[PenultimateManStanding]

No. 1 : Churchill's The Second World War Never have read this one though I certainly would want to make time for it. No. 2 The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn. I did read this one; stunning.

Here's some of the others
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')HE LIST:
1. The Second World War, Winston S. Churchill
Brookhiser: "The big story of the century, told by its major hero."

2. The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
Neuhaus: "Marked the absolute final turning point beyond which nobody could deny the evil of the Evil Empire."

3. Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell
Herman: "Orwell's masterpiece-far superior to Animal Farm and 1984. No education in the meaning of the 20th century is complete without it."

4. The Road to Serfdom, F. A. von Hayek
Helprin: "Shatters the myth that the totalitarianisms 'of the Left' and 'of the Right' stem from differing impulses."

5. Collected Essays, George Orwell
King: "Every conservative's favorite liberal and every liberal's favorite conservative. This book has no enemies."

6. The Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper
Herman: "The best work on political philosophy in the 20th century. Exposes totalitarianism's roots in Plato, Hegel, and Marx."

7. The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis
Brookhiser: "How modern philosophies drain meaning and the sacred from our lives."

8. Revolt of the Masses, Jose Ortega y Gasset
Gilder: "Prophesied the 20th century's debauchery of democracy and science, the barbarism of the specialist, and the inevitable fatuity of public opinion. Explained the genius of capitalist elites."

9. The Constitution of Liberty, F. A. von Hayek
O'Sullivan: "A great re-statement for this century of classical liberalism by its greatest modern exponent."

10. Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman

11. Modern Times, Paul Johnson
Herman: "Huge impact outside the academy, dreaded and ignored inside it."

12. Rationalism in Politics, Michael Oakeshott
Herman: "Oakeshott is the 20th century's Edmund Burke."

13. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Joseph A. Schumpeter
Caldwell: "Locus classicus for the observation that democratic capitalism undermines itself through its very success."

14. Economy and Society, Max Weber
Lind: "Weber made permanent contributions to the understanding of society with his discussions of comparative religion, bureaucracy, charisma, and the distinctions among status, class, and party."

15. The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt
Caldwell: "Through Nazism and Stalinism, looks at almost every pernicious trend in the last century's politics with stunning subtlety."

16. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Rebecca West
Kelly: "For its writing, not for its historical accuracy."

17. Sociobiology , Edward O. Wilson
Lind: "Darwin put humanity in its proper place in the animal kingdom. Wilson put human society there, too."

18. Centissimus Annus, Pope John Paul II

19. The Pursuit of the Millennium, Norman Cohn
Neuhaus: "The authoritative refutation of utopianism of the left, right, and points undetermined."

20. The Diary of a Young Girl, The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
Helprin: "An innocent's account of the greatest evil imaginable. The most powerful book of the century. Others may not agree. No matter, I cast my lot with this child." Caldwell: "If one didn't know her fate, one might read it as the reflections of any girl. That one does know her fate makes this as close to a holy book as the century produced."

21. The Great Terror, Robert Conquest
Herman: "Documented for the first time the real record of Stalinism in the Soviet Union. A genuine monument of historical research and reconstruction, a true epic of evil."

[medicvet]

Am in the middle of reading the gulag archipelego right now..it is an intense book..riveting.

[PenultimateManStanding]

The third volume has an unbelievable story of an escape from a gulag in Kazakhistan. The drama is larger than life. The truly amazing thing is how the whole story had to be committed to memory because any document would be siezed and used as damning evidence against the author. The left in America and Europe were shamefully complaisant about what was going on. Robert Conquest's book mentioned is also a must read if you really want to know about Stalinism.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is no. 78. This one, along with some of the others, shows that NR is not a reactionary rag, but an honest view from the right. I know that's an oxymoron to some of you, but so be it.

[PenultimateManStanding]

88. Henry James , Leon Edel

King: "All the James you want without having to read him."

100. The Starr Report, Kenneth W. Starr

Hart: "A study in human depravity."

See, and they aren't prudes, either. I only read a few excerpts from that one, and it was enough.

[PenultimateManStanding]

No. 4, The Road To Serfdom by Hayek has been denounced as 'crypto fascism' by crypto communists. I only remember it as a coherent explanation of why socialism leads to the loss of freedom since I read it about 30 years ago. Of course, now that I know about peak oil, I might be inclined to put it the other way around: the loss of freedom leads to socialism. We would probably be stunned at the freedoms of the past, and they would probably be appalled at our world, just as we would be by a look 50 years hence.