End 🙂

19. Two books on the nature of the public intellectuals who lead our society:
Intellectuals by Paul Johnson
Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell

18. Three books on the philosophical underpinnings of our time:
The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama
Alexandre Kojève: Wisdom at the End of History by James Nichols
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche

17. History Has Begun: The Birth of a New America by Bruno Macaes -- on the country and culture the United States is evolving into, not necessarily decline, but something very different.

16. Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy by Richard Hanania -- a sobering reexamination of how democratic governments actually make decisions.

15. Two of Thomas Sowell's many brilliant books on how our current politics and culture came to be:
A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles
The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy

14. Two more books on who we are and how we got here, one on culture, the other on genetics:
The WEIRDest People In The World by Joseph Henrich
Who We Are And How We Got Here by David Reich

13. Two books on the evolution of modern culture and civic religion, both by John Murray Cuddihy:
No Offense: Civil Religion and Protestant Taste
Ordeal of Civility

12. The Power of the Powerless by Vaclav Havel -- the definitive work on practical life under totalitarianism.

11. The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz -- the definitive work on intellectual life under totalitarianism.

10. The True Believer by Eric Hoffer -- a brilliant book on the nature of mass movements and collective psychology.

9. Two books on fascism and anti-fascism, titled Fascism and Anti-Fascism respectively, both by Paul Gottfried.

8. A New World Begins by Jeremy Popkin, on the French Revolution.

7. A comprehensive biography and a key chronicle of Vladimir Lenin.
Lenin by Victor Sebestyen
Lenin On The Train by Catherine Merridale

6. Six books on the deep history of the American left.
The God That Failed by Richard Crossman
The Romance of American Communism by Vivian Gornick
Witness by Whittaker Chambers
Joseph McCarthy by Arthur Herman
Days of Rage by Bryan Burrough
Radical Chic by Tom Wolfe

5. Two comprehensive biographies of Adolf Hitler.
Hitler: A Global Biography by Brendan Simms
Hitler: Ascent and Hitler: Downfall by Volker Ullrich

4. Six books on the deep history of the American right.
Lindbergh by Scott Berg
The Ambassador by Susan Ronald
The Guarded Gate by Daniel Okrent
The Second Coming of the KKK by Linda Gordon
War For Eternity by Benjamin Teitelbaum
The New Right by Michael Malice

3. Four books on the Spanish Civil War, which was the trial run for the hundred years of Western history that followed.
The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
Spain In Our Hearts by Adam Hochschild
Mine Were Of Trouble by Peter Kemp

2. The Machiavellians, and The Managerial Revolution, by James Burnham -- together, the best explanation for the current structure of our society and politics.