Reading

This reading list is a work in progress.  The idea is to collect materials informing our understanding of Americanism.

Baier, Bret

• Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower’s Final Mission (2017)
• Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire (2018)
• Three Days at the Brink: FDR’s Daring Gamble to Win World War II (2019)

Barr, William P.

• Remarks to the Law School and the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame (October 2019)
• 19th Annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture at the Federalist Society’s 2019 National Lawyers Convention (November 2019)

Bauer, Susan Wise

• The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had
• The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome
• The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade
• The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

Bennett, William

• The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories (1993)
• America: The Last Best Hope (Volume I): From the Age of Discovery to a World at War (2006)
• America: The Last Best Hope (Volume II): From a World at War to the Triumph of Freedom (2007)
• The American Patriot’s Almanac: Daily Readings on America (2008 with John Cribb)

Buckley, Jr., William F.

• God and Man at Yale (1951)

de Tocqueville, Alexis

• Democracy in America (vol. 1 1935, vol. 2 1940)

Dickstein, Morris

• The Revival of Pragmatism: New Essays on Social Thought, Law, and Culture

Friedman, Milton

• Capitalism and Freedom (1962)
• A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, with Anna J. Schwartz (1963)
• Free to Choose: A Personal Statement (1980)

Friedrichs, Rebecca

• Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and National Teachers’ Unions for the Heart and Soul of Our Kids and Country (2018)

Gaddis, John Lewis

• The Cold War: A New History (2005)
• On Grand Strategy (2018)

Gardner Coates, Victoria

• David’s Sling, A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art

Goldwater, Barry

• The Conscience of a Conservative (1960)

Greenblatt, Stephen

• The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (2011)
• The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve (2017)

Gregg, Samuel

• Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization (2019)

Hanson, Victor Davis

• Mexifornia: A State of Becoming (2003)
• The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost – From Ancient Greece to Iraq (2013)
• The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won (2017)
• The Case for Trump (2019)

Hayek, Friedrich

• The Road to Serfdom (1944)
• The Constitution of Liberty (1960)
• The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (1988)

Herman, Arthur

• The Idea of Decline in Western History
• How the Scots Invented the Modern World

Hershel, Abraham J.

• God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (1955)
• Between God and Man: An Interpretation of Judaism (1965)

Kass, Amy et al.

• What So Proudly We Hail: The American Soul in Story, Speech, and Song (2013)

Kass, Leon

• Being Human: Core Readings in the Humanities (2004)
• The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (2006)
• Leading a Worthy Life: Finding Meaning in Modern Times (2017)

Kethledge, Raymond M. and Michael S. Erwin

• Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude

Kirk, Russell

• The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot (7th ed. 2001)

Levin, Mark

• Men in Black: How The Supreme Court is Destroying America
• Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto
• Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America
• The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic
• Plunder and Deceit: Big Governments Exploitation of Young People and the Future
• Rediscovering Americanism and the Tyranny of Progressivism
• Unfreedom of the Press

McClay, Wilfred

• Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story (2019)

Menard, Louis

• The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America
• Pragmatism: A Reader

Mill, John Stuart

• On Liberty (1859)

Peterson, Jordan

• Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (1999)
• 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018)

Prager, Dennis

• The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism (1986) (with Joseph Telushkin)
• Why the Jews?: The Reason for Antisemitism (2003) (with Joseph Telushkin)
• Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph (2013)
• The Rational Bible: Exodus (2018)
• The Rational Bible: Genesis (2019)

Rand, Ayn

• The Fountainhead (1943)
• Atlas Shrugged (1957)
• Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966) (et al.)
• Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (1979)

Schweikart, Larry (et al.)

• California Bankers (1994)
• A Patriot’s History of the United States: From Columbus’s Great Discovery to the War on Terror (2004) (with Michael Allen)
• 48 Liberal Lies About American History: (That You Probably Learned in School) (2008)
• The Patriot’s History Reader: Essential Documents for Every American (2011) (with Dave Dougherty and Michael Allen)
• A Patriot’s History of the Modern World, Vol. I: From America’s Exceptional Ascent to the Atomic Bomb, 1898-1945 (2012) (with Dave Dougherty)
• A Patriot’s History of the Modern World, Vol. II: From the Cold War to the Age of Entitlement, 1945-2012 (2013) (with Dave Dougherty)
• How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution (2017) (with Joel Pollak)

Smith, Adam

• The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
• The Wealth of Nations (1776)

Sowell, Thomas

• A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles (1987)
• The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy (1995)
• The Quest for Cosmic Justice (1999)
• Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2005)
• Economic Facts and Fallacies (2008)
• Dismantling America and Other Controversial Essays (2010)
• The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011)
• Intellectuals and Society (2nd ed., 2012)
• Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy (5th ed., 2015)

Tarnas, Richard

• The Passion of the Western Mind

Various

• Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers (1787-1788)

Weaver, Richard M.

• Ideas Have Consequences (1948)