While I generally agree with the choice of works that Richard and Jim have suggested for the canon of the Alternative Right, I have a habit of orienting myself towards strategic and practical considerations as the first order of business. I regard the key to understanding the dilemma our civilization currently faces as rooted in a particular set of institutional concerns: the nature of our present elites, the managerial revolution of the early to mid-twenteith century and the consequent rise of the new class, the growth of mass democracy, the therapeutic state, the infestation of the social sciences with Cultural Marxism, and the triangular relationship between mass consumer culture, the advent of the mass media, and the ideological synthesis of neoliberalism and Cultural Marxism whose internalization by the masses is fostered by that same media. With these concerns in mind, I have come up with a reading list of my own consisting of relevant works. Some of these are familiar classics of the Right. Others are more obscure works of immense quality. Some are more recent scholarly or journalistic pieces, and still others are works from the Left from which we can learn. Here it is:
Elite Theory:
Vilfredo Pareto-The Mind and Society, The Rise and Fall of the Elites, The Transformation of Democracy, Sociological Writings
Georges Sorel-Reflections on Violence
Gaetano Mosca-The Ruling Class, (Mosca and the Theory of Elitism by Ettore Albertoni)
Robert Michels- Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy
James Burnham-The Machiavellians
Joseph A. Schumpeter- Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy
C. Wright Mills-The Power Elite
William Domhoff-Who Rules America?
Thomas Dye-Top Down Policymaking
Floyd Hunter- Community Power Structure: A Study of Decision Makers
New Class Theory:
Lawrence Dennis-The Dynamics of War and Revolution, Operational Thinking for Survival
Max Nomad-Aspects of Revolt
James Burnham-The Managerial Revolution
Alvin Gouldner- The Future of Intellectuals and the Rise of the New Class
Milovan Djilas-The New Class
Mikhail Bakunin- “The International and Karl Marx”
Mass Democracy:
Jose Ortega y Gasset-Revolt of the Masses
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn-Leftism, Leftism Revisited, Liberty or Equality, The Menace of the Herd
Bertrand de Jouvenel- On Power: The Natural History of Its Growth
Louis Ferdinand Celine-Journey to the End of the Night
Charles Maurras- Ou le Mythe d'Une Droite Révolutionnaire
Maurice Barres-The Cult of the Self, Novel of the National Energy
Han Hermann Hoppe-Democracy: The God That Failed
Alexis De Tocqueville-Democracy in America
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon-The Solution to the Social Problem
Max Stirner-The Ego and Its Own
H.L. Mencken-(anything by Mencken is worth reading)
Albert Jay Nock-Our Enemy, The State
Ernst Junger-In Storms of Steel, Eumeswil
Anthony de Jasay-The State
Gerard Radnitzky-From Philosophy of Science to Political Philosophy
Friedrich August von Hayek-The Road to Serfdom
Hilaire Belloc-The Servile State
Joseph Sobran-(anything by Sobran is worth reading)
Cultural Marxism/Totalitarian Humanism/Therapeutic State:
Thomas Sowell-A Conflict of Visions
Thomas Szasz-The Therapeutic State
Samuel Francis-“James Burnham, The New Class, and the Nation State”
Stephen Baskerville- Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fatherhood, Marriage and the Family
Sean Gabb-Cultural Revolution, Culture War
Rousas John Rushdooney- The Messianic Character of American Education
James Burnham-The Suicide of the West
Robert Putnam- Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, "E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-first Century”
Bill Bishop-The Big Sort
Corporations and the Left:
Gabriel Kolko-The Triumph of Conservatism (Libertarians have often cited this work as an illustration of how corporations promote and foster statism. It would be interesting to conduct a study expanding upon the “Kolko thesis” to explore the question of corporate support for PC.)
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer-Dialectic of Enlightenment (This famous work from the left-wing Frankfurt School suggested that a “culture industry” shapes public consciousness and social values through the mass media and advertising. It would be interesting to use this model and invert it to examine the matter of how a “culture industry” does indeed exist and how this culture industry serves as a massive propaganda apparatus for PC.)
Foreign Policy/International Relations:
George Kennan- Around the Cragged Hill: A Personal and Political Philosophy
Carl Schmitt-Nomos
Martin Van Creveld-The Rise and Decline of the State, The Transformation of War
William S. Lind-(Lind’s scattered essays on fourth generation warfare are well worth seeking out)
Pat Buchanan-A Republic, Not an Empire; Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War
James Petras-The Power of Israel Over the United States
