The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot – Russell Kirk  

An intellectual history of modern conservatism from the late 18^th. century to the post-war era. This is a seminal work. Not easy reading, but no can call himself a conservative who hasn’t read it.

This is the best one-volume history of the United States by the great British historian and conservative thinker. Johnson has a deep love for America and a profound understanding of what makes America special.

Godless: The Church of Liberalism – Ann Coulter

How leftism in the guise of modern liberalism has become a secular religion at war with Judeo-Christian tradition and in competition for the souls of mankind. Excellent treatment of the dogmas of evolutionism and environmentalism.

Coulter exposes liberal quislings, showing a movement whose loathing for basic American values habitually drives it into the arms of our enemies.

Royal explains why the “death of God,” confidently predicted since the French Enlightenment, never quite comes to pass. The author shows how the Judeo-Christian worldview has interacted with reason to bring about the most important progress of the modern age.

Professor Huntington coined the term “clash of civilizations.” Huntington demonstrates that civilization is based on religious values (culture comes from cult). He forcefully argues that unlike the 20th century – when wars were fueled by secular ideologies – 21st. century conflicts will be based on the clash of transcendental worldviews, especially Islam vs. Judeo-Christian civilization. (He was the first to speak of Islam’s “bloody borders.”) In the Post 9/11 world, the importance of this work cannot be overstated.

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning – Jonah Goldberg

Goldberg documents how fascism is a movement of the left, not the right. Shows the debt progressivism, the New Deal, the Great Society and Hillary’s politics of meaning owe to Mussolini and European fascist movements of the ‘20s and ‘30s. In its attempt to dominate all aspects of our lives, and make us act for our own good, Goldberg calls modern liberalism (leftism) “friendly fascism.”

1776 – David McCullough

The pivotal year in the Revolution. How close we came to losing the war, time after time, causes the reader to ask, “what if.” The hand of Providence (as the Colonials called Him) can be seen moving to save His handiwork. “1776” is an inspiration to patriots 232 years later.

Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain The Entire U.S. Government – P.J. O’Rourke

Hilarious expose of the delights of gargantuan government: a four-lane highway to national bankruptcy, waste, fraud and coercion, paved with the very best of intensions.

Children of Men – P.D. James

The only novel on my list. British mystery writer P.D. James’ subtly horrifying vision of what a world without children would be like. Set 25 years after the last child on earth is born (due to a worldwide plague of infertility), it shows where population control, demographic decline, the abortion mentality and an anti-child ethos are taking us.

A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue – Wendy Shalit

Shalit examines the ways sexual “openness” has exploited young women by leaving them vulnerable to sexual predation. The book challenges the basic feminist assumption that men and women are emotionally interchangeable.

What I Saw At The Revolution – Peggy Noonan

Reagan speechwriter’s account of the great man’s first administration, written with wit, charm and an abiding admiration for her subject.

Men And Marriage – George Gilder

Gilder’s classic refutation of feminism, demonstrates the differences between the sexes (psychological as well as spiritual) are very real and complimentary. Gilder’s message: The great mission of young women is to civilize young men. On the success or failure of this mission the fate of civilization rests.

The Natural Family: A Manifesto – Allan C. Carlson and Paul Mero

The authors examine the centrality of family to civilization, the roots of the current crisis in the family and why competing models are parodies of the natural family.

Modern Times: The World From The Twenties to The Nineties – Paul Johnson

“Modern Times” is the story of the way ideology warped the 20^th century. Johnson shows the horrifying folly of attempts to remake humanity through utopianism.

Leftism Revisited: From de Sade And Marx to Hitler And Pol Pot – Erik Von Kuehnelt Leddin  

Traces the development of totalitarianism from the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, to communism, fascism, Nazism and beyond. Brilliant. Out-of-print, hard to find, but well worth the effort.

Men In Black: How The Supreme Court Is Destroying America – Mark Levin

Levin shows how an activist Supreme Court has deliberately distorted the Constitution and thumbed its nose at the Founding Fathers to enact the left’s social agenda. Here is one of best examinations of judicial tyranny and how the Court is transforming a republic into an oligarchy.

John Adams – David McCullough

After Washington, the greatest of the Class of ’76 but, until recently, the forgotten founder. He was also the father of American conservatism. (Okay, Hamilton had something to do with it too.) McCullough’s biography does justice to his subject.

Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution – Simon Schama

Shows how all of the horrors of the 20^th. century – communism, fascism, mass propaganda, total warfare, the police state, genocide, deification of the nation, race or party -- had their roots in Revolutionary France, the greatest tragedy of the modern age. Read it with Edmund Burke’s “Reflections On The Revolution In France.”

Who Are We: The Challenges to America’s National Identity – Samuel P. Huntington

The author demonstrates that from its founding, America has been – and should remain – a Christian nation based on British tradition (Anglo-centric). He makes a well-reasoned case against those factors under-mining our national identity – illegal immigration, the assault on English and multiculturalism.

America Alone: The End of The World As We Know It – Mark Steyn

Exposes the roots of the terrorist war on civilization. Shows the evil that animates Jihad, as well as the demographic war being waged against the West.