struggle to find ways to pay the interest due every 6 months. Herbert is hired to read to a wealthy man named John Cameron whose eyes are affected. Herbert tells him about a cotton processing machine that his father invented. The invention is sent to John’s father who owns a cotton manufactory to evaluate the invention.

Ronald Reagan

On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan gave an address to the nation from the Oval Office challenging “the scientific community … to turn their great talents … to the cause of mankind and world peace, [and] to give us the means of rendering … nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.” Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative to protect America from nuclear annihilation was derided by critics as an unworkable Star Wars program, and the Clinton Administration ended the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1993. There is no effective system in place today to protect the American population from incoming missiles from an expanding list of countries with nuclear capabilities.

On April 13, 2024, Iran launched, according to Wikipedia, “around 170 drones, over 30 cruise missiles, and more than 120 ballistic missiles toward Israel”. Israel and a coalition of partners, again according to Wikipedia, “destroyed 99 percent of the incoming weapons, most before they reached Israeli airspace.” Damage from the attack was minor. While Israel is protected by an Iron Dome, the United States has no such protection.

This audiobook includes 4 speeches by President Reagan: His address introducing the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983, his address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France in 1985, his address on national security in 1986, and his address on the Soviet-U.S. Summit in 1987. 

In 1961 Reagan spoke out against socialized medicine. Since 1965 when Medicare and Medicaid were enacted, the federal government controls payment for most U.S. healthcare: hospitals, drugs, doctors, nurses, and so on. Has this been a blessing or a curse?

Milton Friedman, the small, talkative, smiling genius, perhaps the best economist ever, argued that governments should give the deserving needy money to buy education, housing, and healthcare, but should never give goods or services such as govenment schools, government housing, or medical services.

Would this small change make a big difference? Prior to 1965, U.S. health insurance was medically underwritten. When a person applied for insurance, they were weighed and tested to see how healthy they were. If they were unhealthy, premiums were high, and coverage limited.

The result was that people had powerful financial incentives to adopt a healthy diet and lifestyle. Under Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare, medical underwriting is illegal and the financial incentive for a healthy diet is eliminated. Epidemics of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and chronic disease since 1965 are the result. And the cost of medical services without market competition has exploded.

If the elderly and needy were paid in cash rather than medical services, and purchased medical services in competitive, risk-based markets, people would have strong incentive to adopt fiber-based diets of vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, and whole grains, and avoid animal foods and low-fiber processed foods that promote chronic disease.

The left blames the food industry for our poor diet, but the federal government’s control of medical services and abolition of medical underwriting is the true cause of the obesity and diabetes crisis that afflicts America, and the reason healthcare is so amazingly expensive. Competitive markets would benefit the elderly, the needy, and the country.

Frederic Bastiat, French Economist

U.S. Constitution & Declaration

Ben Franklin – The Way to Wealth

Cyrus McCormick – The Reaper

John D. Rockefeller

Revised: August 30, 2024

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