Hey Steemit, what political books should college students read? [dTube]

in #news7 years ago


Question from a viewer, and it's a good one. If only more people were ASKING this question, it would be a good thing. What are you thoughts, what political books should every college student read to develop a sense of the world?


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Assuming we want college/university students to get a well-rounded education and information to make the choice of what they agree with and what they don’t, it’s probably a good idea to give them books from various perspectives and then let them sort out how they feel about it, in addition to some “survey” books that give a broad outline of various topics.

So I’d suggest the following (in no particular order and with the understanding that with some of these m, I,personally, disagree with almost every word found in the book):

  1. Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey - History of Political Philosophy (Great as a broad outline)

  2. Daniel Drezner - Theories of International Politics and Zombies (Another great and attention-keeping general outline)

  3. Pauline Maier - Ratification - The People Debate the Constitution: 1787 - 1788 (A great book that gives a broad and relatively objective outline of the beginnings of the U.S. Constitution, and so touches on American history of politics, intersection of law and politics, etc...)

  4. John Rawls - A Theory of Justice to be read in conjunction with, Robert Nozick - Anarchy, State, and Utopia (Great as a combination to understand competing political philosophies and their fundamentals and foundations)

  5. Carl Schmidtt - The Concept of the Political (He was a piece of garbage human being and his ideas, out of context, are silly. But this is an important book for understanding how political philosophy can work, and provides a unique perspective on politics.

  6. Richard Posner - Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy (A kind of “4th way” in addition to the the broad concepts promoted by Rawls, Nozick, and Schmidt.

  7. And then probably throw some stuff in their like Hayek’s Constitution of Liberty, Proudhon’s What is Property, the Federslist and Anti-federalist papers, some modern political science general textbook, and then maybe some sort of world history that also touches on political science. Finally, throw in some economic history articles or short books from various schools of thought (some Murray Rothbard, some Karl Marx, some Henry George, some Milton Friedman, and some Keynes, and then at least one book that gives a good world history outline, with a little bit of everything and extensive bibliographies.

And your curriculum is set.

Teachers and curriculum builders feel free to consult with me, my advice is literally free.

:)

Super interesting list!

everything by Orwell and Joseph Heller.

-Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, For moochers and looters
-The Law, Frederic Bastiat, Don't break glass just for the sake of breaking glass
-The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, How to treat your political enemies and all those with whom you disagree.
-1984, George Orwell, What's Big Brother doing?
-The Road To Serfdom, Hayek, The Great Utopia?
-The Lost Science of Money, Stephen Zarlenga, The mythology of money, the story of power.

I knew someone would suggest 1984. Wasn't sure if David was only looking for textbooks but hey, nothing wrong with being entertained while you're learning. If you can call reading about a dystopian future entertaining. Hopefully folks actually ready the book and don't just watch the movie.

My answer would be, to read different books with opposing views. Read Marx, read Rand, read about the history of democracy, how politics evolved... essentially, all systems advocate for a better world, but they are not always compatible with human nature or the environment, that's why i would also include books about evolutionary psychology and environmental science in there too.

Great ideas

For me "political" is very vague. I would personally start with philosophy then cultural anthropology. Read and re-read. I agree with ankapolo about reading a variety of POV .. most people would suggest mein kampf because Hitler almost took over the world and convinced masses of people to murder. But if you do that also read other, lesser known leaders that have been prolific and/or damaging.

There is actually a great bookstore in Boston (since you are apparently in Boston)

http://lucyparsons.org/

I dont know how many of your followers are in Boston but they should def go there to read about lesser know revolutionaries. They might not have taken over the world but if you ask me, taking over a country when you are dirt poor is a lot more prolific.

Obviously I think one should also read from a feminist view point.

start here
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfjp20/current

I think so book written by mechavlie is ever importent to understand the politics its name is "the prince" one must read it to get idea about politics.

I think Animal Farm or 1984 might be some interesting reads for this day and age.

those both used to be required reading in High school

There's almost never a week goes by but that something happens to remind me of one or the other. True classics. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

I actually majored in political science for my undergrad. I wish I would have read those books back then. Not as much free thinking going on in universities as you'd think.

Animal farm... necessity.
48 laws of power..

you are saying that reading of political books helps us with a good sense of the world?

"Democracy the god that failed"

by Hans Hermann Hoppe !

great post but in reality college students don't open his college books until examination. so how they will read these books anyhow thank u @davidpakman

I guess answers to this question is on Google and libraries. But views and ideas from learned fellows would still be of great help to students on politics

This is a tough question. The 2 main problems I see are that a true political foundation requires a great many books, and the average college student isn't going to get through a single one of them, let alone the full catalogue. That said, I think if I had to pinpoint a single book that I wish every college student would read, it would be Bastiat's The Law. It has a great ratio of insightful ideas to page numbers, which is crucial for people who aren't looking to invest too much time or energy.

its a great video.this video is full of information about books.good job

Not saying this replaces reading the great political thinkers of yore, but going through Wikipedia is actually not a bad start to get sort of an "abridged" overview.

Not exactly political..... But I always suggest "Economics in One Lesson" by Hazlitt.

Rich Dad Poor Dad should be one of them :) To know how a rich and poor person use their money for.

You should read Gustave Le Bon's The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (Psychology of Crowds).

awesome post !!! i wanted to avoid an echo-chamber of literature, this list helped a lot... i ordered john rawls book few min ago

Human Action by Ludwig von Mises

Legacy of Ashes from Tim Weiner, Pulitzer price winner. That's for CIA.
Diplomacy from Henry Kissinger.

Why government matters from Ron Swanson - this one summs it up quite well.

No, it's not a waste of tax payer money to try to pass legislation. Passing legislation is their job. It would be self defeating to give up on their duty to pass laws for the benefit of their constituency just because of Trump and the House. If Trump and the House would stop anything good, would it be worth fighting for the good still or a waste?

nice post on politics
politician is a great person
we should respect them because they work for the country
thanks for sharing

Here's a tip @beautybox - your comments are spammy. If you like the post and don't have anything to say just upvote it. If you want people to upvote your comments say something original that adds to the conversation.

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