The PWI Required Reading List

I really liked this book … might be due for a re-read honestly.

I’m just wrapping up Undoing Project and it stays the course for what it is. Thinking hits a lot deeper on their work and is a great read for a layman (and anyone else who’s interested in behavioral economics/psychology).

I’ve read The Return of Depression Economics by Krugman over a summer between semesters about 6 years ago (after my intermediate Macro class on the recommendation of my professor) and thought it was a good read. That’s another one I might have to revisit soon. Haven’t read his blog in a while but every once in a while I’ll read an article he’ll write.

Tyler Cowen is a pretty good follow - I also frequent The Library of Economics and Liberty (econlib.org) and listen to Russ Roberts podcast EconTalk frequently. Russ does a good job playing devil’s advocate with people on similar thinking.

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So, I ended up with American Spinx instead of The Quartet so I’ve started that. I’m only about 2 chapters in and it seems interesting so far.

I had no idea DNA concluded Jefferson fathered at least one child with one of his slaves.

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It’s on my list! I think it was Aragorn who mentioned some of the McCullough books earlier in the thread. John Adams is very good, if you haven’t read it. I really enjoyed the letters from his wife, and seeing their relationship. Also, 1776.

I have not read John Adams, but I’d like to. I’ll have to put the letters from his wife higher on my list now. I have it, but it’s buried amongst the boxes of books in my basement.

She was just such an intelligent person in her own right, and truly an intellectual partner to him. Plus, they knew how to write back then. It’s a great book.

Edited to add, @anon50325502. The letters back and forth between John and Abigail Adams, are included in the John Adams book She was his closest advisor and confidant. Quite the love affair. She really holds a place as one of the founders.

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Has anyone read any of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s work?

No, but Ghulag Archipelago is on the top of my list.

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His name has been thrown around as book recommendation for quite awhile. I ordered Warning to the West. I should have it tomorrow. Pretty short reads, I might grab that one next.

Not saying it’s a must read, but I just got my hands on a copy of How America Lost Its Secrets By Edward Epstein and it looks promising.

First, a question. Have any of you read Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals? Was it worth the time? Out of left field? Pun intended. Primer on leftist tactics?

I’m in the middle of this one and really enjoying it. It’s firmly in the constitutional conservative / classical liberal category. A blend of history and interpretation of the founding documents, with examples from modern government, such as the growth of the administrative state.

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IWar is very interesting. Not all the way through it, but it is shaping up to be very informative thus far.

Consider also the Jefferson-Adams Letters. It has correspondences between John and Abigail as well as Tom. It’s a huge book, but as a resource it’s well done. It’s set up chronologically so that you can look at what these people were actually saying during a particular historical event.
It’s not the kind of book you read from page 1 to the end, though you can do that. Some of the letters are boring though. I don’t care about he proper way to grow a cabbage, but it has some real interesting stuff too.

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Just read Team of Teams by Gen. McChrystal. I enjoyed this a lot. Also an interesting and insightful look into the challenges of the war in the middle east.

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Very quick read and well worth it (unless you like Trump…).

Amazon’s number one seller…

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It’s a real page turner.

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Hi usmcc. Bargain $3.99 for the kindle version. FYI, This author came up in my old Nationalism thread. I know @loppar has read Snyder’s Bloodlands book, and liked it.

From Amazon -
Bloodlands won twelve awards including the Emerson Prize in the Humanities, a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Leipzig Award for European Understanding, and the Hannah Arendt Prize in Political Thought. It has been translated into more than thirty languages, was named to twelve book-of-the-year lists

So funny.

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Has anyone read ?

I just started it last night. I have to confess I haven’t read 1984, yet… I just picked it and Why I Write up yesterday. Should I read 1984 first?

@Basement_Gainz - I saw your comment in the other thread about European advances in relation to other parts of the world. I just started reading Guns, Germs and Steel by Diamond and it’s getting into that kind of thing. If you haven’t read it, you might really like it.

“In this “artful, informative, and delightful” (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California’s Gold Medal.”

Never read it. 1984 is perfectly self-contained, though. I imagine you could derive benefit from reading this first, but I don’t think it would detract from the ideas too much regardless. .