Recommended Reading:
The Constitution of the United States of America is obviously first. Thereafter, consider the following:
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism and The Human Condition
Isaiah Berlin, Two Concepts of Liberty
William F. Buckley, God and Man at Yale
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France*
*Note: This one is very controversial within the club, and it splits along the fault line of “classical liberals” and Tea Partiers against European conservatives and fiscal conservatives
Cicero, On Government
Benjamin Constant, Political Writings (Cambridge)
Paul Berman, Terror and Liberalism
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom
F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, The Constitution of Liberty
David Hume, Selected Essays (Oxford)
John Jay ‘64, Alexander Hamilton (epic KC dropout), James Madison, The Federalist Papers
Immanuel Kant, Metaphysics of Morals (not the Groundwork), Perpetual Peace
Abraham Lincoln, Speeches and Writings (Library of America)
Mark Lilla, The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics
John Locke, Two Treatises of Government
Lois Lowry, The Giver
J.S. Mill, On Liberty
John Milton, The Readie and Easy Way, Areopagitica, Second Defense
Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws
An-Naim, Islam in the Secular State
Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, Rights of Man
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead
John Rawls, Political Liberalism
Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, The Idea of Justice
Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments
Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Various Patriots, The Anti-Federalist Papers
Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism*
*Also controversial. I can’t imagine our Catholic President is going to be happy with this.
