Political Book List, 9-16-2010 (Part Two)

[Continued from Political Book List, 9-16-2010 (Part One). sch 4/5/23.]

4. Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater. This is the root of modern American conservatism. Everyone my age and younger may be surprised at the amount of space given to Communism. They will probably also have the same reaction I had when I read the book in law school: how poor Goldwater was as a prophet.

5. The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Dubois. I never finished reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X and never started Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery, but I was not sure how much else there was to learn after this slim book. Barack Obama or not, Dubois still has things to teach all of America. I know his later career later soured into anger and disillusionment, but he was a fellow who knew not how to play the victim.

6. Winston Churchill's History of the English-speaking World. We can dispute his political prowess, but I will defend him as a historian with a grand style of writing. I will go further and assert his success in World War Two came out of his knowledge of history. We get a different slant on American history - Churchill wrote the Monroe Doctrine depended on it s success upon the agreement of the Royal Navy. Yes, I know of his attitudes towards India and Ireland and the Dardanelles.

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[Continued in Political Book List, 9-16-2010 (Part Three). sch 4/5/23.]