June 01, 2005

Conservative Syllabus

As a mirror to yesterday's "Conservative Index" of the 19th and 20th centuries' ten "most harmful" books, I present here an unscholarly list, in rough chronological order, of conservative must-reads of the 17th through 20th centuries taken from a survey of online conservative reading lists. (I've provided links to online texts. The rest can be checked out from your local library, or ordered online.)

  1. Alexander Hamilton, et. al., The Federalist Papers
  2. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
  3. Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (you might be interested in The Road to Serfdom in cartoons)
  4. Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences
  5. William F. Buckley, Jr., God and Man at Yale
  6. Whittaker Chambers, Witness
  7. Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind
  8. Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom
  9. Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative
  10. George H. Nash, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America

Some honorable mentions:

Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
James Burnham, Suicide of the West
Dinesh D'Souza, Letters to a Young Conservative
Milton and Rose Friedman, Free to Choose
Henry Hazlitt, Ecnomics in One Lesson
Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order
John Locke, Second Treatise on Government
Roger Nisbet, The Quest for Community
Roger Scruton, The Meaning of Conservativism
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action: A Treatise On Economics

More items are listed here and here.

Posted by Clifton at June 1, 2005 10:15 AM | TrackBack
Comments

The Quest for Community should have been in the top 10, IMHO; the inverse relationship between community and individualism, and their relationship to belonging and alienation, are pivotal to the future of traditional Christianity in modern society.

Nothing from Mortimer Adler, even in the honorable mentions? I recommend Truth in Religion.

Posted by: Basil at June 1, 2005 04:49 PM

Basil:

By all means, we can put Nisbet in the top ten. I just did a random search online and noticed these titles on many lists. Nisbet's wasn't as often included. But that doesn't mean he isn't as important as you say.

In any case, I'm sure one could simply read all these works for a good exposure to conservative thought.

Posted by: Clifton D. Healy at June 1, 2005 10:02 PM

Two more suggestions: Something by Robert Novak, perhaps Free Persons and the Common Good, would be appropriate in this list. Also, Hilaire Belloc's The Servile State.

This discussion reminds me: I know so many titles that would be appropriate in such a reading list, and yet I have read mostly none of them, or bits and pieces of some. Although I did read Nisbet thoroughly, and I should read him again.

Posted by: Basil at June 2, 2005 07:25 AM