Conservative Reading

Recommended Reading

This list of books is only a sampling of the best books available to help you balance your education with conservative ideas. The titles listed represent a wide range of topics and difficulty levels, but all are worth reading.

Many of the books purchased through the Foundation's website help support our cause. In association with the Conservative Book Service and Amazon.com, please use the below links to some of the Conservative Movement's most influential books.

Young America's Foundation often recommends conservative books to students, as it did during this Great Books to Read In College Panel during the 2007 National Conservative Student Conference.
Purchase the DVD from C-SPAN

High School Recommended Reading

The Bible
The Declaration of Independence
Constitution of the United States
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Great American Conservative Women: A Collection of Speeches compiled by the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute
The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater
The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek
The Myth of the Robber Barrons by Burton W. Folsom, Jr.
The Federalist Papers by Hamilton, Madison, Jay
The Law by Frederic Bastiat
Letters to a Young Conservative by Dinesh D'Souza
Ronald Reagan by Libby Highes
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Animal Farm by George Orwell
1984 by George Orwell
The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck

General Recommended Reading

Biographies

A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell
Creating Equal: My Fight Against Racial Preferences by Ward Connerly
Miles Gone By by William F. Buckley
Two Lucky People by Milton and Rose Friedman
Nofziger by Lyn Nofziger
The Prince of Darkness by Robert Novak
Please see the Ronald Reagan section.

Communism

Suicide of the West by James Burnham
Witness by Whittaker Chambers
Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism by Peter Schweizer
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Conservatism

Great American Conservative Women: A Collection of Speeches by the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute
Letters to a Young Conservative by Dinesh D'Souza
The American Conservative Movement: The Philosophical Founders by Senator John P. East
The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater
The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot by Russell Kirk
The Portable Conservative Reader by Russell Kirk
See, I Told You So by Rush Limbaugh
The Way Things Ought To Be by Rush Limbaugh
In Defense of Freedom by Frank S. Meyer
The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America by George Nash
The City on a Hill by Michael Reagan

Culture

Death of the West by Patrick Buchanan
The Virtue of Prosperity: Finding Values in An Age of Techno-Affluence by Dinesh D'Souza
What's So Great About America by Dinesh D'Souza
Christianity and Culture by T.S. Eliot
America's Real War by Rabbi Daniel Lapin
Hollywood vs America by Michael Medved
Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats by Star Parker

Economics

The Seven Fat Years by Robert Bartley
Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School by Gene Callahan
Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman
The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek
Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell
Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
Human Action by Ludwig von Mises
In Defense of Global Capitalism by Johan Norberg
A History of Money and Banking in the United States by Murray Rothbard
America's Great Depression by Murray Rothbard
Man, Economy, and State by Murray Rothbard
The Power of Economic Thinking by Mark Skousen
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Education

God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley
Illiberal Education: Political Correctness and the College Experience by Dinesh D'Souza
Intellectuals by Paul Johnson
Professors by David Horowitz
The Shadow University by Alan Kors and Harvey Silvergate
The Diversity Myth by David Sacks and Peter Thiel
The Academy in Crisis edited by John Somme

Feminism

Great American Conservative Women: A Collection of Speeches by the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute
Feminist Fantasies by Phyllis Schlafly
The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers
Who Stole Feminism by Christina Hoff Sommers

Foundation Alumni

Why the Left Hates America by Daniel J. Flynn
Intellectual Morons by Daniel J. Flynn
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
Buck Wild by Stephen Slivinski
New Ideas from Dead CEOs by Todd Buchholz
Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism by Peter Schweizer
Victory: The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy that Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union by Peter Schweizer

Foundation Speakers back to top

Death of the West by Patrick Buchanan
Creating Equal by Ward Connerly
Godless by Ann Coulter
Slander by Ann Coulter
Never Again by Attorney General John Ashcroft
Crossfire by Major John Krenson
Fighting Back by Deena Burnett
Saddam's Secrets by Iraqi General Georges Sada
Illiberal Education by Dinesh D'Souza
What's So Great About America by Dinesh D'Souza
Showdown by Larry Elder
Ten Things You Can't Say in America by Larry Elder
The Myth of the Robber Barons by Burton W. Folsom, Jr.
Hating Whitey by David Horowitz
Uncivil Wars by David Horowitz
Hollywood vs America by Michael Medved
White Ghetto by Star Parker
Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity by John Stossel

Gun Rights back to top

That Every Man Be Armed by Stephen Halbrook
The Bias Against Guns by John R. Lott, Jr.
More Guns, Less Crime by John R. Lott, Jr.
God, Guns, and Rock 'N' Roll by Ted Nugent
The Best Defense by Robert Waters
Guns Save Lives by Robert Water

History (United States)

Declaration of Independence
Constitution of the United States
Congress and the American Tradition by James Burnham
The Roosevelt Myth by John T. Flynn
The Myth of the Robber Barons by Burton W. Folsom, Jr.
The Federalist Papers by Hamilton, Madison, Jay
Crisis and Leviathan by Robert Higgs
A History of the American People by Paul Johnson
A Patriot's History of the United States by Schweikart and Allen
Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville
How Capitalism Saved America by Thomas DiLorenzo

History (World)

Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke
Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism by Joshua Muravchik
The Last Lion by William Manchester
The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell

Immigration back to top