Recommend Six Must-read books.

[JonBonham]

What six books do you think contributed most to your understanding of the most important things you know, whether it's politics or science or history, etc. Basically, I didn't go to the best schools growing up and will be done highschool next year, and honestly I don't think I know nearly as much as you guys here on this forum, so my intention is to self-educate myself so that I can communicate as well in college as most of you guys do on here, minor trolling aside

So for an aspiring off-topic'r, what books do you feel are must reads (to have a well-rounded foundation of knowledge in general)

Recommend away!

 

[Dachs]

Russell Weigley - History of the United States Army
Jonathan Spence - The Search for Modern China
Paul W. Schroeder - The Transformation of European Politics 1763-1848
Guy Halsall - Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West 376-568
Peter Green - Alexander to Actium
Bill Simmons - The Book of Basketball

Can't pick just one WWI or ACW book. It's impossible. Toughest omission: Peter Perdue - China Marches West. Easiest omission: James Joyce - Ulysses.

 

[Skwink]

Anything by Dr. Seuss.

 

[Integral]

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Tom Schelling, Micromotives and Macrobehavior
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy.
David Hume,, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Noes from Underground

These books changed the way I think. They have the added benefit of being relatively short.


Close calls:
David Hume,. Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Gregory Clark, A Farewell to Alms (Difficult, a look at long-run economic growth. Controversial thesis. Better than Jared Diamond.)
Avinash Dixit, Thinking Strategically (Game theory for beginners. Lovely book, no math, very intuitive)

 

[Dreadnought]

The Impending Crisis is potentially on the list for a book about the pre-Civil War.

 

[Dachs]

Gregory Clark, A Farewell to Alms (Difficult, a look at long-run economic growth. Controversial thesis. Better than Jared Diamond.)

ooooh good rec even if he does overvalue British-specific information

although I personally would've said "better than Pomeranz" in any venue that actually gave a crap about economic history

 

[Integral]

I actually haven't ye read "The Great Divergence" so I can't compare. I planned on picking it up soon.

When most people want a "big picture" book on economic growth and development, Diamond inevitably comes up. I feel the need to combat that trend whenever possible.

From your own list, I will be checking out Schroeder. And in the vein of this thread...is there a particularly good survey (or set of surveys) of (Western) European history and politics from c.1450-1789?

 

[Antilogic]

What six books do you think contributed most to your understanding of the most important things you know, whether it's politics or science or history, etc. Basically, I didn't go to the best schools growing up and will be done highschool next year, and honestly I don't think I know nearly as much as you guys here on this forum, so my intention is to self-educate myself so that I can communicate as well in college as most of you guys do on here, minor trolling aside

So, are you looking for a focused list on any particular subject (i.e. the history list, or the political thought list) or a general mix? I went for the mixed approach, but I could fine-tune it a little if I know what people are looking for.

Russell Weigley - History of the United States Army
Jonathan Spence - The Search for Modern China
Paul W. Schroeder - The Transformation of European Politics 1763-1848
Guy Halsall - Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West 376-568
Peter Green - Alexander to Actium
Bill Simmons - The Book of Basketball

Can't pick just one WWI or ACW book. It's impossible. Toughest omission: Peter Perdue - China Marches West. Easiest omission: James Joyce - Ulysses.

Gah, how dare you bold and italicize like that? I do like to start with easy omissions, though: Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey... these ranked among the most useless books I have had the misfortune of reading in my high school career. I'm sure there were more.



So... on to the recommendations...

1. Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson - I'll venture an ACW book. This is the best one-volume history of the war I've read. Ignore the reviews claiming the pro-Union bias--they are just mad about the slavery issue as the cause of the war.
2. 1776 by David McCullough - This is my favorite author and I have read several of his books, so it was hard to pick just one. I picked this one because it was the first one of his that I read, and it was the first book I read that deconstructed some of the "heroic" personalities of the Revolution.
3. The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan - This is another book I have fond memories of. Kagan wrote a 4-volume history of the war, and released this single-volume narrative. It's great, gives you an insight into the politics (especially from the Athenian side), covers the great campaigns... an excellent read.
4. King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild - This book describes the brutal Belgian colonization of the Congo, describes how they hid what was virtually a genocide from the outside world for over a decade. Excellent insights to both colonization, politics, and eventually how this was uncovered.
5. The "S" Word by John Nichols - This is one of those books that fits Integral's criteria--it is one of a few works that caused me to reconsider socialism. It's a relatively short history of American socialists and makes the argument against the average conservative pundit's pejorative overuse of the word.
6. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins - Yeah, I'm an atheist. He's argumentative, combative, but it was a really fun read. Also fits into the Integral criteria for the list.

Okay, that's probably the top six in my library. But I have a huge list of honorable mentions as well: The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone, Only a Theory by Kenneth Miller, un-Spun by Jackson and Jamieson, Venice by Frederic Lane, Iron Kingdom by Christopher Clark, Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary, What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe, Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Shattered Sword by Parshall and Tully, Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers by James Hornfischer, Six Frigates by Ian Toll, anything else by David McCullough (literally anything, he is a fantastic writer and I have never been disappointed by one of his works).

And if you suspect you had a really bad high school education, there's always Lies my Teacher Told Me by Loewen.

 

[Dachs]

I actually haven't ye read "The Great Divergence" so I can't compare. I planned on picking it up soon.

When most people want a "big picture" book on economic growth and development, Diamond inevitably comes up. I feel the need to combat that trend whenever possible.

A laudable goal, sir

I also recommend Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O'Rourke - Power and Plenty: Trade, War and the World Economy in the Second Millennium

From your own list, I will be checking out Schroeder. And in the vein of this thread...is there a particularly good survey (or set of surveys) of (Western) European history and politics from c.1450-1789?

Try to library Schroeder, the book's huge and expensive

For the sixteenth and early seventeenth century there is Richard Bonney - The European Dynastic States, 1494-1660, which is fantastic; after that it gets significantly harder because things fragment into national narratives or very short-term focus works; Jeremy Black - European International Relations 1648-1815 is handy but maddeningly short

1. Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson - I'll venture an ACW book. This is the best one-volume history of the war I've read. Ignore the reviews claiming the pro-Union bias--they are just mad about the slavery issue as the cause of the war.
2. The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan - This is another book I have fond memories of. Kagan wrote a 4-volume history of the war, and released this single-volume narrative. It's great, gives you an insight into the politics (especially from the Athenian side), covers the great campaigns... an excellent read.

These two almost got onto my list, with Kagan in particular coming up because The Peloponnesian War is the first legit history book I ever read (back in freshman year of HS)

but I just can't choose between Eicher and McPherson and none of them had the huge impact on me that any of the others did, while Kagan narrowly lost out to the equally influential (on me) Peter Green due to volume of information and variety of subject matter

 

[Antilogic]

These two almost got onto my list, with Kagan in particular coming up because The Peloponnesian War is the first legit history book I ever read (back in freshman year of HS)

but I just can't choose between Eicher and McPherson and none of them had the huge impact on me that any of the others did, while Kagan narrowly lost out to the equally influential (on me) Peter Green due to volume of information and variety of subject matter

Kagan's work was among the first of the serious histories that I have read. It's been awhile, don't quite remember everything I read and in what order back in 2005 or before.

Although do you want to know the reason why these two made it on my list and the ones you mentioned didn't? The other two are still on my Amazon wishlist.

 

[BvBPL]

Undoing Yourself With Energized Meditation by Hyatt.
The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon.

 

[JonBonham]

So, are you looking for a focused list on any particular subject (i.e. the history list, or the political thought list) or a general mix? I went for the mixed approach, but I could fine-tune it a little if I know what people are looking for.
And if you suspect you had a really bad high school education, there's always Lies my Teacher Told Me by Loewen.

Hey, thanks everyone for the recommendations! General mix is what I'm aiming for, hoping to get a well-rounded selection for a solid foundation on a variety of subjects.
After school I am going to take time off to work before college, so I will be getting a whole lot of reading in, so thanks again for the contributions (and feel free to break it down and recommend six books per subject )

 

[zjintz]

George Orwell - 1984 : Totally change my view of the world.
Karl Marx - Wages price and profit : Short book that points exactly where is the capital's system issue. (But I don't like Marx's solution )
Richard Dawkings - The Selfish gene : Another awful true.
Sigmud Freud - The Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
Alvin Toffler - Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century
Ernst Gombrich - The Story of Art

 

[Whiskey_Lord]

These are in no particular order. Basically, these are the top works of writing that helped free my mind from the quagmire of willful ignorance that I had been raised in. Studying literature and philosophy in general has helped me become a better, more compassionate person because it has taught me about the different perspectives and experiences of a wide variety of people.

The Age of Reason - Thomas Paine. A pretty thorough dissection of the Bible that helped cure me of religion. At this point, I had a lot of problems with my faith but was trying to cling to it anyway for some misguided reasons.

The Awakening - Kate Chopin. Really helped to soften me to the plight and misery of women who live in oppressive cultures and societies.

Paradise Lost - John Milton. Possibly the greatest poem ever written in the English language. The fact that Milton gives Satan all the best lines and makes him the most relatable character is quite telling.

A Treatise of Human Nature - David Hume. Helped solidify me as a rational skeptic. Quite possibly one of the most humbling texts I've read so far because it made me realize that there is probably no intelligible definition of the self beyond being a 'bundle of perceptions.'

Prometheus Unbound - Percy Bysshe Shelley. My favorite humanist work of fiction with noticeable influence from Paradise Lost. This is one of the works that hooked me into becoming a scholar of 19th century literature.

The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels. Certainly not the most important work on communism, but it was the first one I ever read. It shattered all of my misconceptions on what Marxism is about, as I had been brought up around extremely conservative adults.

Honorable mentions:

God is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens. Got me on the anti-theism kick because of its central thesis: religion poisons everything because it attacks us in our core integrity, telling us that we can't be moral without divine supervision.

The Sea of Fertility - Yukio Mishima. This is actually four books that follow the life of one protagonist. It was my first real foray into a foreign culture, which was a breakthrough and an eye-opener since I had been raised in a USA #1 household.

 

[.Shane.]

Bill Simmons - The Book of Basketball

Spot on! INCREDIBLE read!

What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe

I've been working my way through this for some time. I'm an incredibly slow and easily interreptable reader (3 small kids can do that to you). Just completely awesome.

 

[Skwink]

Various Writers- The Bible Most important book in history, even if you aren't Christian you should read it, at least to understand the 1000's of references and quotes from it.

George Orwell- 1984 One of the most renowned books of the 20th century.

Stephon King- Insomnia Takes a strong person to read without giving up. Shows how tough you are to finish it. Also a good story about 3/4ths of the way through.

Adolf Hitler- Mein Kampf Very interesting read.

 

[Japanrocks12]

The Great Gatsby, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Understanding Poetry, To Kill a Mockingbird, Norton Anthology of British Literature, Art History (Stokstad, just bsing at this point)

 

[Ajidica]

True Believer-Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer
The Great War for Civilization by Robert Fisk
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Dune by Frank Herbert
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Demon by John Varley

(The last three are more my personal sci-fi selections)

 

[Hygro]

I would like to add myself to those suggesting The Battlecry of Freedom
Both Sneetches and The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.

Other books currently feel optional.

 

[BvBPL]

VALIS, by Philip K. Dick
Cerberus the Aardvark by Dave Sims & Gerhard