The American Tribune 2025 Reading List
15 Books I'm Excited to Read in 2025
Note: I will get back to our normal style of articles next week. I originally planned on doing so this week, but two things came up. First, I was invited to speak about Rhodesia, egalitarianism, and the English landed elite on a certain podcast that has gotten around 300 million downloads; that was a wonderful opportunity and I’m excited to post about it when the show comes out at the end of the month, but it also derailed my normal research schedule. Second, my friend Johann Kurtz at Becoming Noble just posted an article on what he plans to read this year and how it relates to his mission for his publication,1 which seemed like an excellent idea. So, this is the final post for a while on book recommendations, and the normal sort of article will be back next week. Thanks! -Will Tanner
This past year, as many of you noticed, I took this publication in a somewhat different direction. Namely, buoyed by the huge success of a Twitter thread on Rhodesia,2 I chose to try and describe what sorts of systems I think work better than what we have at present, what the caustic effects of egalitarian mass democracy that are rectified by such systems, and how the non-tyrannical solutions to mass democracy — namely the various forms of propertied voting — fix what I see as its main issues.
As such, my main thesis moving forward is this:
The various incentives and feedback loops created by egalitarian mass democracy3 and the bureaucracy attendant to it are not only societally disastrous,4 given how they shred human capital,5 but inescapable so long as the system remains intact, and
The Occident has seen a great many systems that are quite in contrast to that in that they emphasize and rely upon natural hierarchy, and the best of these is the sort of system once prevalent in the Anglosphere, one that pairs a republican mode of government with the virtue of having a tradition-oriented landed elite.6
Of course, that thesis could be proven wrong. But I intend to explore it this year, both in my reading and in my writing. As such, here are 15 books I plan on reading this year to examine the various tendrils of that thesis, presented in no specific order (because many of these are obscure and have similar titles to other books I haven’t yet looked into in-depth, I’ve added links at the bottom of each title to where you can get each title).
Listen to this article here:
1. The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris
Critical to the pleasant, genteel Anglo world of the sort that existed before the societal shift toward egalitarianism in the early 1900s7 is the system that the Normans built after The Conquest.
For one, the manorial system the Normans created was the basis of what later became the English landed estate system, important in that it both enshrined property rights as sacrosanct in the Anglosphere (at least until expropriation became the goal of government)8 and is what funded the immense leaps forward into prosperity that were the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions.9
Secondly, the Normans were quite different than the Anglo-Saxons in that they were far more hierarchical. Whereas Anglo-Saxon lords, as Morris notes in his fabulous The Anglo-Saxons, merely farmed on a much larger scale than peasants, it was the Normans who started to create the different tiers of society that led to the sort of hierarchy familiar to us. So, though they were gradually subsumed by far vaster the Anglo-Saxon population, the sort of society they desired and built remained with us until relatively recently.
So, in short, the world they built is incredibly relevant to a worldview opposing mass egalitarianism, as for over a century after the French Revolution it was, with only a few updates (namely consolidated rather than widely spread estates), the alternative to the egalitarian society the French murdered thousands to create. Thus, learning about the conquest centuries before then is, I think, important, and The Anglo-Saxons was good enough that I think Morris is at least a relatively good, trustworthy author to whom I can turn for that learning in The Norman Conquest.
2. The National System of Political Economy by Friedrich List
Amongst the many issues with our present system is that our trade policy makes no sense from the perspective of encouraging a thriving society. Namely, free trade is a shredder of tradition10 and leads to obscene distortion like a return to effective serfdom in the agricultural sector as costs need to be cut dramatically.11
President McKinley understood this, and one of his key policies was a tariff large enough to protect domestic industry, something that finally led to a detente between capital and labor and set America up for a massive increase in domestic prosperity. Further, the issue is important from a hierarchical perspective: before the Parliament Bill was ever considered, the English landed elite and its immense societal benefits were wiped away by free trade, and it was the protection of agriculture that led to immense prosperity in the years before then.12
So, what is the alternative to free trade? One is Corn Laws-style agricultural protectionism,13 but that is anachronistic at this point, given the economic differences between our world and the agrarian one of the pre-1870s. The more relevant one is that articulated by List.
As his work’s description provides: “In The National System of Political Economy, List provides a critique of the ideas of Adam Smith and David Ricardo that continues to resonate with policy makers concerned with industrial policy and national economic development. List argues that in contrast with the stylized view of classical economics, real-world economies are organized along national lines and that policy makers can ignore this reality to their peril. The benefits from trade are conditional, rather than universal and the development of sophisticated industry requires carefully designed and sequentially planned state interventions. List provides an early recognition of the existence of distinct stages of economic development, and of the interplay between military power, industrial development and national prosperity. List's work had a formative influence on subsequent strands of thought such as institutional economics and 'national systems of innovation' perspectives and is considered an exemplary of work in the tradition of realist international political economy.”
That makes this work invaluable for understanding how to chart a different course, as the economic and trade issues are problems that must be solved.
Get The National System of Political Economy
3. 'So Far and No Further!' Rhodesia's Bid for Independence during the Retreat from Empire 1959-1965 by JRT Wood
Rhodesia is, of course, one of my favorite ways of contrasting propertied-voting republicanism with egalitarian mass democracy.14 Free, prosperous, and well-fed Rhodesia placed non-racial but otherwise strict property qualifications on voting, thus ensuring only stewards were involved in government. Starving, tyrant-ruled, hyperinflation-ruined Zimbabwe had mass democracy one time and dictatorship thereafter, showing what happens when the stewards are shown the door.
But one thing I know relatively little about, given my prior focus on Rhodesia’s agricultural sector, Ian Smith as presented in The Great Betrayal, and the Bush War generally, is how it ended up facing down nearly the whole world. This work from JRT Wood should help fill that in for me and explain both how Britain’s shockingly anti-imperial, egalitarian turn after World War II forced the Rhodesians into unilaterally declaring independence, along with what articulated issues the Rhodesians had with trying mass democracy.
Given that Rhodesia is, I think, an example of a hierarchical, non-democratic system working in modernity and leading to prosperity and freedom,15 this work will be quite important to read this year.
Get ‘So Far and No Further!' Rhodesia's Bid for Independence during the Retreat from Empire 1959-1965
4. Coke of Norfolk (1754-1842): A Biography by Susanna Wade Martins
Once understood as a key benefit of a hierarchical system, particularly one as tied to a local community and tradition as the British landed elite, is noblesse oblige. The easiest example of that concept of the “obligation of a noble” is local charity, such as building cottages or providing food for the poor. But, a somewhat more important and less remembered example is leading a community in innovation for the good of it rather than direct pecuniary gain.
This is a role that some previous reading of mine about the English estate system notes that Thomas William Coke ("Coke of Norfolk") was known for but doesn’t describe in great detail. From what I have gathered so far, namely in The Aristocracy in England, 1660-1914 by J.V. Beckett, he developed many of the agricultural improvements that led to the Agricultural Revolution. Further, instead of finding a way to patent those improvements, he taught them to his tenants and others so that they might benefit from what he discovered and how he innovated. That Agricultural Revolution is what fed England and powered the Industrial Revolution,16 making Coke a key man of history but one about whom we are taught little.
So, I look forward to reading it and expect it to show one of the key societal benefits of a system that inculcates a tradition and widely understood duty of noblesse oblige, and how the outlook of the old landed elite contrasts quite strongly with the sort of oligarchs we are used to today.
Get Coke of Norfolk (1754-1842): A Biography
5. Lords and Landlords: The Aristocracy and the Towns, 1774-1967 by Cannadine
Cannadine’s The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy is one of the better works on the subject of how the English aristocracy fell from Olympus. It is a dispassionate analysis that explores the virtues and vices of the early to mid-20th-century English landed elite and what led to its ultimate demise as a powerful force. Similarly, Aspects of Aristocracy: Grandeur and Decline in Modern Britain is, though less useful as a learning tool than The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, quite interesting and seemingly honest and accurate.
Lords and Landlords covers a somewhat earlier period, focusing on the 19th century and delving into the relationship the primarily country estate-focused aristocracy had with urban life in the towns, with a focus on the survival of the landed elite’s wealth, power, and influence through urban investment and development.
I expect that will be very useful in two ways.
One is understanding how a segment of the population was able to see rising opportunity and take advantage of it to gain a new lease on life, making some of them, such as the Grosvenors, wildly wealthy in the process. Given the tendency of old wealth to calcify and have trouble adapting to new environments, understanding how those who did so did so should be quite helpful in formulating a view of how we today ought to look at new opportunities that are disdained by those unwilling to move forward, but which should be grasped regardless because of the saying power provided by them. Though some of this is discussed in interesting works like Cardiff and the Marquesses of Bute, those are too family-specific to be a generally useful social history.
Second is learning how those families that did grasp the town opportunity Cannadine describes did so without changing their nature. The landed elite was beneficial, powerful, and long-lasting primarily because of its landed nature; urban development is quite different, and could have changed that dramatically, for better or worse. So, learning how they resisted change (or adopted it, if that’s what they did) while leaning into an asset class so different as to be potentially identity-changing should be quite salutary for this project.
Get Lords and Landlords: The Aristocracy and the Towns
6. Chief of Station, Congo by Devlin
This is a bit different from much of the rest of the list, but important regardless. One of the first worrying signs of post-FDR American involvement in the Cold War was its handling of things in the Congo. Namely, America used the UN to prevent Katanga’s withdrawal from the hellish state, stopped Mike Hoare from finishing the job after the Simba Rebellion,17 and otherwise showed itself unwilling to aid civilization in the vast country if doing so came at the expense of nominal egalitarianism.
Such was broadly similar to Rhodesia, but different in numerous aspects, not least of which were the various missed opportunities to aid sane men and salvage the post-colonial state before it destroyed itself with civil war and anarchy. Chief of Station, Congo was written by Larry Devlin, who arrived as the new Chief of Station for the CIA in the Congo just five days after it declared independence. Though I don’t expect the whole truth, I do think it should show what America’s rationale was for not turning the Congo into a bulwark against communism, what the CIA’s role in the major aspects of the early post-colonial conflicts was, and whether things went to plan or fell apart with the country.
If it shows those important historical details, that will help me develop my tangential thesis that American Cold War policy was much more about advancing egalitarianism than stopping communism and potentially help me understand American policy toward Rhodesia somewhat better.
7. The World We Have Lost by Peter Laslett
One critical question that often presents itself when country life is lionized and the urban life of the Industrial Revolution is denigrated is whether it was really that much better. It is a fair question, and one I have so far struggled to answer. GE Mingay’s The Victorian Countryside, Vols. I and II are helpful, but it doesn’t really answer the question. Most other works on the subject have too much of a political/ideological bent to be useful.
It is in that context that I came across the apparent classic The World We Have Lost by Peter Laslett, which claims to answer those questions in a relatively dispassionate manner. As the book’s description provides:
What was life like in England before the Industrial Revolution? The World We Have Lost is widely regarded as a classic of historical writing and a vital book in reshaping our understanding of the past and the structure of family life in England.
Turning away from the prevailing fixation of history on a grand scale, Laslett instead asks some simple yet fundamental questions about England before the Industrial Revolution: How long did people live? How did they treat their children? Did they get enough to eat? What were the levels of literacy? His findings overturned much received wisdom: girls did not generally marry in their early teens, but often worked before marrying at much the same ages that young people marry today. Most people did not live in extended families, or even live their whole lives in the same villages. Going beyond the immediate structure of the family, he also explores the position of servants, the gentry, rates of migration, work and social mobility.
I expect it will help me better describe the alternative to egalitarian modernity—which is some variation of a landed system—and the flaws and benefits of both. I am particularly hopeful about the social mobility issue, as I have had trouble answering it in the past, and I look forward to getting more complete answers on it.
8. Bendor: The Golden Duke of Westminster by Leslie
A family about which I have written and spoken a great deal is the Grosvenor family,18 now the Dukes of Westminster. The family caught my eye19 and is interesting from a general perspective because its progenitor came across with William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest, and the family grew in wealth and prosperity over the ensuing centuries. So, not only did it hold onto immense wealth for centuries, as the Percy family also did (Lions of the North: The Percys & Alnwick Castle is a good, short book on this subject), but despite starting out as relatively small and of little consequence, it gradually built that wealth through marriage, acquisition, and general prudence over time. I find there is much to learn from that, and that a family that survived for a millennium is worth learning about.
More relevant to this book, the family is interesting because it has managed to hang onto its immense wealth (nearly the entirety of the posh London neighborhoods of Mayfair and Belgravia and around 200,000 agricultural acres, along with other developments and holdings) despite immensely hostile government policy.
Bendor is the Duke of Westminster who managed that accomplishment. A war hero from WWI, he was generally known for fecklessness, particularly in his personal life, but there are glimpses of his shrewdness: namely, he pioneered the concept of a dynasty trust, using it upon his death to shield the family’s assets from confiscation via taxation. That stood in stark contrast to those like the Dukes of Bedford who lost much of their property by imprudent death planning. Further, Bendor led the charge against the Parliament Bill alongside Willoughby de Broke,20 making himself one of the key aristocrats who stood up to egalitarianism when doing so was far from politically popular and critical to the survival of his class.
So, I hope to use this book to learn more about Bendor’s character and his fight against the Parliament Bill, more about the Grosvenor family I find so generally interesting, and more about how he helped ensure the continuity of the family’s vast fortune. I also hope to get more out of it than out of the book about his father, Victorian Duke, as Bendor did more in life than his father, who primarily shot pheasants.
Get Bendor: The Golden Duke of Westminster
9. Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites: A Theme Illuminating American Social History by Plinio Correa de Oliveira
An oft-forgotten aspect of American social history is that, while the West and Northeast (excluding New York) have long been relatively egalitarian,21 that wasn’t the case in other parts of America, even if the racial hierarchy of the Old South is ignored.
In fact, though there was never an American peerage on the British mold, old colonies like New York and Virginia22 were notable in that they preserved much of the English social order: upper and lower gentry, yeomen farmers, merchants, tenant farmers, tradesmen, and laborers. That has since been wiped away by centuries of seething resentment, class warfare, and the wealth-destroying effects of the War Between the States, but it ought be remembered that it was long there.
That is what drew me to this work; it uses, from what I can tell, history and tradition to explain American society and present an alternative to the corrosive egalitarianism we now have. As the description provides: “Since the eighteenth century, generations have been schooled in utopian principles proclaiming total equality as the guarantor of liberty and justice for all. The egalitarian myth of a classless society was proffered as the unquestionable path down which mankind must travel to reach perfect social harmony. This book does much to shatter these myths and provide a Catholic approach to the way society should be structured as seen by the Popes.”
Though I am no Catholic, and I expect it to still be broadly relevant and useful at showing some of the longtime benefits to liberty and human flourishing of a hierarchical system instead of an egalitarian one, along with the “social harmony” that results from an organic nobility.23
Get Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites: A Theme Illuminating American Social History
10. Chivalry by Maurice Keen
Much like the Norman Conquest is relevant in that the social order it created remained with us until just a few short decades ago, the concept of chivalry remains relevant in that it created the broad outlines of gentlemanly behavior that a flourishing society ought to have.
Of course, the concept of chivalry, like most everything else, has decayed. Whereas it used to mean the ideal standard of conduct of a knight, now it means some variation of opening the door for blue-haired leftist women who will yell at you for doing so. Similarly, chivalric standards, such as “justice,” have been so perverted by a system that hates any concept of honor as to not just be devoid of meaning, but actively harmful to our original understanding of the terms in their current meaning. Hence the “justice system” giving Epstein a slap on the wrist and calling it “criminal justice.”24
So, as Chivalry by Maurice Keen is said to be one of the best works on the subject, I expect that will be helpful in learning what chivalry was meant to be and how it remains relevant, particularly given that it, “Examines the social importance of chivalry as a secular ideal during the Middle Ages, traces the origins of knighthood and chivalry, and looks at chivalric rituals and literature.” That remains relevant as the concept of the gentleman remains relevant, and thus understanding the origins of what conduct is expected will, I think, be salutary for understanding the concept generally.
Get Chivalry
11. Lee’s Lieutenants by Douglas Southall Freeman
The powers that be have, ever since the mid-2000s, been in a state of total war with those who wish to remember the southern cavaliers who stood up to what they saw as industrial scale, egalitarian tyranny in the War Between the States. While that perception can be debated, what I think is incontrovertibly true is that the regime has attempted to erase them from the public eye and mind.
Why? Why melt statues of Lee, destroy references to Stonewall Jackson, denigrate Stuart, and so on? It’s not that they were always regarded as evil: Lee and Stuart tanks were key in the early days of WWII, and our military bases were named after such men until mere years ago. The answer is that those men stand as a testament, much like similarly denigrated Rhodesia, to the idea that egalitarianism can be fought, at the point of a sword if necessary. They stand as a testament to the fact that normal men can band together and resist a monstrously more powerful regime for years on end if only they set their hearts to it.
So, Lee’s Lieutenants is a three-volume masterpiece I have long wanted to finish (I have only read the abridged, first volume before) because it is a paean to the most effective of the efforts to resist Mr. Lincoln’s egalitarianism. Neither the biography of a single man or the history of a theater easily lost, it is probably the best descriptor of the collective effort to fight and what aided and inhibited it, which is interesting and useful in understanding what goes into building an effective resistance to the spirit of the age. Further, Freeman is a magnificent writer, as I think is best shown in his singular biography of Washington so I expect it to be a pleasure to read despite its monumental length.
12. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by JD Vance
Hopefully, everyone has heard of this book, though I’m somewhat ashamed to admit I haven’t read it. Like many others, it just slipped by when first relevant, and I never got around to it afterward. This year I intend on reading it.
Perhaps as surprising as not having read it is that it is on a list of books primarily about the forcing of egalitarianism on us and genteel alternatives to it in the West. But I think it remains relevant for much the same reason Coke of Norfolk is relevant: the key to the long-term stability, success, and prosperity of any non-democratic system is properly acted upon noblesse oblige. As such, understanding the perspective and needs of those in need of it is important, for it is what must be acted upon.
Further, Vance is one of the few who seems to grasp even a fraction of the issues with the various forms of egalitarianism under which we are yoked, namely mass immigration from the Third World and the Civil Rights Act, so I think understanding his perspective will be helpful.
Get Hillbilly Elegy
13. English Country Houses and Landed Estates by Clemenson
The description of this one should, hopefully, show why it’s one on the list: “Originally published in 1982, and based on extensive research in estates’ archives, this book outlines the changing fate of the 500 largest estates in England over the centuries. It examines estates in their heyday and looks at their changing role as they declined in the twentieth century, showing how some estates have survived and describing the differing uses to which country houses have been put.”
The thing is, life has changed dramatically over the years, though as applied to country estates little since this book was first published. In fact, the sky-high death duties and income taxes surrounding the World War II years and the two decades that followed stand as something as a hard line in social history in the Anglosphere.
Before them, those who were wealthy generally lived in the country in grand, semi-public estates and were deeply embedded in the communities in which they lived; in America, as is generally the case, the same was true as in England but somewhat less so. After those years, however, much of that ended; what families remained in grand country estates largely tucked them away to be out of sight and out of mind, as Fussell notes in Class, and most just left the magnificent homes behind and moved to penthouses in the city, if anywhere notable at all. Gone were the community structures built around stately homes, the country life beloved by so many (even JP Morgan bought an English estate, as recounted in The House of Morgan), and the investment that flowed into the country that came from the wealthy being there.
Such, at least, is my perception, one I aim to either reinforce or correct based on what I read in English Country Houses and Landed Estates, with a focus on change over time and what we who now see the benefits of the Old World’s ways, particularly as regards this issue, can do to bring its positive benefits back on an admittedly smaller scale. I expect the sections on Georgian country life will be particularly helpful in that regard, as things were on a somewhat more reasonable and relevant scale then than during the Victorian and Gilded Age heyday of the country house. Further, as America once had these homes but now largely doesn’t, I think examining, in the future, American country decline from the perspective of what happened earlier in England will be quite helpful.
Finally, I think this book will reinforce my notion that the country houses and estates are not just interesting, but important: it is a good thing for real wealth and investment, not welfare grants and solar panel schemes, to be drawn into the country and out of being hyper-concentrated in the cities. Such creates a broader base of wealth and acquaintances across the classes, and is largely the difference between the long-lasting British landed elite and the French nobility that was totally destroyed after moving to Versailles and leaving behind its people. So I hope this helps me learn how such a beneficial state of things could be brought back, if at all.
Get English Country Houses and Landed Estates
14. The Case for Colonialism by Gilley
This book is one I have been meaning to read since I heard of it, and I expect it will be increasingly relevant in the coming years. For one, financial imperialism remains and must be contrasted with the much more pro-social old ways of colonialism, methods that effectively mimicked in colonies the sort of drawing in of wealth that was affected in the domestic countryside by landed estates. Additionally, however, it was a book sparked by egalitarian furor. As the description notes:
"For the last hundred years, Western colonialism has had a bad name." So began Professor Bruce Gilley's watershed academic article "The Case for Colonialism" of 2017. The article sparked a global furor. Critics and defenders of Gilley's argument battled it out in the court of public opinion. The Times of London described Gilley as "probably the academic most likely to be no-platformed in Britain." The New York Times called him one of the "panicky white bros" who "proclaim ever more rowdily that the (white) West was, and is, best" and are "busy recyclers of Western supremacism." In this book, Gilley responds to the critics and elaborates on the case for colonialism. The critics have no evidence for their claims, he asserts. The case for colonialism is robust no matter which colonizer or colonized area one examines. Patient, empirical, humorous, and not a little exasperated by anti-colonial ideologues, Gilley here sets a challenge for the next generation of scholars of colonialism. "It is time to make the case for colonialism again," he writes.
So, it is important largely for those reasons. On one hand, it shows the path forward: colonialism was good and, because it was good, must come back, with its anti-egalitarian nature being a benefit for those who think the constant promotion of mass democracy a negative. Secondly, it shows how to rebut the arguments of those egalitarians who try using colonialism as a bludgeon with which to strike those standing up for hierarchy, claiming it to show all the evils of a system rooted in the natural hierarchy rather than societal leveling. Those arguments are always incorrect, but convincing to some, and so having the facts with which they can be rebutted is quite good.
15. The Collected Works of Jane Austen
This is a collection of books I started this year, as I was fortunate enough to get a fun and nice set of them for Christmas. Like Hillbilly Elegy, it might seem an odd choice, particularly as the books tend to be best liked by women, are love stories, and are novels.
But that is something of a misnomer: while true, it misses the reality, which is that these books are perhaps the best presentation possible of an anti-egalitarian world. They are about the upper middle class of England, and so show that large and influential class what is possible when egalitarian style laws like the income tax and Civil Rights Act aren’t dragging them down. They present a picture of a beautiful world, one that avoids, in its beauty, the usual perception of a non-democratic society as scary and totalitarian. Further, they show what a hierarchical world is like: tying in a great variety of the subjects mentioned above, from chivalry and country houses to noblesse oblige and traditional landed elites, they paint a picture of the socially beneficial and beautiful ways in which such a class functions.25
Altogether, that is quite different from most books and presents an attractive alternative to modernity. It is beautiful instead of ugly, civilized instead of calculating and slovenly, pleasantly Christian instead of antagonizingly atheistic, and hierarchical rather than egalitarian. That appealing combination is one that can’t be forgotten, as it and the ways of life that created it are broadly in line with what we on the right want out of change (far lower taxes, stable currency, homogenous society, good manners, low crime because of its merciless suppression, etc.) while presenting what it creates in a positive and gorgeous rather than scary light.
So, I think these books are exceptionally useful in thinking about and describing an alternative to the present that is appealing rather than terrifying to the average person.
Bonus: Something Fun to Read
This doesn’t much relate to the rest of this list, but a fun series I’m looking forward to reading this year is the “Galaxy’s Edge” series, one of the few well-written, modern science fiction series that is rooted in rightist thinking rather than Star Trek-style UN leftism. I’ve read some of it before, but not in the correct order, and not all of the books, so it will be fun to get all of the books and read through them in the order the authors recommend.
If there are books relevant to any of these you think I should read, please post their titles in a comment below!
Featured image credit: By Martin John Bishop, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4623847
I wrote about this here, if you’re interested: https://x.com/Will_Tanner_1/status/1876308366915764459
That's an excellent reading list.
By the looks of the subjects you're choosing, you'd certainly enjoy Peregrine Worsthorne's In Defence of Aristocracy
Recommend linking https://www.imperiumpress.org/
For Friedrich List over Amazon