The Survival of Culture: Permanent Values in a Virtual Age. Edited by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball

A series of essays on the crisis of Western Culture.

De Homine (Man) by Thomas Hobbes

A direct statement of his views on the nature of man, including the famous "state of nature."

The Politics by Aristotle

Re-read of a classic, inspired to do so by reading Strauss.

The Killing Zone, My Life in the Vietnam War by Frederick Downs

A relatively short, hard-hitting account of Lt. Downs's time as a platoon commander in Delta Company, Third Brigade, Fourth Division, U.S. Army in Vietnam in 1967. The book is written in a diary form and Downs does not go into his political views or his views on the war as a whole; just what it was like to battle the VC hand-to-hand in the jungles of I Corps. After reading this book, there will be no doubt in your mind that Downs earned his four Purple Hearts, Bronze Star with Valor, and Silver Star. I could barely put this book down once I opened it.

Plato's Modern Enemies and the Theory of Natural Law by John Wild

While reading Natural Right and History by Strauss, I re-read this book as a refresher on natural law. It is my favorite introduction to classical thinking on natural law. Wild has a straightforward, systematic, and plain style of writing that gets to the point and makes him a pleasure to readl.

Natural Right and History by Leo Strauss

My friend Adrian Walker recommended Strauss to me as someone I would find congenial. I was vaguely familiar with Strauss from references to him, and I fortunately took Adrian's advice. This book masterfully draws the distinctions between classical and modern thinking on natural law, identifies the true implications of the "fact-value" distinction, gives a brief but wonderful account of the origin of philosophy, probes the meaning of modern natural right and its crisis, and along the way provides insight on philosophers from Socrates to Lucretius to Hobbes, Rousseau and Edmund Burke among many others. A real treasure.

The End of Faith by Sam Harris

A standard atheist tract. Harris is unusual for an atheist insofar as he is favorable to Eastern meditative techniques.