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What Are Your Top Five Books Every Conservative Should Read?
The Conservative Book Club periodically publishes lists of the best books for conservatives provided by prominent conservatives. Recently, the club published Ben Shapiro’s top 5 conservative books.
- The Federalist Papers
- The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis
- The Quest for Cosmic Justice by Thomas Sowell
- Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlett
- The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
All are excellent choices. I must admit that I’ve not read Haidt’s book, but know enough about it (including owning a copy) to acknowledge that it’s a worthy addition to the conservative canon. There’s nothing more foundational to American conservatives than the Federalist Papers. Anything by Thomas Sowell could make the list (I doubt he’s ever written a sentence that is unworthy of our careful review). Hazlett’s short book on economics is brilliant. And there’s no greater defense of object truth than the Abolition of Man.
Following are my nominees:
The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis (1943). I can’t leave this book, which I re-read every couple of years, off my list. It’s an inoculation against the infection of relativism and other viruses of progressive thought. Lewis is a great Christian apologist, but this book (which can be read in less than two hours) is one of the truly essential books on politics.
Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke (1790). The older I get the more Burke resonates with me. This long essay on the perils of revolution and collectivism was written before the Terror—but it predicted it perfectly. Burke had the talent to describe fundamental truths of politics. If only our movement could rediscover some of its Burkean roots.
Ideas Have Consequences by Richard Weaver (1948). Written by a professor at the University of Chicago, this short book ignores the political issues of the day, and focuses on the bigger issues, not least Weaver’s dismantling of the kind of mindless egalitarianism of the post-WW II world.
Our Culture, Or What’s Left of It by Theodore Dalrymple (2005). Dalrymple (real name: Anthony Daniels) is an English doctor who knows more about the perils of the welfare state (including socialize medicine) than any one person should be required to know. This book is a series of essays on political and cultural issues. Dalrymple’s writing is accessible and entertaining, and no contemporary writer lays more wood on the pompous idiocy of progressive thought than Dalrymple.
The Vision of the Anointed by Thomas Sowell (1995). This, more than any other book, taught me how to recognize the fundamental differences between conservative (“constrained”) and progressive (“unconstrained”) thought.
What books do you believe to be essential reading for thoughtful conservatives (or for those who wish to become more thoughtful about their political beliefs). Why?
P.S. Conservatives are blessed with a wealth of great books because conservatism is based on principles. Liberalism doesn’t seem to have basic texts. Am I right?
Published in General
Fair enough, Amy…I bow to your familiarity with the cohort in question…I just don’t think we can rely on: “The ideas speak for themselves.” alone – regardless of the format. Dependency and “identity” – as distinct from self-motivation and responsibility [individual and communal] – is so heavily ingrained. We’re not a country, really, we’re individuals living in the same geographic construct at the same time. Sorry if this makes me a pessimist-curmudgeon, but it’s where I am…Surprise! :-)
I would add the following to the books already mentioned:
1. The Discourses by Machiavelli- He makes the case in favor of republics at a time when republics were few and far between.
2. 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell- great portrayals of leftist politics
3. The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn – real world results of leftist politics.
Unless one’s perceptions are so topsy-turvy, vinegar has *become* honey…
Yes our kids know nothing about the Soviet Union and they’ll learn only by literature and good stories the way we all learned about the holocaust from stories, movies, photographs and nobody else is telling the story.
The Law by Bastiat
The Conservative Mind by Kirk
God & Man at Yale by Buckley
The Constitution of Liberty by Hayek
Modern Times by Johnson
That leaves off so many books and authors: Sowell, Burke, Friedman…can I have 10?
The Conservative Heart by Arthur Brooks should be up there I think. I really appreciate Brooks’ work and ideas.
Since conservatives’ only platform for generating positive outcomes is the GOP, the GOP that acts like whipped dogs whether minority or majority, I only have one nomination.
Alinsky was a piker.
I agree. Conflict of Visions is the best of Sowell’s books.
I would recommend “Wealth and Poverty” by George Gilder.
That is a great essay. “Reagan is crunchy with a soft center. Munchy, perhaps.”
Gulag is in a category of its own. In the First Circle (the unexpurgated version) is superb. A book that deserves greater attention is Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate, which I consider one of the greatest books of the last century.
“Glee” accomplished more social change than 6 years of republican control of the house
And on purpose, at that.
That’s the one belief that gives McConnell and Graham et al their power. And it is untrue. Conservativism doesn’t need big government and once we realize that we’ll ditch either McConnell and Graham et al or the GOP with them in it.
“Darkness at Noon” by Arthur Koestler
“Reflections on the Revolution in France” by Edmund Burke
“History of the English-Speaking Peoples” by Winston Churchill
Is anyone aware of a good Conservative Reader? A survey book that samples the best of classical liberalism from the past few hundred years?
One of my favorites and I thought about it. Do we call it “conservative” though, or just “history”? Or is Johnson just inherently conservative?
I don’t know exactly what my top 5 are but I thought I’d a couple books into the mix that haven’t been mentioned yet;
The Black Book of Communism by Stephane Courtois, Mark Kramer et al
Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville
Johnson is a well known conservative historian. I mean is Howard Zinn just “history”?
Fair point, but I took the title of the list to mean “books for people who are already conservative to enrich their knowledge of the tradition.”
A list of books to persuade the unconvinced would be a completely different list.
The Law, Frédéric Bastiat
The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, George H. Nash
Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis
Parliament of Whores, P.J. O’Rourke
The Conscience of a Conservative, Barry Goldwater
Fair enough…I suppose my take here reflects a real concern that classical liberalism is becoming rather a museum-piece, in its emphasis on the ‘rightness’ of things, their beauty in se – rather than on their usefulness and practicality.
This is likely engaging in hairsplitting, but my perspective is that Johnson is simply a historian whose “conservative” history is defined more by what it isn’t–leftist. Zinn, on the other hand, is a polemicist, not a historian.
Nicomachean Ethics
Centesimus Annus
The Book of Common Prayer
After Virtue
On Human Conduct
C S Lewis, That Hideous Strength, which is sort of a continuation of the The Abolition of Man in the form of a novel. I reviewed it here.
Too long for a T-shirt, though. Dang.
Taxation the Peoples Business by Andrew Mellon
Everything a citizen needs to know about how Taxes should work.
Gorgias by Plato
Is a Tyrant actually happy? Philosophy, questions and discussions that will make you think.
Republic and Empire by Jerry E Pournelle
Trying to nail down one single book to read is hard. But the essays and stories in his anthologies are why I am a conservative today.
The Red Orchestra by Gilles Perrault
This book on the Soviet Spy ring operating behind the lines in occupied France, will show you all the stupidity of bureaucracy at its finest. From both the Nazis and Soviets.
Robert a Heinlein Take Back Your Government
Best book I have found on how political parties actually work and how to electioneer.
For those interested, there is a group about the Federalist Papers on Ricochet.
I’m gonna try to list books which have not already been mentioned. As such, I’m not saying my five should be at the very top of the list. They’re just really, really, really, phenomenally, I mean really you just wouldn’t believe how much, good suggestions.