Here’s a reading list to introduce you to the Dark Enlightenment.*
Introduction to the list here.
* – Already read, no review
** – Read, but plan to re-read and review
*** – Read and reviewed with link to review
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Introduction
The Dark Enlightenment Defined*
The Dark Enlightenment Explained*
The Path to the Dark Enlightenment*
The Essence of the Dark Enlightenment*
An Introduction to Neoreaction*
Neoreaction for Dummies*
Reactionary Philosophy in a Nutshell*
The Dark Enlightenment – Nick Land*
When Wish Replaces Thought Steven Goldberg *
Three Years of Hate – In Mala Fide***
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The Decline
We are Doomed – John Derbyshire*
America Alone – Mark Steyn*
After America – Mark Steyn*
Death of the West – Pat Buchanan***
The Abolition of Britain – Peter Hitchens
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Civil Society and Culture
Coming Apart – Charles Murray
Disuniting of America – Arthur Schlesinger
The Quest for Community – Robert Nisbet
Bowling Alone – Robert Putnam
Life at the Bottom – Theodore Dalrymple
Intellectuals and society – Thomas Sowell
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Western Civilization
Civilization: The West and the Rest – Niall Ferguson
Culture Matters – Samuel Huntington
The Uniqueness of Western Civilization – Ricardo Duchesne
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Moldbuggery
Mencius Moldbug is one of the more influential neoreactionaries. His blog, Unqualified Reservations, is required reading; if you have not read Moldbug, you do not understand modern politics or modern history. Start here for an overview of major concepts: Moldbuggery Condensed. Introduction to Moldbuggery has the Moldbug reading list. Start with Open Letter series, then simply go from the beginning.*
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Reactionary Thought
Chartism – Thomas Carlyle
Latter-Day Pamphlets – Thomas Carlyle
The Bow of Ulysses – James Anthony Froude
Popular Government – Henry Summers Maine
Shooting Niagara – Carlyle
The Occasional Discourse – Carlyle
On Heroes, Hero Worship & the Heroic in History – Carlyle
The Handbook of Traditional Living – Raido
Men Among the Ruins – Julius Evola
Ride the Tiger – Julius Evola
Revolt Against the Modern World – Julius Evola
Reflections of a Russian Statesman – Konstantin Pobedonostsev
Popular Government – Henry Maine
Patriarcha (the Natural Power of Kings) – Sir Robert Filmer
Decline of the West – Oswald Spengler
Hour of Decision – Oswald Spengler
On Power – Jouvenel
Against Democracy and Equality – Tomislav Sunic
New Culture, New Right – Michael O’Meara
Why We Fight – Guillaume Faye
The Rising Tide of Color – Lothrop Stoddard
Liberty or Equality – Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn
Democracy: The God that Failed – Hans-Hermann Hoppe
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Economics
Economics in One Lesson – Henry Hazlitt
Basic Economics – Thomas Sowell
That Which is Seen and That Which is Not Seen – Frederic Bastiat***
Man, Economy, and State – Murray Rothbard
Human Action – Ludwig von Mises
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HBD
Darwin’s Enemies on the Left and Right Part 1, Part 2 (Blog Post)*
The History and Geography of Human Genes (Abridged edition) – Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza
The 10,000 Year Explosion – Gregory Cochrane
Race, Evolution, and Behavior – Rushton
Why Race Matters – Michael Levin
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Intelligence and Mind
The Bell Curve – Charles Murray
The Global Bell Curve – Richard Lynn
Human Intelligence – Earl Hunt
Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence – Robert Sternberg
A Conflict of Visions – Thomas Sowell
The Moral Animal – Robert Wright
The Blank Slate – Stephen Pinker
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature – Murray Rothbard (essay)
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Education
Real Education – Charles Murray
Inside American Education – Thomas Sowell
Illiberal Education – Dinesh D’Sousa
God and Man at Yale – William Buckley
Weapons of Mass Instruction – John Taylor Gatto
The Higher Education Bubble – Glenn Reynolds
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Sex
The Way of Men – Jack Donovan***
Sperm Wars – Robin Baker
Sex at Dawn – Christopher Ryan
Why Men Rule – Steven Goldberg
The Manipulated Man – Esther Vilar
Is There Anything Good About Men? – Roy Baumeister
Demonic Males – Dale Peterson
The Essential Difference – Simon Baron-Cohen
The Mating Mind – Geoffrey Miller
The Red Queen – Matt Ridley
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Government
Mau-mauing the Flak Catchers – Tom Wolfe
Public Choice: An Introduction – Iain McLean
On Government Employment – Foseti (blog post)
Yes, Minister – TV Show
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History
True History of the American Revolution – Sydney George Fisher
Life and Liberty in America – Charles Mackay
Land of the Dollar – George Steevens
Outre-Mer – Paul Bourget
Shall Cromwell Have a Statue? – Charles Francis Adams Jr.
Memoirs of Service Afloat – Adm. Raphael Semmes
The Roving Editor – James Redpath
Democracy and the Party System in the United States – Moisei Ostrogorskiy
A South-Side View of Slavery – Nehemiah Adams
The Origin of the Late War – Lunt
Reflection on the Revolution in France – Edmund Burke
Origins of English Individualism – Alan MacFarlane
The Shortest-Way With The Dissenters – Daniel Defoe
While you Slept – John T. Flynn
The Road Ahead; America’s Creeping Revolution – John T. Flynn
America’s Retreat from Victory – Joseph R. McCarthy
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Fiction/Poetry
Complete Verse – Rudyard Kipling*
Harrison Bergeron – Kurt Vonnegut*
Camp of the Saints – Jean Raspail
Darkness at Noon – Arthur Koestler
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Other Related Reading Lists
A reactionary library
The Neoreactionary Canon
Derbyshire’s list of Dark Enlightenment blogs
The Great Books of The Aristocracy
Library of the Dark Enlightenment
Great Books for Men’s reading list
Foseti’s “Books that influenced me”
Moldbug’s Slow History
The Patrician’s Library
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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). 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 off a screen, so that’s what I linked to.
I picked up Civilization: The West and the Rest today and have begun reading it. So far, so interesting. I’m not 15 pages in (not counting the introduction) and Ferguson’s already laying out plenty of food for thought. You and a review I remembered from two years ago provided the inspiration for the purchase. Thanks.
Also, Gatto’s Weapons of Mass Instruction will be read soon. Have you read his other book Dumbing Us Down?
Good to here it’s a worthwhile book. I haven’t read any of Gatto’s books.
“Sex at Dawn” is poorly researched. For example it doesn’t explain why penile spines were lost during the course of prosimian/simian evolution. Evidence suggests that neither indiscriminate promiscuity nor rampant sperm competition were _not_ a significant factor contributing to primate/hominin genetic composition.
I’ll have to keep an eye out for that when I eventually get around to it.
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What constitutes ‘dark enlightenment’ as opposed to ‘light enlightenment’ or enlightenment itself? Is there even a ‘light enlightenment’? Or am I way off when it comes to this conclusion?
I see you are a part of the so-called manosphere, yet you seem to profess in the Bible, are you a proponent of traditionalism and chivalry then? How would this contribute to ‘dark enlightenment,’? I was under the impression that traditionalism and chivalry go hand in hand (these concepts today are quite mainstream), but the entire supposition of ‘dark enlightenment’ reminds me of Roosh and other similar PUA tactics (hardly mainstream).
Please correct me if I am wrong.
I really do like your reading list.
Hey Mystic, sorry I missed this before.
For my views on chivalry read this post. TLDR: it’s proper to give chivalry to ladies, not to independent women.
http://freenortherner.com/2012/12/15/chivalry-the-lady-and-the-old-order/
The Dark Enlightenment is the use of new science and old wisdom to undo the follies of the enlightenment (equality, democracy, etc.).
I am an endorser of the old order; it’s far outside the mainstream. My views may have been mainstream centuries ago, it is not now.
ASIA FOR THE ASIANS, AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, WHITE COUNTRIES FOR EVERYBODY!
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.
no might is right???
Posers..
Will keep this in mind for the future. Interesting, thanks