Your essential book list for politics.

[WillowTree]

Decision Points.

 

[WillowTree]

Valley Forge.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

communist manifesto

atlas shrugged

on the wealth of nations

The Wealth of Nations is a gigantic tome, so I don't know too many 16 or 14 year olds that want to read that. Cantillon's Essay might be better.

good points, but those three books give widely differing opinions on politics/economics (which are both intertwined greatly anyway) and would give a pretty good overview of things.

Yes, but my point is that they can get the same ideas as from Smith, and even better honestly, from Cantillon's more accessible Essay.

 

[Mr. Peepers]

1. The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
The Shock Doctrine | Naomi Klein

2. American Creation
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/American-Creation-Triumphs-Tragedies-Founding/dp/030726369X]Amazon.com: American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic (9780307263698): Joseph J. Ellis: Books[/ame]

3. Failed States
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Failed-States-Abuse-Assault-Democracy/dp/0805079122]Amazon.com: Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy (9780805079128): Noam Chomsky: Books[/ame]

These are three of my favorite.

 

[midcan5]

Yuk! What boring choices in OP, no wonder kids hate history. Give them some meat and reality, narrative, story, and the people who lived it - not mindless propaganda and stuff written so long ago only political nerds and historians can read behind the words to the context of those times. These three are excellent.

Three best on History: The first is long but enough narrative to give a real sense of American history.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Glory-Dream-Narrative-History-1932-1972/dp/0553345893/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972 (9780553345896): William Manchester: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-P-S/dp/0061965588/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: A People's History of the United States (P.S.) (9780061965586): Howard Zinn: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Great-Crash-1929-Kenneth-Galbraith/dp/0547248164/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Great Crash 1929 (9780547248165): John Kenneth Galbraith: Books[/ame]


And this is good and at their level for the constitution: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/U-S-Constitution-Everyone-Perigee-Book/dp/0399513051/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The U.S.Constitution for Everyone (Perigee Book) (9780399513053): Jerome B. Agel, Mort Gerberg: Books[/ame]


And essays to make any child or adult think. [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Night-Large-Collected-Essays-1938-1995/dp/0312169493/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Night Is Large: Collected Essays, 1938-1995 (9780312169497): Martin Gardner: Books[/ame]

One more on ideas as ideas rule the mind. [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Mind-Intellectual-History-Century/dp/0060084383/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century (9780060084387): Peter Watson: Books[/ame]

 

[Mr. Peepers]

atlas shrugged

Um, that is fiction.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

atlas shrugged

Um, that is fiction.

So are a lot of books on politics.

 

[Avatar4321]

atlas shrugged

Um, that is fiction.

So is your political philosophy.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Unless you have the life experience to go along with reading...it will do them no good.
A 14 year old reading most of these books will fall asleep before he/she turns the first page.
You want your child to learn?
Read newspapers, watch the news. Talk about what they see.
Get them to volunteer over the summer, get a paper route etc.

The books are okay once they attain an age where they can even begin to understand them - let alone apply what they read to the real world...which you need to be at least 30 to do so.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Unless you have the life experience to go along with reading...it will do them no good.
A 14 year old reading most of these books will fall asleep before he/she turns the first page.
You want your child to learn?
Read newspapers, watch the news. Talk about what they see.
Get them to volunteer over the summer, get a paper route etc.

The books are okay once they attain an age where they can even begin to understand them - let alone apply what they read to the real world...which you need to be at least 30 to do so.

No, you don't.

 

[Mr. Peepers]

So are a lot of books on politics.

I think the OP is asking for real history books with researchable sources, not neocon soft porn...

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

So are a lot of books on politics.

I think the OP is asking for real history books with researchable sources, not neocon soft porn...

Now Ayn Rand is a neocon?

 

[Mr. Peepers]

So is your political philosophy.

Huh? You don't even know what my political philosophy is. Why are you getting so bent out of shape... Atlas shrugged is fiction, is it not? The OP is asking for HISTORY BOOKS.

 

[jillian]

I know you said three, but you really can't do Locke without Hobbes and neither of the other two should be left out.

On Liberty ... John Stewart Mill
Democracy in America... Alexis De Toqueville
Two Treatises of Government ... John Locke
The Leviathan ... Thomas Hobbes

 

[Mr. Peepers]

Now Ayn Rand is a neocon?

Did I say that, or did I say that that her book was soft porn for neocons - which it is? You guys need to hold off on history books until you master reading comprehension.

 

[jillian]

So are a lot of books on politics.

I think the OP is asking for real history books with researchable sources, not neocon soft porn...

Now Ayn Rand is a neocon?

As a "political philosopher" Ayn Rand is a good novelist. No one should take the "poiltical philosophy" of her work seriously.

 

[jillian]

Unless you have the life experience to go along with reading...it will do them no good.
A 14 year old reading most of these books will fall asleep before he/she turns the first page.
You want your child to learn?
Read newspapers, watch the news. Talk about what they see.
Get them to volunteer over the summer, get a paper route etc.

The books are okay once they attain an age where they can even begin to understand them - let alone apply what they read to the real world...which you need to be at least 30 to do so.

30? Don't you think that's a bit excessive. Most students of political philosophy start readings in high school which they then continue in college.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Now Ayn Rand is a neocon?

Did I say that, or did I say that that her book was soft porn for neocons - which it is? You guys need to hold off on history books until you master reading comprehension.

You're right. I jumped the gun on that one.

 

[Mr. Peepers]

As a "political philosopher" Ayn Rand is a good novelist. No one should take the "poiltical philosophy" of her work seriously.

I did get a kick out of how all her big, rich & manly "producers" who are sick of "carrying" the dreaded, EVIL society create their own little utopian commune at the end... I wonder if the righties even see the delicious irony of that...

 

[jillian]

As a "political philosopher" Ayn Rand is a good novelist. No one should take the "poiltical philosophy" of her work seriously.

I did get a kick out of how all her big, rich & manly "producers" who are sick of "carrying" the dreaded, EVIL society create their own little utopian commune at the end... I wonder if the righties even see the delicious irony of that...

that is an interesting question.

i'm thinking not. and don't get me wrong, her novels were a good, no great, read...

but so was dickens.