By Steve Byas

Popular author Tom Woods gave a rousing speech to a rally for the presidential candidacy of Texas Congressman Ron Paul the night before the Republican State Convention in May. Woods, a prolific author of many books taking a pro-liberty, limited government, and free enterprise stance, took time to sit down for a short interview with me.

Woods has authored several best-sellers, including A Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, Meltdown, Who Killed the Constitution?, and many other books on history, political philosophy, and economics.

In his speech to the Paul supporters, Woods said his then-four year old daughter, asked him if it was John McCain who had "killed the Constitution," which is indicative of what the girl heard during the 2008 campaign.

When I asked which of his many books of his own he would recommend to someone who is "new to politics, maybe inspired by Ron Paul, and a book by someone else he would recommend," Woods did not hesitate.

He pointed to Meltdown, one of the books at his table where he was signing for a string of admirers as we conducted the interview. Meltdown explains the 2008 crash in terms of the Austrian economics theory of the business cycle, with the thesis that the crash was caused by government policies, not by some deficiency of the free market. Insofar as someone else's book, he strongly suggested Ron Paul's Manifesto, The Revolution.

While not giving up hope in a Ron Paul nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, I asked Woods what has been the greatest lasting impact of the Ron Paul campaign.

He said Paul had "opened the eyes of new, young voters," who are going to be make an impact on our nation for years to come. "Forbidden topics," such as the Federal Reserve System's role in our economy, and the need for a non-interventionist foreign policy, had been raised by Paul, and that Paul has been able to change minds.

Many of these ideas, such as adherence to the Constitution, limited government, a sound monetary system, and the idea of a non-interventionist foreign policy had lay "dormant" for many years before Paul's 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

I asked what he thought had caused the shift away from the non-interventionist ideas of most conservative Republicans, such as Senator Robert A. Taft, to the extreme internationalism that is now considered the conventional "conservative" position.

"Fear of communism," Woods responded. "It became a habit -- a knee-jerk" viewpoint, where those on the Right could not think any other way. Even after the break-up of the Soviet Union, and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the momentum for overseas involvements and a big military presence around the world have simply continued. He lamented that many fail to see the contradiction between opposing Big Government at home and supporting Big Government abroad.

Woods, a Ph.D. in history, received his bachelor's at Harvard (where Woods was President of the three-member College Republicans), laughed when I asked if his limited-government political views were typical of Harvard graduates from their history program.

"I was free to say what I wanted to say," Woods said. He said there was little "original thought" at Harvard, but it was mostly conventional liberal views, not really all that radical.

When I asked if he had any more books in the planning stage, he shook his head.

"I'm kind of tired," pointing out that he had written five books in the past five years. His present focus and "main project" is the LibertyClassroom.com, saying it "takes up my time." LibertyClassroom.com is an on-line educational effort in history, political science, and economics.

Eight is the number of Tom Woods books that I have read, and I can strongly recommend any of them. During the program, there was a contest for who had read the most Woods books, and I won the prize -- a Ron Paul shirt.

I have one more Tom Woods book I need to read, his latest, entitled Rollback, if anyone wishes to buy it for me. Otherwise, I will be making another book purchase very soon.