Recently the Leadership Institute sent me Morton Blackwell’s Read to Lead, a list of 25 books the former Reagan aide and conservative champion recommends to college students. Author Dinesh D’Souza, in his Letters to a Young Conservative, also has a list of 27 books to read (See pg. 5 of this PDF)
So in the spirit of Christmas cash to spend, let me present the 25 books I think you should read. (Let me note that these are 25 books worth reading, different than the 25 books you need to read to be an intellectually grounded conservative. Blackwell and D’Souza have already admirably completed that project and I would merely quibble. I think my list and theirs only overlaps once – Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative) (The five books that I’ve starred, top in each catergory, receive my highest commendation).
NOVELS
**Jeffrey Archer’s First Among Equals
: Tracks the rise of four men through Parliament, from back-benchers to rivals for Prime Minister of Britain. A classic.
Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire. The tale of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae and their heroic stand in the face of swarms of Persians. A great tale of battle and manhood.
HISTORY
**George H.W. Bush’s All the Best. A collection of letters and diary entries from the life of the 41st President. I have a tremendous respect for President Bush – read the book not just for his politics, but to learn how to be a man – to raise a family, to love a wife, to be a life-long friend.
Thomas Paine’s The Essential Writings of Thomas Paine. From the chief propograndist of the American Revolution comes soaring rhetoric and solid analysis. (I should note for the record that I disagree vehemently with Paine’s stand on religion and many of his other later writings. I really just like Common Sense and The Crisis particularly).
John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage. Say what you will about ghostwriters and such, the text is an excellent collection of truly inspiring stories of great Americans.
Peggy Noonan’s When Character Was King. We could fight for hours over which biography of Reagan is best. I like this one. There’s a principle here – speechwriters often make the best authors of books after an administration leaves office.
William Safire’s Lend Me Your Ears. A collection of the best speeches in history, from one of the most accomplished speechwriters, columnists, and authors in recent history.
Ralph Reed’s Active Faith. Besides being the executive director of the Christian Coalition and a top political consultant, Reed is also the holder of a Ph.D. in American History from Emory University. The main of this book recounts the role of Christians in American public life.
Lee Edwards’ The Conservative Revolution. It’s the story of the four Misters – Mr. Republican Robert Taft, Mr. Conservative Barry Goldwater, Mr. President Ronald Reagan, and Mr. Speaker Newt Gingrich – as only Edwards could tell it. Sympathetic, absolutely, but wonderful none the less (or perhaps all the more).
POLITICS
**James C. Humes’ Confessions of a White House Ghostwriter. Perhaps my favorite book of all time. Humes was a speechwriter for Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush, and this book is his memoirs of those days, as well as his various adventures as a state legislator and lawyer.
Henrick Smith’s The Power Game. A classic text, appropriate for a college class on American Government, explaining how laws are made with great examples. Rather than a nerdy, academic treatment, Smith takes us in the corridors of power to illustrate the principles he lists.
Chris Matthews’ Hardballand American. Though not a fan of his TV show, I really enjoy these two books by the MSNBC anchor. Hardball is a collection of anecdotes and wisdom about Matthews’ time in politics, while American looks at various aspects of the nation’s collective identity.
Gary Hart’s The Patriot. Taking a page from Machiavelli’s The Prince, the former Democratic Senator turned intellectual and statesman calls for a new politics of unity (that reminds me a lot of Barak Obama). While sometimes you can hear Hart being defensive of his own career, it’s still a great book with lots of life truths.
Balz and Brownstein’s Storming the Gates. The story of the 1994 Republican Revolution, as told by the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times reporters who covered it. A journalistic telling of how it happened.
PJ O’Rourke’s Parliament of Whores. A libertarian manifesto from the Right’s best political humorist. Though it shows its age a little, you will laugh a ton and the principles underlying the jokes are right on.
Richard A. Vigurie’s The New Right: We’re Ready to Lead. Though slightly dated, it is a very good history of conservative philosophy and action in the last half-century.
LEADERSHIP
**John C. Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Never have I seen the principles of leadership so soundly boiled down to common sense, real life laws. I like it because I can see the laws at work in the world as I read the news or watch people.
David Gergen’s Eyewitness to Power. An aide to Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, he is one of the nation’s most prolific pundits. This book contains the various principles of leadership Gergen observed in modern presidents.
Ronald C. White’s The Eloquent President. A wonderful analysis of Abraham Lincoln’s rhetoric throughout his career.
PHILOSOPHY/THEOLOGY
**Josiah Bunting’s An Education for Our Time. In writing a work about what philosophy young people should learn, the former VMI superintendent imparts his own philosophy as well.
George Will’s Statecraft as Soulcraft. From the Washington Post columnist, a call for an inspiring politics that is distinctly conservative, and more than capitalist.
Chuck Colson’s Kingdoms in Conflict. A wonderful work that is, I think, the authoritative exposition of (what I believe to be right) Evangelical (I would even daresay Protestant) views on the relationship between the Church and the State, and Christian Citizens and Temporal Government. A classic.
Cicero’s The Good Life. A collection of essays by the ancient Roman Republican statesman, this book provides wonderful insights on topics ranging from rhetoric to friendship. (For a great biography of Cicero, read Anthony Everitt’s)
Barry Goldwater’s The Conscience of a Conservative. What can be added to all that is already said?
William F. Buckley’s Nearer My God. An assortment of essays on various topics religious, Roman Catholic, and spiritual, this book gives a conservative account of modern Catholic controversies, but also an endearing story of personal faith.
PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST: I have a huge list of books to read, and some of them are classics I really ought to read to so I can add them to my must-read list. These include CS Lewis (Abolition of Man) and Richard John Neuhaus (The Naked Public Square).
So, there you have it. I expect this to be a dynamic list, updated constantly. I encourage you to read the list, read the books on the list, send me suggestions (info@gop3.com) for books I should add to the list, etc.
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