Vanishing American

http://ask.metafilter.com/86960/Engross ... little-bit

I came across this interesting question at the liberal MetaFilter blog:

''What books have transported you to another place, and occupied your thoughts for days whilst you read them? ''

There's a lengthy thread there, but what book or books would make the list here on this forum?

Top of my list is "Orthodoxy" by G. K. Chesterton. Since first reading it two years ago I have reread for the third time this year in honor of it's 100th year in print. Every time I read it I absorb deep insights I hadn't understood before. I now see Christianity and democracy in light of our ancestors and how both have created Western Civilization. I now work to get books like this back in our public libraries. I'd also like to add another Chesterton book, "Everlasting Man" to my list of life changing books. This book has led me to read many C. S. Lewis books of which the most "life changing" of his books for me has been "Mere Christianity." As for fiction, "The Brothers Karamozov" and in particular the chapter "The Grand Inquisitor" (which I've see published as a book on it's own), really made me ponder for weeks what Christ did when he resisted the devil.

I few I can think of a few...

The War With Hannibal by Livy
To see what a great nation looks like at the height of it's glory

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
To see what a great nation looks like in fall and debasement

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
To understand what traditional America was and why it was the greatest civilization man has ever conceived

The Federalist Papers and The Anti-Federalists
To understand the basis of the union and that the seeds of it's destruction were already sown before the Constitution was ratified

The Real Lincoln by Thomas J DiLorenzo
To understand just what we lost as a nation as a result of our most brutal and destructive war

The Creature from Jekyll Island by G Edward Griffin
I only recently finished this one and would have included Larry Bates' The New Economic Disorder instead had not this book been so thorough in explaining the New World Order. Anyone hoping to understand the intellectual elite and the international bankers would do well to read either

Hello,

I would recommend The Republic by Plato which I just read very recently.

People often say "Oh, Plato criticised democracy you know" but his criticisms of democracy are very astute and seem to apply especially to modern liberal societies.

Also he comes off at times like a feminist which was very surprising to me considering the work is over 2,000 years old.

islam o' phobe-

Welcome.

Increasingly I'm becoming more and more disillusioned with Plato's ideal Republic as it seems that elites are trying to become the literal Guardians. I really don't want to see what their concept of the philosopher-king may be.

I do agree that Plato's depiction of democracy is indispensable. It was the first text that had made me seriously question the practicality of democracy and as time goes on I become more and more convinced Plato was right on this point.

Certainly everyone should read The Republic at least once.