What You Should Read
Beyond The Consensus
On a recent episode of The Tom Woods Show, Dr. Woods asked Daniel McCarthy, editor of Modern Age, for some recommended reading. Rather than recommending the newest bestseller, or a hidden gem, he recommended the classics. He noted that so many of us lack the necessary foundational knowledge that can be found in the classics. It is one thing to read books about the American founding, written by authors two hundred years displaced. It is another to read the founders themselves.
We live in an age where the classics are readily available to us. Old tomes written in Greek or Latin have been translated into many different languages, often multiple times, and then mass produced as affordable paperbacks and even free ebooks. The Penguin Classics series is up to 1,232 books at the time of writing. And anyone reading this is capable of reading those.
Some classics can be difficult to understand. Individual interpretations of The Bible have led to a continuous splintering of the Christian Church. Reading classics should always be done with humility, seeking to understand the context of the time and the author’s meaning, rather than imposing a modern context onto them.
The classics give us a chance to look outside our own world. Through them we understand what is consistent across all cultures and times, as well as what is particular to our own era.
Modern commentaries and studies of these classics can help us better understand these classics. I certainly do not mean to imply that they should not be read at all. But, as C.S. Lewis said in his essay on reading old books, “I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old.”
And by old, I (and Lewis) do not mean merely a hundred years ago. I mean one should select a few from the 18th century, as well as the 16th, the 12th, the 1st, and beyond.
There isn’t necessarily a wrong way to go about this. The only wrong way is to not read them at all. But there are better and worse ways. For example, if one is a Christian (or just wishes to understand the Christian influence on civilization), it might be a good idea to start with the Bible (plenty of “Bible in a Year” programs exist that can help anyone get through it). Then, it might be beneficial, but not necessary, to move chronologically. Read the letters of St. Ignatius, the Didache, 1 Clement. Depending on how far in-depth you wish to go, one of these may be sufficient for this period, or you may wish to read the Epistle of Polycarp and several other writings.
From there, you may wish to skip ahead to St. Augustine’s Confessions (an easy-to-read classic from St Augustine), or you may want to look at his collected works. And from there the great classics of the medieval church, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and the classics of the various protestant denominations.
That’s a several year project on its own, and that’s asking a lot. If you haven’t read any classics, you certainly should, and it might be best to look through the Penguin Classics catalog and find something that appeals to you, that you’ll likely read from start to finish, and go from there. One is better than zero, and making it through every classic would take several lifetimes, so do not be overwhelmed. My intent is not to demand everyone set aside several hours a day for the rest of their lives to reading classics, but to get someone that hasn’t read any to read at least one.
Our lack of knowledge outside of our own era can be seen in a lot of modern television. Characters from faraway places and times act like they were born and raised in 21st century America. When that is all you know, that is all you can write.
Understanding the classics also opens your eyes to political propaganda. As Orwell wrote, “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” The modern ideology interprets history through its own lens. Reading the classics is looking at the world from varying perspectives, allowing you to step outside your own bubble. And you’re reading what has withstood the test of time and reflect the sentiments of an age and people. Do not restrict yourself to an echo chamber.
If you’re now interested in reading a classic or two, do what I recommended earlier. Look for one you’ve heard of that you might be interested in, or look through a classics catalog to find you that you will likely read. Then you can move onto the more difficult works. And if you subscribe to my Substack, you’ll receive plenty of recommendations and reviews, especially with my ongoing Sources in Ideology series, which act as syllabi for understanding an ideology.