CONSERVATIVE LIBRARY

Books have been the medium of knowledge for thousands of years. In today’s globalized world, connected through technology, information is at everyone’s fingertips. But to make sense of it, all one must have a firm understanding of the beliefs and traditions at the core of their ideology.

As conservatives, it is important to understand the history and evolution of conservative thought to properly navigate the complex world we live in today. The Pax Americana Institute has compiled a list of essential reads for today’s conservatives in a hope to help better the reader’s understanding of what makes a person conservative.

MONTHLY RECOMMENDED CLASSICAL CONSERVATIVE BOOKS

In addition to our reading lists, Pax Americana is selecting one book every month to recommend to the Midwest’s finest conservative minds. We hope our monthly book recommendations excite you to knowledge and greater understanding of the principles that support classical conservative thought.

See our recommendations here

CLASSICAL CONSERVATIVE READING LISTS

This is our summer 2018 list. We will have other books in the future. Attached to most books on the list is a link to websites to listen or read the books for free.

Thucydides: 460 BC

The Peloponnesian Wars
- https://librivox.org/the-history-of-the-peloponnesian-war-by-thucydides

Plato: 427-347 BC

Dialogues
- https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/plato/

Aristotle: 384–322 BC

Poetics
- https://librivox.org/poetics-by-aristotle/
Ethics
- https://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-eth/

Augustine of Hippo: 354–430

City of God
- https://librivox.org/the-city-of-god-by-st-augustine-of-hippo/
Confessions
- https://librivox.org/confessions-by-saint-augustine-of-hippo/
The Golden Ass
- https://librivox.org/metamorphosis-or-the-golden-ass-by-lucius-apuleius/

Dante: 1265-1321

The Divine Comedy
- https://librivox.org/the-divine-comedy-by-dante-alighieri/

Thomas Malory: 1430-1471

Le Morte D’Arthur
- https://librivox.org/le-morte-darthur-volume-1-by-sir-thomas-malory/

Russell Kirk: 1918 – 1994

Roots of the American Order
- https://archive.org/details/RussellKirkTheConservativeMindaudiobook
The conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot

C.S. Lewis: 1898 – 1963

The Abolition of Man
- https://archive.org/details/TheAbolitionOfMan

George Nash: 1945 – Present

The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945

William F. Buckley: 1925 – 2008

Athwart History: Half a Century of Polemics, Animadversions, and Illuminations
Getting it Right

Edmund Burke: 1729 – 1797

Selected Writings and Speeches
- http://files.libertyfund.org/files/796/0005-01_SM.pdf
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful
- https://librivox.org/a-philosophical-enquiry-by-edmund-burke/
Reflections on the Revolution in France
- https://librivox.org/reflections-on-the-revolution-in-france-by-edmund-burke/

William Shakespeare: 1564-1616

Plays and Poems
- https://www.williamshakespeare.net/

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: 1749–1832

Faust
- https://librivox.org/faust-part-1-by-johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/

Charles Dickens: 1812-1870

A Tale of Two Cities
- https://librivox.org/a-tale-of-two-cities-by-charles-dickens/

Alfred Tennyson: 1809-1892

Poems
- http://www.poetry-archive.com/t/tennyson_alfred.html

Fyodor Dostoyevsky: 1821-1881

Notes from the Underground
- https://librivox.org/notes-from-the-underground-by-fyodor-dostoyevsky/
Crime and Punishment
- https://librivox.org/crime-and-punishment-by-fyodor-dostoyevsky/
The Idiot
- https://librivox.org/the-idiot-by-fyodor-dostoyevsky-part-01-and-02-translated-by-eva-m-martin/
The Possessed (The Devils)
- https://librivox.org/the-possessed-by-fyodor-dostoyevsky/
The Brothers Karamazov
- https://librivox.org/the-brothers-karamazov-by-fyodor-dostoyevsky/
Short Novels
- https://librivox.org/short-stories-by-fyodor-dostoyevsky/

Allan Bloom: 1930 – 1992

The closing of the American Mind
- https://archive.org/details/AllanBloomTheClosingOfTheAmericanMind

Whittaker Chambers: 1901 – 1961

Witness

Marcus Aurelius: 121 – 180

Meditations
- https://librivox.org/the-meditations-of-marcus-aurelius/

Milton Friedman: 1912 – 2006

Capitalism and Freedom
- https://archive.org/details/MiltonFriedmanCapitalismAndFreedom06Of11

Friedrich Hayek: 1899 – 1992

The Road to Serfdom
- https://archive.org/details/TheRoadToSerfdom

Paul Hollander: 1932 – Present

Political Pilgrims

Michael Oakeshott: 1901 – 1990

Rationalism in Politics
Other Essays

George Orwell: 1903 – 1950

Animal Farm
- https://archive.org/details/CompleteAUDIOBOOKAnimalFarmBYGeorgeOrwell
1984
- https://archive.org/details/George-Orwell-1984-Audio-book

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: 1918 – 2008

The Gulag Archipelago
- https://archive.org/details/098GulagVolOne

Leo Strauss: 1899 – 1973

Natural Right and History
- https://archive.org/details/naturalrighthis00stra

Alexis De Tocqueville: 1805 – 1855

Democracy in America
- https://librivox.org/democracy-in-america-vol-i-by-alexis-de-tocqueville/

Hamilton, Madison, Jay

The Federalist Papers
- https://librivox.org/the-federalist-papers-by-alexander-hamilton-john-jay-and-james-madison/