Young people and people just starting to engage with politics often ask what books might be worth reading as they start to get their head around the issues.
There are so many good options, but here are a few that come to our minds that are thought provoking. Ones that are particularly accessible (easy to read, not too long) are marked with an asterisk for the time-poor or easily overwhelmed!
In no particular order.
Starting Point
|
Title |
Author |
|
100 Great Books of Liberty: The Essential Introduction to the Greatest Idea of Western Civilisation |
Chris Berg, John Roskam and Andrew Kemp [This book is a great reading list of its own, setting out the authors and titles of 100 important books and why they matter. The list of books on Australian History in it is particularly good.] |
Biography
|
Title |
Author |
|
Churchill: Walking with Destiny |
Andrew Roberts |
|
President Reagan |
Lou Cannon |
|
Peter Costello: A Biography |
Tracey Aubin |
|
The Path to Power |
Margaret Thatcher |
|
The Downing Street Years |
Margaret Thatcher |
|
The Reagan Diaries |
Ronald Reagan |
|
Lazarus Rising |
John Howard |
|
The Years of Lyndon Johnson series |
Robert Caro |
|
Faith and Duty: the John Anderson story |
Paul Gallagher |
|
Afternoon Light |
Sir Robert Menzies |
|
Infidel |
Ayaan Hirsi Ali |
|
Confessions of a Failed Finance Minister |
Peter Walsh |
|
Hitch 22 |
Christopher Hitchens |
Foreign Affairs
|
Title |
Author |
|
Statecraft |
Margaret Thatcher |
|
The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power |
Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi |
|
Xi Jinping: The Backlash |
Richard McGregor |
|
The Party |
Richard McGregor |
|
The Gulag Archipelago |
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn |
|
Winter is Coming |
Gary Kasparov |
|
The Case for Democracy |
Natan Sharansky |
Politics
|
Title |
Author |
|
The Forgotten People speeches* |
Sir Robert Menzies |
|
The Coddling of the American Mind* |
Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt |
|
The Madness of Crowds* |
Douglas Murray |
|
How We Invented Freedom and Why it Matters* |
Dan Hannan |
|
Black Rednecks and White Liberals |
Thomas Sowell |
|
The Tyranny of Tolerance |
Peter Kurti |
|
Liberalism and the Australian Federation |
John Nethercote |
|
Democracy in a Divided Australia |
Matthew Lesh |
|
Gang of Five |
Nina Easton |
|
The Vanishing American Adult |
Ben Sasse |
History
|
Title |
Author |
|
The Menzies Era |
John Howard |
|
History of the First World War |
Liddell Hart |
|
Menzies at War |
Anne Henderson |
|
On Grand Strategy |
John Lewis Gaddis |
|
The Land of Dreams |
David Kemp |
|
Civilisation* |
Niall Ferguson |
|
The Enlightenment: And Why it Still Matters |
Anthony Pagden |
|
Is the West Special? World History and Western Civilisation* |
Greg Melleuish |
|
Forgotten Wars: The End of Britain’s Asian Empire |
Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper |
|
Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn |
Daniel Gordis |
|
The Secret World: A History of Intelligence |
Christopher Andrew |
|
Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman and the birth of Neoliberal Politics |
Daniel Stedman Jones |
|
History of the English Speaking Peoples |
Winston Churchill |
|
The Old Regime and the French Revolution |
Alexis de Tocqueville |
|
Liberalism: A Short History* |
Richard Allsop |
Economics
|
Title |
Author |
|
Capitalism and Freedom* |
Milton Friedman |
|
The Road to Serfdom |
FA Hayek |
|
The Ascent of Money* |
Niall Ferguson |
|
Socialism |
Ludwig von Mises |
|
The Wealth of Nations |
Adam Smith |
|
The Rational Optimist* |
Matt Ridley |
|
In Defence of Global Capitalism |
Johan Norberg |
|
Freakonomics* |
Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt |
|
The God of the Machine |
Isobel Paterson |
|
When Helping Hurts |
Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert |
|
The Myth of the Rational Voter |
Bryan Caplan |
Religion & Spirituality
|
Title |
Author |
|
God is Good For You* |
Greg Sheridan |
|
The Righteous Mind |
Jonathan Haidt |
|
The Book that Made Your World |
Vishnal Mangalwadi |
|
The Great Human Dignity Heist |
Michael Cook |
|
Mere Christianity |
CS Lewis |
|
Heretic |
Ayaan Hirsi Ali |
|
Meditations |
Marcus Aurelius |
|
Today’s Tyrants |
Damien Freeman |
|
The Servant Queen and the King she Serves |
Queen Elizabeth et al |
|
The Fountain of Public Prosperity: Evangelical Christians in Australian History |
Stuart Piggin and Robert D Linder |
|
A Letter Concerning Toleration |
John Locke |
Philosophy
|
Title |
Author |
|
Atlas Shrugged |
Ayn Rand |
|
Reflections on the Revolution in France |
Edmund Burke |
|
On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays |
John Stuart Mill |
|
The Fountainhead |
Ayn Rand |
|
The Complete Novels (but especially 1984) |
George Orwell |
|
Leviathan |
Thomas Hobbes |
|
The Theory of Moral Sentiments |
Adam Smith |
|
The Art of War |
Sun Tzu |
|
12 Rules for Life |
Jordan B Peterson |
|
In Defence of Free Speech |
Chris Berg |
|
How to be a Conservative* |
Roger Scruton |
|
The Law |
Frederic Bastiat |
|
The Constitution of Liberty |
FA Hayek |
Misc
|
Title |
Author |
|
The King’s English |
Kingsley Amis |