Summer Reads

A reader of the blog whom I will be shooting with next week in Georgia (I'm gonna try try try to get up to Knoxville too, Les) asked me for some suggestions on reading about the founding fathers and the constitution. I gave him what I believe is an excellent start

Start with a copy of the Federalist Papers and Constitution itself.

The Federalist Papers are actually quite readable and you should be able to find them all online. They were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay (as in, do you know why there is no J street in DC???) Also, Marbury v. Madison is an interesting Supreme Court case. It should be available online too.

Historically, you should also read

• The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams
• Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
• Common Sense by Thomas Paine

For general information - go here http://www.colonialhall.com


As far as good books on the individuals themselves . . . . . let me
preface these remarks by noting that nearly 100% of historians at the
University level are raging liberal fools. Still, they tend to be
excellent writers and if you are capable of looking past some of the
bullshit they throw in, they have written some excellent books.

• The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn
• Founding Fathers by M.E. Bradford
• David McCullough is a pretty good author and his book on John Adams is excellent. I haven't read 1776 yet (his new one) but its on my short list.
• Joseph Ellis's book about Washington is very good to, but his a bit of a lying liberal (he got into serious hot water for lying about serving in Vietnam). He also has a general book on the Founding Fathers and one on Jefferson (American Sphinx )
• Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson is supposed to be excellent (haven't read it yet)
• I also want to read Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton.
• Also check out Richard Brookhisers book on Hamilton too.
• Oh, and Dumas Malone's books on Jefferson (there are a whole bunch - like 6 or 7).

Following my transmission of that list to him, National Review published their always excellent Summer Reading List. It includes a bunch of books that I am going to try and read this summer, including at least one, Richard Brookhisers' Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution that might be worth adding to those above.e that any readers interested in the founding of our nation should read. Others I have my eye on are

• The Conquest of Gaul, by J. Caesar. I read this years ago while in middle school and fell in love with all things Roman.
• Black Rednecks and White Liberalsby Thomas Sowell
• C.S. Lewis, by A.N. Wilson. As they point out a remake of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is coming this fall. C.S. Lewis was a peer and close professional colleague of Tolkein's at Oxford and I highly recommend the complete Chronicles of Narnia to anyone and everyone. Its much easier to read than the Lord of the Rings, though there are considerably more books. Prince Caspian was always my favorite.
• Donald Kagan’s The Peloponnesian War. See the Roman comment above.
• Getting Things Done, by David Allen. 'Cause I procrastinate.