Redstate

Recommended.  Thanks for the tips on upcoming reading.

I am curious to see what other conservatives consider required reading.

...has to be Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind. That is the book that helped launch the modern conservative movement in America. It isn't the most readable book, but it's crucial towards understanding the intellectual history of conservatism.

To that I'd also add a healthy dose of the classics. Even if you read nothing more than the first few chapters of John Locke's Second Treatise of Government you'll see where Jefferson got his inspiration for the Declaration of Independence. J.S. Mill's On Liberty is similarly excellent for both conservatives and libertarians. The Federalist Papers is another difficult read, but a must for every informed citizen.

I shy away from the vast majority of political books, but anything by Victor Davis Hanson comes highly recommended. I've also heard good things about The Right Nation, but I simply haven't had the time to read it yet.

1. Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke. The locus classicus of modern Conservatism.
   
2. Witness, Whittaker Chambers. The greatest anti-Communist book ever written, and much, much more.
   
3. The Might of the West, Lawrence R. Brown. This book was introduced to me as "the most electrifying work of history" you'll ever read. A very apt description. Good luck finding it for purchase, though: Try the library instead.

 Doris Lessing's Canopus series, serious 'space fiction', especially "The Making of the Representative from Planet Eight" and "Documents Relating to the Sentimental Agents of the Volyen Empire".

 The first is a primer on self-reliance, the second a withering deconstruction of the rhetorical strategies of the left that makes you LOL. Her biographies are also interesting reading, as they detail a progression from Marxism to what, if not exactly conservatism, is at least thoughtful self-reflection and spiritual reconciliation.

History of Political Philosophy, 3rd Ed., edited by Leo Strauss.

There are people that say this is a conservative treatment of political philosophy, mostly because of Strauss' own work and his connection to the moderm neoconservative movement. When you read V.D.H. talking about the lessons of Ancient Greece  - that's Straussian influence.

I don't really know if it's a conservative treatment because it's one of the only analysis books we used alongside original sources when I studied political philosophy. I don't know what a liberal treatment looks like (maybe a little friendlier to Marx?)

It is a collection of essays on various philosophers, many of which were written by Strauss himself - Thucydides, St. Augustine, Locke, J.S. Mill...these are some great essays. Of course, it's not all conservatives, but it's a great book.

The guy was flat out brilliant and this is a great intro to political philosophy and a nice supplement to read alongside the original works. I'm not particularly bright and this really helped me understand what I was reading.

I also like Tullock and Buchanan's The Calculus of Consent. It's a foundational work in public choice theory and basically disputes the idea that there is such a thing as "public interest". There are only individual preferences and governments should seek to maximize the opportunity for individuals to exercise liberty in choice among preferences. If ever there was an argument why we should have smaller government, this is it. Of course, this is a also a pretty big libertarian argument, so I'd classify this in the "conservative...maybe" column.

Henry Hazlitt -- Economics in one lesson -- easily the best short explanantion of basic economic principles and why there is no free lunch out there.

Milton Freidman -- Free to Choose -- Second best

Ludwig von Mises -- Socialism -- a brilliant takedown of socialism.  Written in 1920, it essentially predicts exactly why the Soviet Union would collapse.

Friedrich von Hayek -- Constitution of Libery -- Road to Serfdom was too easy, and this is a more thorough explication of his views.

Conscience of a conservative -- Barry Goldwater -- The political origins of modern conservative, and the book that convinced me that I could have a bleeding heart and vote Republican at the same time.

The Law -- Frederic Bastiat -- The arguments against Socialism haven't changed since the early 1800s.  And with chapters like "law and charity are not the same" still very relevant to our time.

Updating my shopping list now!

He has an interesting looking book on Economics.

"Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded"

I sense that more and more young conservatives, and older liberals who are finally seeing the light, are coming to RedState. What would you recommend for the new conservative?

You can download it in PDF here

Just off the top of my head, not by any means an exhaustive list, and not covering fiction (although PoH is humor...had to have one.)

"The Closing of the American Mind" -- Allan Bloom

"The Gulag Archipelago" - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"Commies" - Ronald Radosh

"The Fatal Conceit" - F.A. Hayek

"The Illusions of Egalitarianism" - John Kekes

"Sexual Personae" - Camille Paglia

"My Correct Views on Everything" - Leszek Kolakowski

"The War Against Boys" - Christina Hoff-Sommers

"Fear and Loathing in America" - Hunter S. Thompson (!)

"Parliament of Whores" - P.J. O'Rourke

And of course the two seminal dystopias of the 20th Century, 1984 and Brave New World.  

It is indeed an impressive tome. I have a cousin who's an unrepentant Marxist. His brother, thankfully a right-wnger like me, had him read the essay on Marx (written by Joseph Cropsey). The Marxist read it and reported that it was entirely fair and indeed insightful.

Strauss is indeed brilliant, but frankly a little loony. He wrote profoundly about Machiavelli, but his essay in this book careens off into jibberish at times.

The book, as you imply, is designed to be read alongside the texts it considers. That is emphatically one of its virtues.

Whether this thing is "conservative" is certainly an open question.

  T. Garton Ash has an interesting essay up now in the N.Y Review of Books (you have to know the enemy) in which he is shocked to find Strauss being read by the Mullahs. It includes one priceless comment. At www.nybooks.com/articles/18390.

Thanks for the link. I'll read the whole essay later, but the mention of Strauss is intriguing. Strauss did some significant work on several Islamic thinkers (al Farabi, for example) and on Maimondes, who lived under Islamic authority.

I have heard it speculated that his doctrine of "secret" or esoteric writing derived in part of this study of Islamic sources.

Joe, please email me at paul[dot]cella[at]gmail[dot]com if you have a chance.

I enjoyed:

"Democratic Khomeinism is like fried snowballs." from the professor.

"The tie is a sign of protest!" from the dissident student. (Gosh, why are all our revolutionaries dirty?)

Of course, when he asks the Iranian is he is a neocon and calls him the "Wolfowitz of Qom", that's pretty good too.

I'll tell you though, those parties in north Tehran sound like a pretty wild time - when the hijab come off...whoa...

 Inspired choice. She's got a new book out called "Break, Blow, Burn" in which she goes back to close reading of poetry: staying within the text (sound familiar?). We can date our demise in academia from the downfall of the New Criticism, coincidentally or not, so its nice to see someone heading back in that direction, even if some of her choices are oddball.

 "...the American neo-conservatives don't properly understand Leo Strauss" is truly sublime.

Also, his "Is reality optional" is one of the better takedowns of modern liberalism out there.

of bastiat can be found here:

http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html

I will make additions to my list. TV has turned into  electronic Prozac lately. I spend more and more of my time reading good books. These look great.

Chronicles of Narnia (only fantasy acceptable for Christians) and the Bible (unless your one of those Jesus hating humanists).

My favorite, The True Believer by Eric Hoffer, discusses the phenomenon of the political mass movement, focusing in particular on Communism, National Socialism in Germany, and Islamic fundamentalism.  He does a particularly good job of discussing the role that media and academics play in fostering mass movements that are destructive to practical people.

I was going to also mention The Road To Serfdom by Hayak, and I see someone earlier recommended one of his books.  Hayak is the anti-Keynes among economists.

My one disagreement with the original post is the book on Intelligent Design, which I believe is utter rubbish and profoundly bad for American education.

Actually, The Lord of the Rings was deeply influenced by Christianity as well. J.R.R. Tolkein was a committed Catholic and many of the themes in LOTR are based, however loosely, on Christian themes.

That, and it's simply great literature...

Some time back the NRO Corner had a discussion about LOTR and whether it was conservative or liberal. The consensus was that the books contained much for both conservatives and liberals to like. The main liberal theme is of course Tolkien's almost Luddite environmentalism

 . . . mediaevalism. Chesterton and Belloc shared it as well.

and are just plain old good.  Don't pick it apart, just enjoy it.

Actually, it is largely due to Tolkien's influence that C.S. Lewis came back to God and went on to be one of the great Christian apologists of the twentieth century. And both authors drew heavily on Christian themes and symbolism in their work (in LOTR, Frodo leaves Rivendell on Christmas Day and destroys the Ring on Easter. And he has to climb a big hill in great pain and be helped for part of the way to do it).

Off  topic, but I'm really looking forward to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe this December. Looks awesome.

Only read "The Last Lion" on your list, have to check out some of the others.

A couple to add

"Capitalism and Freedom" by Milton Friedman

"The Middle East" by Bernard Lewis

"On Liberty" John Stuart Mill

But one should recall that LOTR was practically a Bible to many eco-freak hippies. Tolkien probably did not intend that, but the work does have themes which are quite attractive to liberals of a certain sort. And for that matter, unless you read the background work (the Silmarillion) and acquaint yourself with Tolkien's own philosophical views, LOTR appears to portray a very secular-paganistic world, one lacking any mention of God, and with no religious institutions of any sort. For that matter too all the characters (save a few minor one*) are unmarried and without children (although a couple of them do marry at the very end) which is hardly consonant with the whole "family values" thing.

* In fact even the minor characters are often missing wives: some wives have died, one has gone across the Sea, and the Entwives are missing outright. And are Galadriel and Celeborn even married--the text does not refer to them as husband and wife?

Michael Oakeshott--Rationalism in Politics, and the new The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Skepticism.

And, Hitchen's Why Orwell Still Matters (for that matter, Orwell himeself too is always worth reading, though not always conservative).

First post here, by the way, I am supposed to call attention to that?

There's some reading you should do before you post here.

Go here and here and here, and be sure to read the posting rules.

On the last, just take that as a reminder that we welcome lefties, but we don't want to be inundated with trolls. I'm known as the thug around here (when Leon inexplicably isn't), but I'm always happy to see a good faith dissenter. Welcome!

1. Ideas Have Consequences - A classic of the postwar conservative revival, by Richard Weaver.  Unjustly neglected nowadays, and with lines of argument that will step on the toes of liberals as well as many contemporary conservatives.
   
2.  Liberalism and the Limits of Justice - A rigorous, yet subtle - and devastating - critique of Rawls' Theory of Justice which demonstrates how liberal theories of the person and society, in their pursuit of the objective view detached from the particularities of time, place, and tradition ultimately reduce the person to nothing more than the disembodied faculty of the choosing will.  Michael Sandel is a communitarian, a probably leans to the left side of the spectrum, but there is much in this work for conservatives to ponder and assimilate.
   
3.  John Stuart Mill on Liberty and Control, by Joseph Hamburger, along with John Stuart Mill and the Religion of Humanity, by Linda Raeder.  Both books are seminal explorations of the esoteric current within the philosophy of the godfather of modern liberalism: certain types of liberty serve certain ends, and require their own methods of social control.  

How can a conservative reading list not include the Wealth of Nations.....

Oh the irony - and William Manchester was a liberal Democrat (and hand picked by the Kennedy family to write about JFK).

 I feel the axe on my throat already but...Do you read a bit of the Dynamo and the Virgin in LOTR, i.e. the Saruman and Galadriel sub-text (permission to behead me now) and, regarding questions of filiation/affiliation, do you hear overtones of Eliot's Lancelot Andrewes/After Strange Gods? (must tie self to mast now).    

Y'all should spend some time reading dKosopedia about conservative thought leaders.  I really mean this as strange as it sounds.


He may be wrong on political issues (free net speech excepted), but they did a good job on this. I learned a lot.