For Belinda: a Starter’s Reading List
Early histories of Western Civilization:
Most people, generally, ignore these earlier peoples and their histories. Both Commentaries and Thucydides are filled with policies, histories, and biographies that are still relevant, and have been since before they were written. Thucydides in particular is a blueprint of how to both succeed and fail in government & war. The fact that it starts with an explanation of how these wars started, a how to and how not to execute diplomacy, and ends with the destruction of Athens, and why they lost, is more instructive than Sun Tzu’s Art of War will ever be. Commentaries is a further exploration on how to win and lose, and both are extraordinarily relevant in our nuclear age.[1]
Cæsar, Julius: The Landmark Julius Cæsar: The Complete Works ISBN 978-0-307-45544-4
Referred to by some as ‘Cæsar’s Commentaries,’ includes Gallic War[2] and Civil War. I prefer the Landmark series for all sorts of reasons, primarily that they are annotated and have maps placing all of the locations in place for easy reference. So much explanation by the editors in the margins that other source materials are unnecessary, not even a dictionary or glossary.
Thucydides: The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to The Peloponnesian War ISBN 978-1-4165-9087-3
Like Commentaries, the Landmark people have made this an easily readable and understandable piece of work. Even better, they got Dr. Victor Davis Hanson to do the introduction.
Tacitus: The Annals of Imperial Rome ISBN 0-14-044060-7
Tacitus’ last work covers Rome from ~55 AD to ~117 AD, this is the period leading up to the fall. It ends with Nero’s death.
Herodotus: The Histories ISBN 1-59308-102-2
Describes the rise of Greece and the creation of the city-states from an agricultural & subsistence society into the civilization foundations for contract law and banking systems and to the fount of Western philosophy, including the concepts of democracy, free trade, and social equality. May be the first surviving Western history book. Some think that the pieces he wrote about Egypt were foisted on him by guides as the Egyptian locals may have thought of him as a simplistic tourist rather than a serious historian.
Everitt, Anthony: Cicero; the life and times of Rome’s greatest politician ISBN 978-0-375-75895-9
Exactly what it says: a well-researched biography of Cicero, one of the greatest orators, politicians, and jurists of Western Civilization.
Early colonies & the War of 1776, “The Revolutionary War”
Rothbard, Murray N.: Conceived in Liberty ISBN 978-1-933550-98-5
Five volumes in two books, tenth grade level reading skills, available in hardback and paperback at www.mises.org/store . The Mises Institute is the premiere Austrian School of Economics proponent in the U.S. It is located at the University of Alabama, Auburn. Conceived in Liberty covers from the first settlements, the 17th Century, through the new republic, 1791.
McCullough, David: 1776 ISBN 0-7432-2671-2
One volume, tenth grade read.
Middlekauff, Robert: The Glorious Cause ISBN 0-19-503575-5
One volume, another tenth grade read. About the revolution.
Several good intermediate level, 12th grade reads:
DiLorenzo, Thomas J.: Hamilton’s Curse ISBN 978-0-307-38285-6
“How Jefferson’s Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution – and What It Means for Americans Today,” quote from the dust cover.
Maier, Pauline: Ratification; The People Debate the Constitution, 1787 – 1788 ISBN 978-0-684-86854-7
Prof. Maier went to the original source documents of all of the ratification conventions and states legislatures to figure out what happened. Of particular interest to me, Mark Levin & Pete Hegseth notwithstanding, is the number of states that insisted that the right to secede, as evidenced by the secession conventions of 1776, 1814, 1826, and 1860 be acknowledged by all member states.
Tuchman, Barbara W.: The Shot Heard Around the World (can’t find my copy)
Mason, Matthew: Slavery & Politics in the Early American Republic ISBN 978-0-8078-3049-9
Discusses how slavery impacted early American politics. Definitely not read by the 1619 Project proponents, nor anyone in the NAACP or the Democratic Party.
Lefkowitz, Mary: Not Out of Africa ISBN 0-465-09838-X
Noted Egyptologist refutes all of the nonsense about African-American oral histories and their attachment to Egyptian Civilization
The War of 1861, “The Civil War” or “The American Civil War” to differentiate it from the other civil wars, such as the English “War of the Roses” and the “Spanish Civil War” which usually only refers to the one in the 1930’s.
Foote, Shelby: The Civil War: a narrative ISBN 0-394-74623-6
Three volumes in paperback, about 1,000 pp each, tenth grade level reading skills, available on Amazon.
Hillsdale college, www.hillsdale.edu has numerous DVDs on both subjects as well as some biblical studies. They are on-line for study at your own pace. They are free upon request, and you may be interested in their speaker series letter Imprimus, also no charge although they would like donations.
Another DVD source, not as a good in my opinion but still having good source material is the Smithsonian Institution’s The Great Courses DVD series which are on just about everything including how to play the guitar, yoga, &c. TGC DVD’s generally run from $29.99 to $499.99 depending upon the material. I’ve found their ‘books of distinction’ series to have good reviews and analyses of these works, for the purpose of this introductory reading list, they have an understandable set on The Federalist Papers.
For a better understanding of the constitution and what originalism is all about, you must read both The Federalist Papers and The Anti-Federalist Papers. Keeping in mind that ratification and the Bill of Rights would not exist without both of these sets of pamphlets.
In the Hillsdale series is one of particular note: The Skeptic’s Guide to American History. The Hillsdale people also have hard copy workbooks & guides to go with their DVDs, but you have to pay for them. If you are serious, getting the guides and workbooks is worth the small price requested. Otherwise, just hearing the non-woke histories is worth the time spent in watching them.
Intermediate level works are too numerous to list, but include any of the works of William Freehling, Thomas DiLorenzo, Mark E. Neely, Jr., Forrest McDonald, Eric Foner, and of special note is:
Kennedy, James R., Kennedy, Walter D.: The South Was Right ISBN 1-56554-024-7
Reviled and repudiated by The Left, especially the rabid racists, includes a summation of the 1860 U.S. census showing the actual ethnic breakdown of slaves in the country; the number of Native-Americans in slavery (~40%), Chinese (~3%), and Whites (~1%, mostly of Irish descent in the Union slave states of MD, DE, and MO).
Both of these time periods have many good works where the author went to the original source materials. Look especially for an historian from Southern universities as they are more interested in truth than fostering the Northern perspective. A recent work on the duplicity of the Northern aggression is:
Addicott, Jeffrey F. (Lt. Col. U.S. Army; BA, JD, LLM [2], SJD): Union Terror 978-1-94766-0-823
Pretty much details how the Union Army raped, pillaged, and burnt its way through the South for the sole purpose of looting the country-side. Sherman bragged at a post war re-union of his army how they took North over $100,000,000.00 in loot and how they destroyed even more of The South. Keep in mind that the Federal budget of the early 19th Century shows that The South contributed over 75% of Federal revenue while The North received over 75% of it in the form of economic development, mostly of railroads and canals.
Economics
I know of no basic/simple economics books, but readable starters are more about history than PPM (purchasing power of money) or MMT (Modern Monetary Theory – which by-the-by is simply a repackaging of 19th century Marxist Chartelism theory, so loved by AOC & Bernie), so,
Mises, Ludwig von: Omnipotent Government; The Anti-Capitalist Mentality; Theory and History; Liberalism, the classic tradition, his magnum opus is Human Action, but don’t go there before reading the shorter works.
The Mises Institute has all sorts of pamphlets that they’ll send for no or little charge. They include works on money (Rothbard: What Has Government Done to Our Money; Hulsmann: How Inflation Destroys Civilization; Salerno: The Progressive Road to Socialism), government, and moral philosophy (Hoppe: Social Democracy).
Boettke, Peter J., Coyne, Christopher J.: The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics ISBN 978-0-19-981176-2
Essays and articles on the school of Austrian Economics. Not for beginners, but an essential read for those interested in economics beyond the supply/demand curve and simple banking. Especially good for those who want to learn more about marginal utility and human action.
For the issue of slavery, first read Foote, then go to:
Thomas, Hugh: The Slave Trade
Adams, Charles: Slavery, Secession, & Civil War
Loads more when you’re ready, especially works by The Founding Fathers. Things like how they were so opposed to troops being quartered in the homes of private citizens, a common practice from before the Roman Republic, how during The Ratification conventions, three states refused in conclave to ratify the 1787 Constitution (the one that we still have) unless everyone understood that they could leave the union at any time that they wanted to leave, (Mark Levin & Pete Hegseth notwithstanding), and how there was a secession movement by the New England states in 1814, and by South Carolina in 1826, and the Deep South in the 1850’s.
Of further interest on the causes of the American Civil War, is the 1850’s Supreme Court decision Scott vs Davis a.k.a. The Dred Scott Decision. SCOTUS declared that slaves were property, and as such, fell under the private property restrictions of the constitution and as such, slaves were not protected by the constitution. Considering that at the time, ~58% of slaves were of African descent, importation of slaves forbidden around or before 1800, 38% Indians (“Native Americans”), 3% Chinese (working on the Pacific sections of the railroad) CA being a ‘free’ state the Chinese overseers/owners not bothering to tell their slaves that they were free, and 1% White (Irish mostly, “up North”), slavery wasn’t really about Race, but the economic stealing of the productivity of the individual, which still goes on today everywhere, including the stolen labor of the women and children, illegals, being trafficked here in the U.S.A.
When you look at events, trends, and movements in the historical context, it is my opinion that it is all based on wealth. Consider how from the economics viewpoint, the American Civil War was so unnecessary, wasteful, and destructive. With Robert Fulton’s steam engine doing so much work for so much less effort and cost, slavery as an economically feasible use of resources was rapidly dying. There were steam threshers, steam tractors, steam locomotives, and even steam carriages by 1860. Slavery in the border states was limited to personal/household slaves. Only in the Deep South were slaves still used, mostly for agriculture, which, if you look around today, picking crops is still mostly a human endeavor. Look at Hugo Chavez’ work in unionizing farm workers and what happened to him.
On the blog, www.justplainbill.wordpress.com there is a ten year old bibliography for further reading, if you’re interested. That list has hasn’t been updated to include some of the works listed above. Neither list has much of what I’d recommend as I simply haven’t gotten around to it, and I’m still woefully behind on my own reading and writing.
Anyhow, I’m dropping this off for you and will see you for trimming in August,
Yours,
Bill
©justplainbill 2024
Cite as A Starter’s Reading List, www.justplainbill.wordpress.com © 2024
[1] It’s interesting to note that prior to the 1946 G.I. Bill, and still in the U.K., a ‘liberal education’ meant that you learned Greek and Latin. In order to properly learn these ancient languages, students had to read all of these, and other works, in the original tongue, so, prior to the Korean War, a liberal education meant that you actually got an excellent education in business, government, and philosophy. Something no longer available in our CRT – DEI world.
[2] You’ve heard the opening: Gaul is divided into four parts.
Justplainbill's Weblog 
A Starter’s Reading List (for Belinda 7/10/24)
For Belinda: a Starter’s Reading List
Early histories of Western Civilization:
Most people, generally, ignore these earlier peoples and their histories. Both Commentaries and Thucydides are filled with policies, histories, and biographies that are still relevant, and have been since before they were written. Thucydides in particular is a blueprint of how to both succeed and fail in government & war. The fact that it starts with an explanation of how these wars started, a how to and how not to execute diplomacy, and ends with the destruction of Athens, and why they lost, is more instructive than Sun Tzu’s Art of War will ever be. Commentaries is a further exploration on how to win and lose, and both are extraordinarily relevant in our nuclear age.[1]
Cæsar, Julius: The Landmark Julius Cæsar: The Complete Works ISBN 978-0-307-45544-4
Referred to by some as ‘Cæsar’s Commentaries,’ includes Gallic War[2] and Civil War. I prefer the Landmark series for all sorts of reasons, primarily that they are annotated and have maps placing all of the locations in place for easy reference. So much explanation by the editors in the margins that other source materials are unnecessary, not even a dictionary or glossary.
Thucydides: The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to The Peloponnesian War ISBN 978-1-4165-9087-3
Like Commentaries, the Landmark people have made this an easily readable and understandable piece of work. Even better, they got Dr. Victor Davis Hanson to do the introduction.
Tacitus: The Annals of Imperial Rome ISBN 0-14-044060-7
Tacitus’ last work covers Rome from ~55 AD to ~117 AD, this is the period leading up to the fall. It ends with Nero’s death.
Herodotus: The Histories ISBN 1-59308-102-2
Describes the rise of Greece and the creation of the city-states from an agricultural & subsistence society into the civilization foundations for contract law and banking systems and to the fount of Western philosophy, including the concepts of democracy, free trade, and social equality. May be the first surviving Western history book. Some think that the pieces he wrote about Egypt were foisted on him by guides as the Egyptian locals may have thought of him as a simplistic tourist rather than a serious historian.
Everitt, Anthony: Cicero; the life and times of Rome’s greatest politician ISBN 978-0-375-75895-9
Exactly what it says: a well-researched biography of Cicero, one of the greatest orators, politicians, and jurists of Western Civilization.
Early colonies & the War of 1776, “The Revolutionary War”
Rothbard, Murray N.: Conceived in Liberty ISBN 978-1-933550-98-5
Five volumes in two books, tenth grade level reading skills, available in hardback and paperback at www.mises.org/store . The Mises Institute is the premiere Austrian School of Economics proponent in the U.S. It is located at the University of Alabama, Auburn. Conceived in Liberty covers from the first settlements, the 17th Century, through the new republic, 1791.
McCullough, David: 1776 ISBN 0-7432-2671-2
One volume, tenth grade read.
Middlekauff, Robert: The Glorious Cause ISBN 0-19-503575-5
One volume, another tenth grade read. About the revolution.
Several good intermediate level, 12th grade reads:
DiLorenzo, Thomas J.: Hamilton’s Curse ISBN 978-0-307-38285-6
“How Jefferson’s Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution – and What It Means for Americans Today,” quote from the dust cover.
Maier, Pauline: Ratification; The People Debate the Constitution, 1787 – 1788 ISBN 978-0-684-86854-7
Prof. Maier went to the original source documents of all of the ratification conventions and states legislatures to figure out what happened. Of particular interest to me, Mark Levin & Pete Hegseth notwithstanding, is the number of states that insisted that the right to secede, as evidenced by the secession conventions of 1776, 1814, 1826, and 1860 be acknowledged by all member states.
Tuchman, Barbara W.: The Shot Heard Around the World (can’t find my copy)
Mason, Matthew: Slavery & Politics in the Early American Republic ISBN 978-0-8078-3049-9
Discusses how slavery impacted early American politics. Definitely not read by the 1619 Project proponents, nor anyone in the NAACP or the Democratic Party.
Lefkowitz, Mary: Not Out of Africa ISBN 0-465-09838-X
Noted Egyptologist refutes all of the nonsense about African-American oral histories and their attachment to Egyptian Civilization
The War of 1861, “The Civil War” or “The American Civil War” to differentiate it from the other civil wars, such as the English “War of the Roses” and the “Spanish Civil War” which usually only refers to the one in the 1930’s.
Foote, Shelby: The Civil War: a narrative ISBN 0-394-74623-6
Three volumes in paperback, about 1,000 pp each, tenth grade level reading skills, available on Amazon.
Hillsdale college, www.hillsdale.edu has numerous DVDs on both subjects as well as some biblical studies. They are on-line for study at your own pace. They are free upon request, and you may be interested in their speaker series letter Imprimus, also no charge although they would like donations.
Another DVD source, not as a good in my opinion but still having good source material is the Smithsonian Institution’s The Great Courses DVD series which are on just about everything including how to play the guitar, yoga, &c. TGC DVD’s generally run from $29.99 to $499.99 depending upon the material. I’ve found their ‘books of distinction’ series to have good reviews and analyses of these works, for the purpose of this introductory reading list, they have an understandable set on The Federalist Papers.
For a better understanding of the constitution and what originalism is all about, you must read both The Federalist Papers and The Anti-Federalist Papers. Keeping in mind that ratification and the Bill of Rights would not exist without both of these sets of pamphlets.
In the Hillsdale series is one of particular note: The Skeptic’s Guide to American History. The Hillsdale people also have hard copy workbooks & guides to go with their DVDs, but you have to pay for them. If you are serious, getting the guides and workbooks is worth the small price requested. Otherwise, just hearing the non-woke histories is worth the time spent in watching them.
Intermediate level works are too numerous to list, but include any of the works of William Freehling, Thomas DiLorenzo, Mark E. Neely, Jr., Forrest McDonald, Eric Foner, and of special note is:
Kennedy, James R., Kennedy, Walter D.: The South Was Right ISBN 1-56554-024-7
Reviled and repudiated by The Left, especially the rabid racists, includes a summation of the 1860 U.S. census showing the actual ethnic breakdown of slaves in the country; the number of Native-Americans in slavery (~40%), Chinese (~3%), and Whites (~1%, mostly of Irish descent in the Union slave states of MD, DE, and MO).
Both of these time periods have many good works where the author went to the original source materials. Look especially for an historian from Southern universities as they are more interested in truth than fostering the Northern perspective. A recent work on the duplicity of the Northern aggression is:
Addicott, Jeffrey F. (Lt. Col. U.S. Army; BA, JD, LLM [2], SJD): Union Terror 978-1-94766-0-823
Pretty much details how the Union Army raped, pillaged, and burnt its way through the South for the sole purpose of looting the country-side. Sherman bragged at a post war re-union of his army how they took North over $100,000,000.00 in loot and how they destroyed even more of The South. Keep in mind that the Federal budget of the early 19th Century shows that The South contributed over 75% of Federal revenue while The North received over 75% of it in the form of economic development, mostly of railroads and canals.
Economics
I know of no basic/simple economics books, but readable starters are more about history than PPM (purchasing power of money) or MMT (Modern Monetary Theory – which by-the-by is simply a repackaging of 19th century Marxist Chartelism theory, so loved by AOC & Bernie), so,
Mises, Ludwig von: Omnipotent Government; The Anti-Capitalist Mentality; Theory and History; Liberalism, the classic tradition, his magnum opus is Human Action, but don’t go there before reading the shorter works.
The Mises Institute has all sorts of pamphlets that they’ll send for no or little charge. They include works on money (Rothbard: What Has Government Done to Our Money; Hulsmann: How Inflation Destroys Civilization; Salerno: The Progressive Road to Socialism), government, and moral philosophy (Hoppe: Social Democracy).
Boettke, Peter J., Coyne, Christopher J.: The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics ISBN 978-0-19-981176-2
Essays and articles on the school of Austrian Economics. Not for beginners, but an essential read for those interested in economics beyond the supply/demand curve and simple banking. Especially good for those who want to learn more about marginal utility and human action.
For the issue of slavery, first read Foote, then go to:
Thomas, Hugh: The Slave Trade
Adams, Charles: Slavery, Secession, & Civil War
Loads more when you’re ready, especially works by The Founding Fathers. Things like how they were so opposed to troops being quartered in the homes of private citizens, a common practice from before the Roman Republic, how during The Ratification conventions, three states refused in conclave to ratify the 1787 Constitution (the one that we still have) unless everyone understood that they could leave the union at any time that they wanted to leave, (Mark Levin & Pete Hegseth notwithstanding), and how there was a secession movement by the New England states in 1814, and by South Carolina in 1826, and the Deep South in the 1850’s.
Of further interest on the causes of the American Civil War, is the 1850’s Supreme Court decision Scott vs Davis a.k.a. The Dred Scott Decision. SCOTUS declared that slaves were property, and as such, fell under the private property restrictions of the constitution and as such, slaves were not protected by the constitution. Considering that at the time, ~58% of slaves were of African descent, importation of slaves forbidden around or before 1800, 38% Indians (“Native Americans”), 3% Chinese (working on the Pacific sections of the railroad) CA being a ‘free’ state the Chinese overseers/owners not bothering to tell their slaves that they were free, and 1% White (Irish mostly, “up North”), slavery wasn’t really about Race, but the economic stealing of the productivity of the individual, which still goes on today everywhere, including the stolen labor of the women and children, illegals, being trafficked here in the U.S.A.
When you look at events, trends, and movements in the historical context, it is my opinion that it is all based on wealth. Consider how from the economics viewpoint, the American Civil War was so unnecessary, wasteful, and destructive. With Robert Fulton’s steam engine doing so much work for so much less effort and cost, slavery as an economically feasible use of resources was rapidly dying. There were steam threshers, steam tractors, steam locomotives, and even steam carriages by 1860. Slavery in the border states was limited to personal/household slaves. Only in the Deep South were slaves still used, mostly for agriculture, which, if you look around today, picking crops is still mostly a human endeavor. Look at Hugo Chavez’ work in unionizing farm workers and what happened to him.
On the blog, www.justplainbill.wordpress.com there is a ten year old bibliography for further reading, if you’re interested. That list has hasn’t been updated to include some of the works listed above. Neither list has much of what I’d recommend as I simply haven’t gotten around to it, and I’m still woefully behind on my own reading and writing.
Anyhow, I’m dropping this off for you and will see you for trimming in August,
Yours,
Bill
©justplainbill 2024
Cite as A Starter’s Reading List, www.justplainbill.wordpress.com © 2024
[1] It’s interesting to note that prior to the 1946 G.I. Bill, and still in the U.K., a ‘liberal education’ meant that you learned Greek and Latin. In order to properly learn these ancient languages, students had to read all of these, and other works, in the original tongue, so, prior to the Korean War, a liberal education meant that you actually got an excellent education in business, government, and philosophy. Something no longer available in our CRT – DEI world.
[2] You’ve heard the opening: Gaul is divided into four parts.
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