Bibliography & List of Primary & Secondary resources for the 2nd American Revolutions Series
Our 50th Wedding Anniversary
Editor’s Note:
Primary and secondary sources for the 2nd American Revolution
The majority of my contemporary reference books are Kindle electronic books or audiobooks from Audible.com. Both electronic forms are significantly less expensive (around $10.00) than the classic printed versions ($15 to $30) and are a great deal for anyone doing academic research.
Kindle books are searchable and the text can be highlighted and annotated for future reference. This allowed me to identify important topics and passages and quickly locate them again to cite specific information or pull quotes from the material.
Audible.com books also have an electronic bookmarking feature, which allows me to note particularly useful passage and then quickly relocate the material to review. Many of my favorite books were read by the author, which provided the valuable nuances of the author’s meaning.
I purchased my most pivotal reference books in both formats — Kindle and audiobook. Typically I listen to the audio version then listen again while reading the Kindle version and highlighting topics and passages that contribute valuable information and insights.
In addition, I completed more than a dozen college-level courses in these topics, either as Stanford’s Continuing Studies in a classroom settings or Great Courses online video classes.
Access to affordable electronic and audio books covering a wide range of topics was extremely useful, as it allowed me to read/listen to over 600 books in the last decade or so.
As a result, I have become something of an “idiot savant” in the historic ideas of self-governance, the history and writing of founding fathers (including the Federalist Papers) our independence from Britain (ie. Revolutionary War) and the nascent government that emerged at the end of the Revolutionary War (1784) as it developed through the next two centuries and its first 44 presidents.
My research on American democracy included studying the historical
records of democracy in Ancient Greece and the Roman empire.
The next link in the chain of political thought that directly contributed to American democracy was the development of the English system of government from approx 700 CE to 1700 CE.
During this 1,000 years, warrior-kings were replaced by heredity monarchs whose reigns were impacted by pivotal events such as the Magna Carta and Britain’s Bill of Rights (1600s). This relentless march towards an increasingly democratic form of government eventually lead to a constitutional parliamentary system that included a prime minister and national court system.
The last link was England’s colonization of the North American continent, British citizens how emigrated to the American colonies on the Eastern seaboard, and of course, the Revolutionary War, Constitutional Convention, and First Congress.
However, I also find valuable insights, as well as much reading pleasure, in historical novels and biographies.
One of my favorite novel is the story of two women soldiers during WWII who became undercover agents called “Code Name Verity” by Elizabeth Wein (audiobook 10 hrs 10 mins)
A favorite biography is “A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II” by Adam Makos (audiobook 13 hrs 21 mins)
Also Highly Recommended: Great Speeches In History ~ “Lend Me Your Ears:” ~ edited by William Safir
“America: The Farewell Tour” by Chris Hedges 2019
American Independence: Colonial, Constitutional and Revolutionary topics (T. 28 as of 03-31-2019)
Athenian Democracy: An Experiment for the Ages
by Professor Robert Garland, Phd
36 Revolutionary Figures of History
Professor Allen C. Guelzo, et al
American Revolution
Professor Allen C. Guelzo, PhD; The Great Courses
Oxford Introduction to the U.S. Law: Constitution Law
by Michael Dorf, and Trevor Brison
Alexander Hamilton’s Biography
By Ron Chernow (35 hrs 57 m)
The Federalist Papers
By Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, & John Jay
These Truths: History of the United States
Professor Jill Lepore, Harvard University, 2019
A People’s History of the United States, 1980
Howard Zinn, PhD. Columbia
American Founding Fathers
by Gr Cr / Professor
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
by Joseph Ellis
The Constitutional Convention of 1787: The History and Legacy of Drafting of the US Constitution
Charles River Editors
Decision in Philadelphia: the Constitutional Convention of 1787
by Christopher and James Lincoln Collier
The First Congress ~ 1788-89
by Fergus Bordewich
The Great Debate: Advocates and Opponents of the US Constitution
Professor Thomas Pringle
Cycles of American Political Thought
Professor Joseph Lobyika
American Ideals: Founding a Republic of Virtue
Professor Daniel Robinson, Oxford University
Second Treatise of Government
by John Locke
Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788
by Pauline Maier
American scripture: The Making of the Declaration of Independence
by Pauline Maier
Cycles of American Political Thought
Professor Joseph F. Kobylka
Without Precedent: {America’s first} Chief Justice John Marshall and His Times
by Joel R. Paul
The Return of George Washington: 1783-1789
By Edward Larson
George Washington’s Spies
Audible special by Alexander Rose
To America: Person Reflections of an Historian
by Stephen E. Ambrose
The Men Who United the States
by Simon Winchester
The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels
by historian Jon Meacham
Contemporary American Politics in two parts: the Good, Bad and Ugly (T. 9)
Part 1: Positive critiques and ideas to preserve, protect and promote our democratic republic traditions
The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great
Ben Shapiro, Harvard
21 Lesson for the 21st Century
by Peter A. Levine & Ann Frederick
Intelligent Governance for the 21st century
by Nicolas Berggruen
The True Patriot
Eric Lui
The Gardens of Democracy: A New American story of
citizenship, the economy and the role of the government
By Eric Liu
The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear
By Rev William Barber II
The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values
By Sam Harris
Great Speeches In History: Lend Me Your Ears ~ edited by William Safir
Part 2: Negative Critiques of our contemporary political system and how to fix it (T. 20)
“America: The Farewell Tour
by Chris Hedges ~ 2019
How Democracies Die
by Levitsky & Ziblatt
The Coming Storm
by Michael Lewis
Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America’s Fifty-Year Fall — and Those Fighting to Reverse It
Steven Brill
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned it Back on the Middle Class
By Jacob s.Hacker and Paul Pierson
American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper
By Jacob s.Hacker and Paul Pierson
We the Corporations: How American Business Won their Civil Rights
by Adam Winkler
Republic Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress and a plan to stop it
by Lawrence Lessig
Collusion: Secret Meeting, Dirty Money
by Luke Harding
Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril
By Margaret Heffernam
Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption,
and the Hijacking of America By Charles H. Ferguson
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics
By Richard ?????
The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap
By Matt Taibbi
The Tyranny of Dead Ideas
By Matt Miller
The Party is Over: How Republican When Crazy,
Democrats became Useless, & the Middle Class Got Shafted
By Mike Lofgren
Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge now that the Facts
Aren’t the Facts, Experts are Everywhere, and the
Smartest person in the room is the room
By David Weinberger
Two Paths: America Divided or United
By Gov. John Kasich
What Americans Really Want: The Truth About Our Hopes, and Dreams, and Fears
By Frank Luntz
Hot, Flat, and Crowded
by Thomas Friedman
Financial Corruption: Wall Street,
Pernicious & Crony Capitalism, etc ( T. 11)
Capital in the 21st Century
Thomas Piketty
23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism
by Ha-Joon Chang
Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt
By Michael Lewis
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate
By Naomi Klein
Why We Hate the Oil Companies: Straight Talk from an Energy Insider
By John Hofmeister
No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller
Harry Markopolos (1st to report the Ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff)
Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility
by David M. Walker
Betterness: Economics for Humans
by Umair
The Wall Street Money Machine
Jesse Eisinger
The Soros Lecture: At the Central European University
by George Soros
Relevant Political and Historical Background { T. 23 }
The Prince
by Nicolo Machiavelli (4 hrs 47 m)
Great Minds of the Medieval World
Professor Dorsey Armstrong, Ph.D, Great Courses
Understanding Russia: A Cultural History (13 hrs)
Professor Lynne Ann Harnett, Ph.D., Great Courses
48 Laws of Power
by Robert Greene (23 hrs 6 mins)
Edward Bernay’s 1929 book “Propaganda”
Introduction by Mark Crispin Miller
Fascism: A Warning
by former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the 20th Century
by Timothy Snyder
The Dictator’s Handbook
by Bruce Bruno de Mesquita & Alastair Smith
Utopia and Terror in the 21st Century
By Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, 1961
William, Shirer
Hitler and the Holocaust
By Robert Wistrich
History of Hitler’s Empire, 2nd edition
Professor Childers
Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand
By Leonard Peikoff (19 hrs 31 mins)
Espionage and Covert Operations: A Global History
Professor Vejas Gabriel Liuevicius
The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope
By Jonathan Alter
California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State
and How We Can Fix It
by Joe Mathews
Harvard is Burning
by Lee Stegel
Reset: Iran, Turkey and America’s Future
by Stephen Kinzer (9 hrs 7 mins)
Holy War for True Democracy: Powered by Passion and Technology
By Jon Ferraillo
Why We Hate the Oil Companies:Straight Talk from an Energy Insider
by John Hofmeister (8 hrs 29 mins)
The Modern Political Tradition: Hobbes to Habermas
Professor Lawrence Cahoone
Must History Repeat the Great Conflicts of this (20th) Century?
Professor Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
The Barbarian Empires of the Steppes
Professor Kenneth W. Harl (18 hrs)
These books are all-time favorites as to ‘how-to-think’ and how to use one’s intellect in a politically complex system {T. 9}
Foundations of Western Civilization
Thomas F. X. Noble, Ph.D., (24 hrs 30 minutes) The Great Courses
Birth of the Modern Mind: The Intellectual History of the 17th and 18th Century
Alan Charles Kors, Ph.D. The Great Courses (12 hrs 12 minutes)
Natural Law and Human Nature
Joseph Koterski, Ph.D.; (12 hrs, 25 minutes) The Great Courses
The Science of Liberty; Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature
By Timothy Ferris
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
By James Gleick
Dialogue: The Art of Thinking Together
by Williams Isaacs
How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves
from the Board to the Board Room
By Garry Kasparov
The Black Swan
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Art of Conflict Management: Achieving Solutions for Life, Work and Beyond
Professor Michael Dues; (12 hrs 21 m)
Russia and its meddling in our elections {T. 5)
Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the
Enemies of the Free World must be Stopped
By Garry Kasparov
Red Notice:A True Story of High Finance,
Murder and One Man’s Fight for Justice {in Russia}
by Bill Browder
Putin’s Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy
The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and
Wikileaks tried to steal the 2016 Election
By Malcolm Nance
The Rise and Fall of Soviet Communism; A History of 20th Century Russia
Professor Gary Hamburg (12 hrs)
War & Foreign Affairs {8}
Art of War
by Sun Tzu
1066: The year that changed everything
by Professor Jennifer Paxton
Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great
to the Fall of the Taliban
by Stephen Tanner
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
By Jack Weatherford
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
by William L. Shirer
Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution
Remaking the Middle East
by Christopher M. Schroeder
Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future
By Stephen Kinzer
China, India and the United States: The Future of Economic Supremacy
by Professor Peter Rodriquez
The Socratic Method; Philosophy (9)
The Greek Myths
by Robert Graves
Rhetoric – Aristotle
Art of Socratic Questioning
Meditations
By Marcus Aurelius ~ 170
The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the
Greater Philosophers
By Will Durant
Natural Law and Human Nature
GrCr / Father Joseph Koterski
The Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World’s Great Intellectual Traditions
by Professor Jay L. Garfield; (18 hrs 42 m)
Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 3rd edition
Professor Alam Charles Kors, et al (43 hrs 38 mins)
Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
By Rom and Ori Brafman (4 hrs 52 mins)
First-person Biographies ~ systemized religious persecution and modern-day slavery {T. 9}
A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and
Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II
by Adam Makos
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
The Yellow Star
By Jennifer Roy
Sold
By Patricia McCormick
Up-beat, chatty political “How-2s” {T. 12}
Skepticism 101: How to Think Like a Scientist
by Professor Michael Shermer
What Would Google Do?
By Jeff Jarvis
How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom
By Garry Kasparov
Wikinomics:How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
By Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing
without Organizations
By Clay Shirky
Hardwiring Excellence: Purpose, Worthwhile Work, Making a Difference
by Quint Studer
The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies
Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits
By Zeynep Ton
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
By Malcolm Gladwell
Energy for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines
By Richard A. Muller
Changing the Game: How Video Games are Transforming
the Future of Business
By David Edery, Ethan Molick
FREE: The future of a Radical Price
By Chris Anderson
The Measure of a Nation: How to Regain America’s Competitive Edge and Boast our Global Standing
The Mind & How it Works and What to do with that kind of Information {T. 8}
Where Good Idea Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
By Steven Johnson (7 hrs 10 mins)
Thinking, Fast and Slow
By Daniel Kahneman
Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics
Offer to Retrain Your Brain
Steven Levitt, & Stephen Dubner
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future
By Daniel H.Pink
Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning
Professor David Zarefsky
The Grand Design
By Stephen Hawkings, Leonard Miodinow
Birth of the Modern Mind: The Intellectual History of the 17th and 18th Centuries
Professor Allan Charles Lors
Great Minds of the Medieval World
Professor Dorsey Armstrong
Fundamental Histories
that underlies civilization {T. 9}
The Wisdom of History
Professor J. Rufus Fears, PhD. (18 hrs 18 m)
The World was Never the Same: Events that Changed History
Professor J. Rufus Fears, Ph.D., (18 hrs)
A Short History of Nearly Everything
By Bill Bryson
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English
by John McWhorter
Salt: A World History
By Mark Kirlansky
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
By Richard Wrangham
The History of Money
Jack Weatherford
A History of the world in 6 Glasses
By Tom Standage (7 hrs 34 mins)
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
By Stephen Greenblatt
Healthcare, health insurance, and the Sickness Care system {T. 7}
Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans
By Wendell Potter
Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-based competition
on Results
By Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg
Healthcare, Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America
Ezekiel J. Manuel
Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason healthcare costs so much
Maggie Mahar
Sick: The True Story of How American
By Jonathan Cohn
The Creative Destruction of Medicine
By Eric Topol, MD
How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America
Otis Webb Brawles, MD
Long-view Histories of Civilisation {T. 4}
Foundations of Western Civilization
Professor Thomas F. X. Noble
1177 BCE: The Year Civilization Collapsed
Eric H. Cline
The Mysterious Etruscans
Professor Steven L. Tuck
1066: The Year That Changed Everything
Professor Jennifer Paxton
@@@@@@@@ unsorted @@@@@@@@@
Skepticism 101: How to Think like a Scientist
The History of the United States, 2nd Edition
Must History Repeat the Great Conflicts of This Century?
The Rise and Fall of Soviet Communism: A History of 20th-Century Russia
Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues
Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 3rd Edition
Utopia and Terror in the 20th Century
Espionage and Covert Operations: A Global History
China, India, and the United States: The Future of Economic Supremacy
36 Revolutionary Figures of History
The Barbarian Empires of the Steppes
The Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World’s Great Intellectual Traditions
The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition
Power over People: Classical and Modern Political Theory
Narrated by: Professor Dennis Dalton
A History of the World in 6 Glasses / Tom Standage
Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson
list last updated March 31, 2019
