This reading list is not exhaustive, and it will be added to over time. I’m breaking it up into rough categories: Foundational Works, History, and Threats. All are necessary, as a representative republic still requires an electorate that knows its core beliefs/philosophy, its history, and what it must be vigilant against.
Foundational Works
Some of these are directly connected to the American republic, some are simply foundational to Western Civ. Some may seem to be disconnected, but are works that were foundational to the education of many of our forebearers.
Aristotle:
Nichomachean Ethics https://amzn.to/3ZtMOsr
Politics https://amzn.to/3BhX114
Thucydides:
History of the Peloponnesian War https://amzn.to/4e7rtd4
Plutarch:
Lives https://amzn.to/47u62Ac https://amzn.to/3XCKHAm
William Blackstone:
Commentaries on the Laws of England: https://amzn.to/4ew6xMF
Alexis de Tocqueville:
Democracy in America https://amzn.to/4e46NT6
Friedrich von Gentz:
The Origin and Principles of the American Revolution Compared with the Origin and Principles of the French Revolution https://amzn.to/3XOuHMT
J. Budziszewski:
Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law https://amzn.to/3MP6501 (This is a much newer work, but when you dig down, just law is based on Natural Law, and thus an understanding of Natural Law is essential when we have a voice in our own laws. Budziszewski does a good job of laying things out in this book.)
History
Without knowing our history, we are cast adrift from our forefathers and more likely to accept being pulled away from our laws and traditions (yes, we do have them in the United States) to become something that is not American, and will ultimately be less just than what was handed down to us by the Founders. At the same time, a knowledge of our history can dispel certain equally damaging legends and lend some perspective to the problems that many of us believe are unique to our situation today, yet have been constant throughout all of human history, including the history of our country. Most of these books do revolve around conflict, but you get to know a people’s character in the crucible of conflict.
John Fiske:
The American Revolution https://amzn.to/3B9VBpu
George F. Scheer:
Rebels and Redcoats https://amzn.to/3B7Sxud
Allan Eckert:
The Frontiersmen https://amzn.to/3MQdU5C
Wilderness Empire https://amzn.to/3TAFQyd
The Conquerors https://amzn.to/3XvC6PR
The Wilderness War https://amzn.to/3MNg71I
Gateway to Empire https://amzn.to/3ZqNX43
Twilight of Empire https://amzn.to/3Zo85nA
Donald R. Hickey:
The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict https://amzn.to/4grqrdt
James McPherson:
Battle Cry of Freedom: https://amzn.to/4e8zeiH
Shelby Foote:
The Civil War – A Narrative: https://amzn.to/3BabJaF
Bruce Catton:
The Civil War https://amzn.to/4drBr85
Robert Underwood Johnson:
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War https://amzn.to/3Ttgi5V
Cyrus Townsend Brady:
Indian Fights and Fighters https://amzn.to/4gsNuEK
Peter Cozzens:
Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars https://amzn.to/4eoT6xV
John Keegan:
The First World War https://amzn.to/4etaZeZ
Martin Gilbert:
The First World War – A Complete History https://amzn.to/3zr61k1
The Second World War – A Complete History https://amzn.to/4e6ISCF
Francis Trevelyan Miller:
History of World War II: Armed Services Memorial Edition https://amzn.to/4e9bZVP
T.R. Fehrenbach:
This Kind of War – The Classic Korean War History https://amzn.to/3XxCPju
Mark Moyar:
Triumph Forsaken – The Vietnam War 1954-1965 https://amzn.to/3TAKwnH
Triumph Regained – The Vietnam War 1965-1968 https://amzn.to/4evJ3r1
Xiaobing Li:
The Dragon in the Jungle – The Chinese Army in the Vietnam War https://amzn.to/3Zpss3N
Building Ho’s Army – Chinese Military Assistance to North Vietnam https://amzn.to/3BcjUTN
Threats
There is considerable bleed over between this section and the preceding. That is unavoidable. In some ways, this is the most important section, as the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and we have dropped our vigilance since the 1960s, which should become quite evident reading these works.
Igor Shafarevich:
The Socialist Phenomenon https://amzn.to/3MNiiSW
Warren Carroll:
70 Years of the Communist Revolution https://amzn.to/3Bia42A
Herbert Romerstein, Eric Breindel:
The Venona Secrets – The Definitive Expose of Soviet Espionage in America https://amzn.to/3ZtG4er
Christopher Andrew, Vasili Mitrokhin:
The Sword and the Shield – The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB https://amzn.to/4edowYA
The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the the Third World – Newly Revealed Secrets from the Mitrokhin Archive https://amzn.to/3B6S1wm
Vladimir Bukovsky:
Judgment in Moscow: Soviet Crimes and Western Complicity https://amzn.to/4ewiyBP
Louis Budenz:
The Techniques of Communism https://amzn.to/3Zp92Mo
William Shirer:
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich https://amzn.to/3B4SizM
Robert Chandler:
Shadow World: Resurgent Russia, The Global New Left, and Radical Islam https://amzn.to/3XnNbCc
Cynthia Farahat:
The Secret Apparatus – The Muslim Brotherhood’s Industry of Death https://amzn.to/4esRS4y
Stephen F. Hayes:
The Connection https://amzn.to/4e5AzXz
Assaf Moghadam:
Nexus of Global Jihad – Understanding Cooperation Among Terrorist Actors https://amzn.to/3B9zI9U
H. John Poole:
Afrique – A Warning for America https://amzn.to/3MQzFSX
Sinoland – The Subversion of Freedom’s Bastion https://amzn.to/4grwjDv
Michael Miklaucic, Jacqueline Brewer:
Convergence: Illicit Networks and National Security in the Age of Globalization https://amzn.to/3XKY16K