Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story by Wilfred M. McClay

Land of Hope: A Persuasive and Inspiring History of America National Review of the textbook here.

The Five Thousand Year Leap. Skousen went back and read a lot of Amerca's founders' writings and documented a lot of the "why" of the decisions they made. It is a fascinating work.

Reloading book(s)

After a few years, there will be no reading

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Couple of nudie mags and survival books.

Yup...about all you need

quote:

Originally posted by RNshooter:

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Cool, so judging by the majority of responses, we can look forward to sitting around and debating political theory and economic doctrine while dying of starvation, exposure, and dysentery.

Good point. I was focused on rebuilding society, politically and ethically. I was assuming that we had already taken care of the food and shelter part, if we are looking at things like writing a new Constitution.

Bruce

Don't need a new Constitution, just need to follow the old one verbatim!!

The problem is the people that need to read the books don't read books anymore and don't know what they don't know.

Ranger handbook.

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
Bastiat’s The Law

Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson by Frederick Hayek.

-Rob

Add Constitution of Liberty

so we assume 'reading' is already a recovered/never lost skill?

basic blacksmithing & the various skills of steam power, agriculture and animal husbandry;

the Fox Fire series an essential IMHO.

To Serve Man

ExPat already posted my recommendation, McClay’s Land of Hope. If you come across Howard Zinn’s history, burn it.

I would also suggest a selection of books by Thomas Sowell.
Histories of communism also very helpful, for example Robert Conquest’s The Great Terror.
It was suggested By Kingsley Amis that the revised edition be titled “I Told You So, You Fucking Fools!”

Unintended Consequences and The Foxfire Book(s).

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
Machinery's Handbook

Seconded. Whenever I look through it I feel dumber, which tells me smart people will want it around.

1984, as reminder to never go back to that.

Moonshine For Dummies (medical use) if it exists

Stalking the Wild Asparagus-Euell Gibbons

1984

Animal Farm

The road to Wigan Pier

The Trial

On Liberty

Walden

Civil disobedience

Meditations

Summa Theologica

The Holy Bible

The Quran

The Black Book of Communism

Introduction to Logic

The Anti-capitalistic mentality

Leviathan

The Prince

Art of War

Man’s search for meaning

Mein Kampf

The Communist Manifesto

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

The Wealth of Nations

Common Sense

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Notes on Democracy

The StrangeDeath of Europe

The Maddness of Crowds

Steyn, A quick note re your first two books, 1984 and Animal Farm.

I understand Orwell was once pro socialism, until he saw the reality of socialistic gov't ala Stalin. That was his motivation for writing 1984 and Animal Farm. I happen to believe Orwell was somewhat prophetic in describing our world today.

quote:

Originally posted by Scoutmaster:
Steyn, A quick note re your first two books, 1984 and Animal Farm.

I understand Orwell was once pro socialism, until he saw the reality of socialistic gov't ala Stalin. That was his motivation for writing 1984 and Animal Farm. I happen to believe Orwell was somewhat prophetic in describing our world today.

He was a leftist thoughout his life. An “honest leftist”, to the extent that that was possible. “The Road to Wigan Pier” is a straight-up defense of socialism, as is, of course, “The Communist Manifesto”, which I also included on the list. I think everyone should read books from socialists or former socialists, as well as from nazis, islamists etc (“know thy enemy” and all that).

I wish I could browse my physical library now and include more titles. I am positive I have missed many important ones, like “Gulag Archipelago”, and basically anything written by HL Mencken. But I am sick as a puppy today, so I’ll let better minds do the hard lifting.

But the more ignorant we are, the more gullible we are. And the more likely we are to like Biden.