What Book most influenced your political beliefs?

http://boston.com | 3/12/02 | me

[Burkeman1]

What Book most influenced your political beliefs?

[Burkeman1]

My picks are "1984", "Crime and Punishment", "Migrations and Cultures", and "Conquest and Cultures".

[realpatriot]

Yes, some of those you stated plus "Atlas Shrugged" and "Unintended Consequences" but to a large and surprising extentent, "Earth Abides."

[Chi-townChief]

John Stormer's "None Dare Call It Treason"
Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August"
William Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"
Russell Spurr's "Enter the Dragon: China's Undeclared War Against the U.S. in Korea, 1950-51"

[IronJack]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk
and, believe it or not, Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott.

Ah, for the days when Honor was king, and men were constrained in their affairs by a debt to nobility. That such a day could ever be again, 'tis a dream devoutly to be wished.

[mlmr]

Sowell's trilogy and the last two chapters of the Bell curve. Also Gatto's Dumbing Us Down.

[CreekerFreeper]

1. The Bible

2. The Art of War

3. The Wealth of Nations

4. Common Sense

5. Plato's Republic

6. Any Text by Milton Friedman

7. Any Text by Forrest MacDonald

8. Any Test by Ludwig von Mises

9. God and Man at Yale

10. Any Text by Ayn Rand

[MississippiMan]

The Holy Bible

[Aliska]

I didn't know, don't know how to answer the question. 1984 did have an enormous impact on my worldview . . . talk radio and conservative forums have more influence on me than any book. As to being conservative, that comes from my Christian faith and protestant do-it-yourself roots.

[muleboy]

The Warren Commission Report and Conscience of a Conservative.

[JZoback]

"The Law"

[Double Tap]

"The Adventures of Huckelberry Fin"

[Moosilauke]

Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater

[unamused]

The book of today, where dubya decided that my children will be tax slaves to provide for mexicans to have a Beemer....

[eddie willers]

Atlas Shrugged...without a doubt...

Ditto

[gov_bean_ counter]

The Bible

Lots of William F. Buckley editorials

[jodorowsky]

1984

Animal Farm

GULAG Archipelago

Obedience to Authority

[11th Earl of Mar]

Outside of the Bible, it was "Witness" by Whitaker Chambers, who gave up life as a communist spy in the United States to become a Christian.

Chambers was the one who testified before then-Congressman Richard Nixon that Alger Hiss, FDR's man at the State Department, was a communist spy for Russia. One of Ronald Reagan's first acts as president, was to present Chambers' son with a belated Medal of Honor [Medal of Freedom?] for the testimony that helped uncover communist infiltration of high levels of the U.S. government.

[isom35]

"Lord of the Flies"