Free Man’s Reading List

A reading list for all free men filled with the books he should read.*

The reason for the original list. Update 1 with more explanation.
The project begins.

* – Already read, no review
** – Read, but plan to re-read and review
*** – Read and reviewed with link to review

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Freedom Politics

Second Treatise of Government – John Locke**

Reflection on the Revolution in France – Edmund Burke

A Vindication of Natural Society – Edmund Burke

The Rights of Man and Common Sense – Thomas Paine

The Prince and the Discourses – Nicollo Machiavelli**

The Conscience of a Conservative – Barry Goldwater

Anarchy, State, and Utopia – Robert Nozick

The Road to Serfdom – FA Hayek

The God of the Machine – Isabel Paterson

What’s Wrong with the World – GK Chesteron

Outline of Sanity –  GK Chesterton

Liberty Defined – Ron Paul

Time for Choosing (Speech) – Ronald Reagan**

The Manipulated Man – Esther Villar

Origins of English Individualism – Alan Macfarlane

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Personal Freedom

Self-Reliance – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thus Spake Zarathustra – Freidrech Nietszche

How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World – Harry Brown

Enjoy the Decline – Aaron Cleary***

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Free Market Economics

Economics in One Lesson – Henry Hazlitt

Basic Economics – Thomas Sowell

Capitalism and Freedom – Milton Friedman

That Which is Seen and That Which is Not Seen – Frederic Bastiat***

Economics for Real People – Gene Callahan

Man, Economy, and State – Murray Rothbard

Human Action – Ludwig von Mises

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Violence

Boston’s Gun Bible

The Improvised Munitions Handbook**

The Art of War – Sun Tzu**

On War – Carl von Clausewitz

The Book of Five Rings – Miyamoto Musashi

On Killing – Dave Grossman

On Combat – Dave Grossman

The Warrior Mindset  – Dave Grossman

Meditations on Violence – Rory Miller

Facing Violence – Rory Miller

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Practical Virtue

How to Get Rich and Why (Article)- Gary North**

The Way of Men – Jack Donovan***

Willpower – Roy Baumeister

Mastery – Robert Greene

5 Major Pieces of the Life Puzzle – Jim Rohn

Think and Grow Rich – Napolean Hill

The Law of Success – Napolean Hill

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey

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Leadership/Social Interaction

U.S. Army Leadership Field Manual

The 48 Laws of Power – Robert Greene

33 Strategies of War – Robert Greene

Art of Seduction – Robert Greene

How to Make Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie**

The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Public Speaking – Dale Carnegie**

The Definitive Book of Body Language – Allan Pease*

Married Man Sex Life Primer 2011 – Athol Kay***

No More Mr. Nice Guy – Robert Glover

Asimov’s Treasury of Humour – Isaac Asimov**

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Mind

How to Read a Book – Mortimer Adler***

How to Lie with Statistics – Darrell Huff**

The Trivium – Miriam Joseph***

The Black Swan – Nassim Taleb*

Fooled by Randomness– Nassim Taleb*

Antifragile – Nassim Taleb

You are Not so Smart – David McRaney

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Body

The Primal Blueprint – Mark Sisson*

The Primal Connection – Mark Sisson

Starting Strength – Mark Rippetoe

Practical Programming – Mark Rippetoe

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Moral Virtue

The Bible*

Meditations – Marcus Aurelius

The Republic – Plato**

Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle (Aquinas’ commentary).

Plutarch’s Lives, Volumes One & Two – Plutarch

Summa Theologica – Thomas Aquinas

Moral Sentiments – Adam Smith

Everlasting Man – GK Chesteron

Fear and Trembling – Soren Kierkegaard

After You Believe – NT Wright

On the Geneology of Morality– Freidrech Nietszche

The Antichrist – Freidrech Nietszche

After Virtue – Alasdair MacIntyre

The Malaise of Modernity – Charles Taylor

Utilitarianism – John Stuart Mill

Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals – Immanuel Kant

Right and Reason

Tao Te Ching – Lao Tzu

Analects – Confucius

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Fiction

Call of the Wild and White Fang – Jack London**

1984 and Animal Farm – George Orwell**

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley**

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury**

Harrison Bergeron – Kurt Vonnegut**

Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand

The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand

Musashi – Eiji Yoshikawa

Taiko – Eiji Yoshikawa

Aenid – Virgil

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Other Lists:

Ron Paul’s freedom reading list.
Francis’ reading list.
Art of Manliness’ The Man’s Essential Library.
Art of Manliness’ 34 Books About Being a Man.
Learn Economics.
Great Books for Men’s list.

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* Most of the below links are to Amazon hardcopy editions. I generally chose the least expensive versions (books can be expensive), but, especially with translations, I would sometimes choose more expensive versions based on recommendations of versions I found or if the added value was worth it (such as Nietszche’s books being a collection of multiples of his books. I occasionally linked to the e-version if the hardcopy was overly expensive (Summa Theologica). Overall, the versions linked are the ones I think had the best value. Many of these books, particularly the older ones and the shorter ones can be found online for free, but it was enough work just linking Amazon copies, so you’ll have to find free versions yourself. I prefer reading actual books to reading of a screen, so that’s what I linked to.

21 comments

  1. This is a good list, but missing from it is any education in moral philosophy. How can you know how to be a free man if you haven’t figured out what the teleology of manhood is? I would recommend Smith “Moral Sentiments”, Aquinas, Plato “The Republic” (focus on the idea of Justice, not the dubious socialist allegory), Chesterton “The Everlasting Man”, and MacIntyre “After Virtue” to start.

    This is obviously a very libertarian-leaning reading list, and there’s nothing wrong with that, other than the fact that the reason why liberty is valuable is because it affords us the opportunity to accomplish something of worth. It’s still necessary to understand what is worthwhile, what the teleology of our existence is – and that’s the purpose of moral philosophy. Many moral philosophers have been religious, but that doesn’t mean we have to read their works as religious apologies; we can simply read them for the content and accept or ignore the religious aspects as we see fit.

    I would also suggest that a free-thinking man ought to broaden his horizons from the established orthodoxy of modern liberal democracy in which the above list is steeped, and consider the other side. Joining the “Froude Society” is a good place to start – do a search for that and “unqualified reservations”.

  2. I like how the Chesterton stuff is there to blow that libertarian crap all to hell.

  3. Excellent reading list, I don’t think there’s a single book there I wouldn’t want to read and get others to read as well. There need to be more men’s book clubs.

  4. I just found this website after reading the article about the life of a beta and found myself nodding along as I read it. This reading list excellent. Spot on good material to drink deeply from.

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