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
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
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.
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”.
Aquinas is pronouced Acquinas but spelled Aquinas
Thanks. I changed it.
I like how the Chesterton stuff is there to blow that libertarian crap all to hell.
Suggested addition to fiction: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
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.
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.
Great Books for Men, indeed. lzozozlzzolzlzlzlz..