Words that Matter: Reading List for a Troubled Time

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Books are for reading and sharing – not for burning. Let’s start with that.

The news of that ridiculous book-burning last week on a Georgia campus (where a group of students couldn’t find a better way to protest the views of its author) got me to thinking:

In a society that values free expression – e.g. ours – isn’t it much better to consume a book with eyeballs and conversation than with gasoline and matches? Of course it is.

And that got me thinking: What are the best things to read, from any age? With so much stoked-up anger in our U.S. society today, what might be the most helpful works for any of us to read (or re-read) to assess what’s happening now?

In the canon of great books, films and plays there are many that might have prepared us all better to understand and navigate through this current time of weak, fearful or distorted leadership. Great works of literature that were built on solid thought have given us good anchors over long history. They take many forms: Novels, memoirs, plays, letters, speeches. They can be guideposts when our path grows dim. Like now.

President Trump daily injects chaos, discord and disarray. His impulsive nature and one-man decisions are eroding our norms, as he assaults our institutions and upends the world order. His fanning of flames, his way with large crowds – these are, well, scary.

But such men have occasionally appeared over human history. Other impetuous leaders – unread and unwise – have held power before. Reading broadly, if we will, helps the rest of us get a grip.

We need wise leaders, women and men with good hearts and correct bearings, and we also need informed voters. Social media aren’t getting the job done for us now, and for economic reasons too many of our traditional media have fallen away. In this current maelstrom, the wisdom of the world is still found in the great published works, in our sacred texts and in secular fiction and nonfiction. The good news is: We can read again the classics of antiquity, the great novels of history, and our treasury of drama for stage and screen.

The great tales of freedom and democracy; the literature of social movements; stories of struggle, persecution, loss and triumph, of how civilizations have risen and flourished, and how they declined – these can remind us of old lessons for our world to remember now and to heed.

What texts are valuable to you? Here’s a few dozen from my list:

Books & Other Texts

  • Psalm 23

  • Federalist 51

  • Advise & Consent by Allen Drury

  • Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

  • George Orwell’s 1984

  • It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

  • Barry Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative

  • Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

  • The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

  • Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz

  • In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

  • Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl

  • Night by Elie Wiesel

  • Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

  • Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five

  • All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

  • Jon Meacham’s The Soul of America

  • Al Gore’s Earth in the Balance

  • Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki

  • JFK’s Profiles in Courage

  • RFK’s The Enemy Within

  • Robert Reich’s The Common Good

  • Guerrillas and Generals: The Dirty War in Argentina by Paul H. Lewis

  • Obama’s Dreams from My Father

  • The Book of Job

Speeches

  • Washington’s Farewell

  • Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

  • Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” Speech

  • Kennedy’s Inaugural

  • Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

  • Reagan’s Speech at Omaha Beach

Films & Plays

  • "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"

  • "Seven Days in May"

  • Shakespeare’s "Macbeth," "Henry V," "Julius Caesar"

  • "All the President’s Men"

  • "A Face in the Crowd"

  • "Elmer Gantry"

  • "Network"

  • "The Post"

  • "Good Night, and Good Luck"

If you know these already, share them with another citizen. This is a time to help each other find steerage for this frightful journey we’re on, with perspective and nourishment for our civic soul.

Frankly, I feel some urgency about this. Things are moving fast now, and our times grow more turbulent.

I fear a hard winter is coming, and I’m not talking about the weather. We must all make ready.

o

(My sincere thanks to so many subscribers for contributing your favorite titles to this list. I am grateful.)