Are there any books by conservatives that liberals should read?

[BurtWorm]

I doubt it.

[JimmyJazz]

1. Worse than Watergate by John Dean - it's a look at the Bush

Administration. I highly recommend it.

[NuttyFluffers]

23. i liked it too, but is it really conservative?

perhaps the bar has moved so far into the ractionary camp that any
nuance of bias just kind of drifted past me.

[JimmyJazz]

24. He was on the talk show circuit yesterday and he sounded

pretty conservative to me. So, the fact that it's so scathing AND written by a conservative is pretty telling. But, you are certainly correct in that it does not have the normal conservative spin on it.

[NuttyFluffers]

28. he is a republican if i don't make a mistake.

but he's a 1970's republican, as in sane by comparison to these bunch of modern yahoos. he actually believed the constitution and statesmanship.

schaifly, buckley jr, et al were from the 50s on and their type of fascist garbage is what i normally consider conservative. in fact buckly jr was a young'un in the movement considering the assholes from the 10s-40s who wanted fascist take over of the usa. i consider those sick bastards, torch bearers of the robber barons, who never really left us, as the true conservative movement. those evil people are the ones that i define as the reactionary right, the ones who craved this sort of power, who wanted to play these stupid, nation-destroying games, as the real right who we now face today. these domestic terrorists have been with us far too long.

everyone else, those who respect the constitution and statesmanship, is just "more or less progressive" sane people right now in my book. they have no desire to destroy everything and replace it with something more insidious, be it theocracy, fascism, or neo-feudalism. they just seem either more or less misguided on some issues is all.

[iamjoy]

2. Any Of Them

Know your enemy
And if nothing else, some of them are good for a laugh.

Just make sure you get it from the library, no point in giving them money.

[BurtWorm]

4. I tried to read Ayn Rand.

:shrug:

Didn't do a thing for me.

[Zorra]

3. Mein Kampf.

Genuine, detailed insight into the conservative thought process and belief system.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Touchdown]

11. That's what he called himself, but he was a fascist.

The more accurate term for his actions and the policies of the Third Reich were fascist, which renders national socialism a term that has no meaning. It's a common misperception, that just because someone names themselves something, doesn't make it so. Stalin was no communist, he was an autocrat. The Deutsch Democratic Republic has all the right words in it, so why was it as far from a real representative democracy as it could possibly be?

National Socialism was an orwellian term before 'orwellian' was invented.

[ElkHunter]

22. Hitler was no socialist...

...but he was politically saavy enough to adopt the vocabulary and trappings of the socialist movement, which was very popular in Germany during the rise of the nazi party. The German Social Democratic party and the German Communist party were major political players in the late 1920's and early 1930's. As a matter of fact, had not Stalin prevented the German Communists from making common cause with the Social Democrats, the two parties could have banded together to stop Hitler from taking power.

[yurbud]

14. Chapter on "War Propaganda" is especially useful

to understand Rove method.

[Just Me]

5. "Blinded by the Right", "The Price of Loyalty", ummmm,...

,...geez, my brain is stuck. I know there are others but they just aren't coming forward.

[BurtWorm]

8. I suppose some would say Kevin Phillips' books, too.

And Gary Wills', and Michael Lind's. But those don't really count. I'm talking about books that argue a conservative point of view.

Maybe Hobbes? I could see reading Hobbes. And Shakespeare, who's a kind of conservative. But I can't stomach contemporary American conservatives.

[NuttyFluffers]

25. liked "price of loyalty" too

the economics at the beginning was pretty conservative, especially between him and greenspan about SS. but towards the end there seems to have been an apotheosis highlighting personal revelation during his trip to africa with bono. also his pragmatism was thoroughly out of sync with the psychos and sycophants in the higher circles of power. even seemed to have turned around alcoa around by implementing more sensible and progressive management, deviating from the milton friedman nonsense that now passes for religion in business and economic majors now.

maybe i'm giving the book too much credit as being more liberal than even the characters would admit, perhaps it is officially a conservative book. but all the sane and correct actions, for which a few characters were sacrificed for taking a stand, were more liberal than conservative, at least to me. perhaps the spectrum is so far off to the right that i'm having difficulty keeping things wholly segregated.

[MisterP]

7. Hamilton

Adam Smith wasn't what the Randroids make him out to be, so he doesn't count

[LSdemocrat]

9. I don't know about books, but do read conservative columnists

Not the complete nut jobs like Mona Charen or Jonah Goldberg, but more reasoned ones like David Brooks and George Will provide insights into the conservative world.

Come to think of it, David Gergen's book, "Eyewitness to Power" is a pretty good book on recent presidents.

[TahitiNut]

10. "Slouching Toward Gomorrah" by Robert Bork

It shows how deep-seated and contorted the right-wing resents the "hippies" of the 60's. By far, the "Age of Aquarius" was more about loving humanity and awakening a spiritual understanding in people than it was about sybaritic pleasures, but the anger and hostility Bork demonstrates betrays a truly atrophied soul. Propelled by a considerable intellect, he shows a bankruptcy of spirit that's truly appalling, as though viewing events through some obscene fun-house mirror of his own twisted psyche.

[fishwax]

16. Your last sentence is quite a nice summary

bork is such a waste :puke:

[oasis]

20. Methinks Bork didn't "get any" during the sexual revolution.

:nopity:

[TahitiNut]

30. Well, whatever he "got" he sure didn't "give back" while 'getting' it.

While I understand it's a common phrasing, I have absolutely no patience with any portrayal of love-making as 'getting some' - whether that be a 'piece' or whatever. Especially as a male, I regard that meme as sexist and (literally) disgusting - for me, a total turn-off. Literally. Not even al dente.

Maybe I'm some sort of throwback, but I'm quite incapable (anatomically/biologically/psychologically) of making love with a gal when it's not fully two-way. Always have been. Always will be. (Just not willing to admit it when I was younger.)

I have a strong suspicion that I'm a polar opposite to Bork. He seems to me to be a repressed rapist. (Who knows? Maybe he's not always repressed.)

[Hardrada]

12. The Education of Henry Adams (by HA)

Books by Russell Kirk, lit essays by Irving Babbitt. These are cultural conservatives and incorporate some values such as honoring traditions and individuality which modern "conservatives" have quite discarded. H.L. Mencken could be considered one of these also. An impatience with what we now would call a Walmartizing levelling and vulgarity and a praise of good taste in music and art. Nothing wrong with that.

[0rganism]

13. "The Prince", by Niccollo Machiavelli

One of the classics of political gamesmanship from a 15th-century monarchist

[BurtWorm]

15. What Is To Be Done? by V.I. Lenin

;) (Just wanted to give a few wingers apoplexy.)

[RandomKoolzip]

17. "Rock and the Pop Narcotic" by Joe Carducci

[Toots]

18. Who Owns America by Walter J Hickel

He was Secretary of Interior to Nixon and Nixon fired him for his stand against the oil companies. It is a very insightful book and every American should read it. Hickel was very conservative but this book is remarkably Liberal leaning when it comes to environment and corruption in government.

[slor]

19. People have offered great suggestions, but I ask this...

Please do NOT buy the books. Get them at your local library...no sense in giving the other side your money.

[NuttyFluffers]

21. nothing modern is worth reading, really...

and all the 'classics' are essential to understanding modern thought. but often, outside of mein kampf and a few others, none of them are really "worth it" or truly "conservative" in the modern sense. some were just cold realists (or marginally progressive) for their time -- like machiavelli, in his context no one could really imagine a political structure outside of the monarchy/emperor/papal system they lived in. in fact he's disgust with mercenaries is surprisingly liberal defense of the state over elite self-preservation of their sick and sad little games.

once you take historical context into account a lot of the better "conservative" classics are a lot more progressive than we moderns give them credit for. and then there's the short-sighted idiots and truly demoniac, ie. rand and hitler respectively; they should be read, but only to understand how thoroughly flawed views of reality can germinate and spread.

but most modern stuff is crap. i wouldn't call 'blinded by the right' conservative, more like coming-of-age/apologia by brock. 'bias' by goldberg is just utter crap, along with what drivel i read from william bennett and ann coulter and others.

[ElkHunter]

26. Several years ago I subscribed to the Weekly Standard...

...just to keep abreast of neo-con thinking. Likewise, I used to listen to Limbaugh and Medved on a regular basis just so I'd know that the other side was saying. In retrospect, I now believe it was a big waste of my time. There is nothing these pukes have to say that is worth considering. Rather, I believe it's much more important that we are grounded in our issues than understanding theirs. There are just too many good liberal/left books available that deserve consideration rather than wasting time on right wing drivel.

[alfredo]

27. Imperial Hubris, Worse Than Watergate.

[sweetheart]

29. Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" and "the Fountainhead"

Ayn Rand was one of Greenspan's mentors and has an interesting fantasy
world that can at least be engrossing reading for a while, as her
writing style is ok.

Atlas strugged, in particular, is an interesting future. Unlike more
modern works like "soylent Green" that are chillingly accurate of our
world, she paints a world where everyone is a "sheeple". The world is
goin' ta shit, because the sheeple can't think for themselves, and
the situation has gotten so extreme, that the few persons who could
make a difference have rebelled.

The book is about a rebellion where the best and the brightest decide
not to upkeep the sheeple culture, so they just bugger off and form
their own world. Its an "i got mine, so i'm out." sort of culture.
In this regard, she has captured the republican present rather well,
except that THEY are the sheeple culture from which we hope wiser
persons are pulling out.

Indeed she makes the point, that why should a wiser, smarter person,
help support the fallacy of a stupid sheeple world (and in her books,
this world is benign, much different than they tyrrany of the nazi
republicans). I can't say the books really amount to a philosophy,
and was always a bit suprised that people extended the lustful
romantic novels to hard philosophy... but then again, she wrote
for sheeple, and surely as she's turning in her grave, she is the
champion of the average trailer trash. John Gault and Rourke are
certainly not republicans by any stretch of the imagination... so
the irony, that her heros are democrats, liberals, persons of
enlightened sovereign individualism.

How conservatives claim it has something to do with them, i've no idea.

[Lannes]

31. FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression

I didnt agree with his premise but it was interesting to read an opposing point of view.