Beck: A List of Books

From Billy Beck:

This will be a long post.

A mad impulse having overtaken me, despite Bob Hunt's periodic desperate harangues to get on with this for at least six months, I now set out to list some important books around here.

"Around here" means: the half or so of my library which is immediately within reach and not still languishing in boxes not unpacked from Atlanta. Like: the whole of Frederick Copleston's nine-volume history of philosophy, for instance. You won't see that in this list (or, perhaps, "these lists", which seems more likely as I sit here typing this at nearly midnight -- no time to start something like this, really) for the simple reason that it's not present for me to gather publication details. I know I could do that on the Web, but that would really go against the grain of what I have in mind. This is about real books that I've actually read and noted in my own hand. These are my books. I currently have my hand on them, which is not true of the entire collection, some of which resides in storage.

You will not see here trivialities like "Gravity's Rainbow", "Slaughterhouse Five", or "Catch-22". (I've read two of those three examples, with immediate regret for the time wasted on every page.) If that sort of thing interests you, there are any number of other blogs and Websites that will interest you more than what I'm about to put up. I therefore invite you to haul your narrow ass out of here, because I'm serious. I don't have time for rubbish.

I will begin at one end of my top shelf, and work through every book at hand, with no serious scheme of organization, principally because the physical objects in this space are not that organized. There are piles of them laying around here and there, as they circulate, which happens constantly. Last night, for example, I was reading Rose's "After Yalta", and had to get out of bed to retrieve volumes by Klehr and Haynes (the Yale University "Annals of Communism" series), Schlesinger, and John T. Flynn ("The Roosevelt Myth" -- 1948) for cross-indexing. This happens all the time, and the upshot is that my library is a very dynamic thing. It never rests.

Note that "every book at hand" does not mean that I will list them all here. What it means is that I will actively consider every one of them for this list. "Important" is a qualification that I will not quite make up on-the-fly. All these books are "important", else I would not have bought or read them. What it means here is that, in a single pass, these books stand out in my mind as eminently survivable of a purge. Something like: if I had to abandon this house and run out the door, I would linger over these titles and try to figure a way to take them along.

Here we go:

The Black Book of Communism, 1999, Stephane Courtois, et. al. -- Comprehensive catalogue of the consequences of a manifestly evil philosophy. Unprecendented in its global scope. All the rats in one bag.

Trotsky -- The Eternal Revolutionary, 1996, Dmitri Volkogonov -- People admire this man, to this day, for no other reason than that he opposed Stalin. This is like admiring Bugsy Segal because he was killed by the mob. Study his life and realize that one of the worst criminal mentalities of the 20th century was killed in Mexico by one of the worst criminal mentalities of the 20th century.

Hitler And Stalin -- Parallel Lives, 1991, Alan Bullock -- It's astonishing to me that it took until the last decade of the 20th century for someone to write this book, because the comparisons are so obvious. It was worth the wait, because Bullock thoroughly exhausts the comparisons. Indispensible.

The Soviet Tragedy -- A History of Socialism In Russia, 1917-1991, 1994, Martin Malia -- Although not extremely outstanding on any decent shelf of Sovietology, this is yet a very good recap of the history, worth inclusion in this list.

Let History Judge -- The Origins And Consequences of Stalinism, 1989, Roy Medvedev -- A crucial work of what I call the "loose-hair coif of history" school of Soviet apologetics condemning Stalin as an aberration.

The Great Terror -- A Reassessment, 1990, Robert Conquest -- The landmark study of the most virulent madness that the world ever saw.

Reflections On A Ravaged Century, 2000, Robert Conquest -- Worthwhile thoughts on why the 20th century went the way it went.

Russia Under The Bolshevik Regime, 1994, Richard Pipes -- The most finely detailed history of the Bolshevik Revolution and early USSR (1917-1924) that I own.

The Gulag Archipelago -- An Experiment in Literary Investigation, 1918-1956 (three volumes), 1973, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn -- An enormous look at hell rendered with the original 20th century aptitude for the work of the thing. Even after many years of familiarity with the worst Nazi crimes, this was shocking to me. It matches its 1900-odd page heft with psychic impact. Huge, in every dimension.

The Secret World of American Communism, 1995, Klehr, Haynes, and Firsov -- A history of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) documented from Soviet archives, illustrating its subversion and espionage. The state of the data, today.

The Soviet World of American Communism, 1998, Klehr, Haynes, and Anderson -- Essentially an extension of the preceding volume, detailing the CPUSA's intimate subordination to Moscow. Again: documented from Soviet archives. These two books present immutable facts against which there can be absolutely no rational argument.

Stalin's Letters To Molotov, 1995, Lih, Naumov, and Khlevniuk -- The mind of a monster, in his own hand.

Witness, 1952, Whittaker Chambers -- The statement of a principal in what is arguably the single most important direct antagonism in 20th century American politics: one man against another, each archtypical of world crisis at that moment.

Economic Theory of the Leisure Class, 1914, Nikolai Bukharin -- The golden-boy of Bolshevik economics attempts to sneer-off the Austrian School, twenty-three years before Stalin thanks him with a bullet in the back of the head.

Shattered Peace -- The Origins Of The Cold War And The National Security State, 1978, Daniel Yergin -- This is a period-piece, eminent for its generational take on the subject at hand. Finely documented, it works as cross-reference, even though its thesis (very roughly: "There are two sides to every story, so don't be judgmental unless you're ready to blame America, too.") is generally disposable.

Waging Peace And War -- Dean Rusk In The Truman, Kennedy, And Johnson Years, 1988, Thomas J. Schoenbaum -- An important Secretary of State's time in the crucible.

Russia At War, 1941--1945, 1964, Alexander Werth -- Enormous, panoramic view of the biggest fight in human history.

Barbarossa: The Russian-German Conflict, 1941-1945, 1965, Alan Clark -- Splendid rendering of all the special military aspects of the biggest fight in human history.

The Second World War (six volumes), 1948-1953, Winston S. Churchill -- If you only ever read one thing about World War II, make this that one thing. If you can resist the conclusion that Churchill saved the world (do struggle, dear reader), you will nonetheless have a better grasp of the worst woe that the whole world ever shared, altogether, than you could manage from any other single work on the subject.

The Twelve Year Reich -- A Social History of Nazi Germany, 1933-1945, 1971, Richard Grunberger -- This book comprehends Nazi culture in uncommon ways. Here's your feel for all the little things that people in those straits lived in those years, in one book.

Hitler's Justice -- The Courts of The Third Reich, 1991, Ingo Muller -- Nazi legal theory and practice: the complicity of a miserable profession in a wretched business.

Gestapo: Instrument of Tyranny, 1956, Edward Crankshaw -- An important examination of the mechanics of one species of totalitarianism.

Downfall: The End Of The Imperial Japanese Empire, 1999, Richard B. Frank -- The push & shove across an ocean that culminated on August 6, 1945 (Hiroshima). What the Last Days looked like in the highest councils -- on both sides -- just before the whole world turned on an atom.

Radical Son -- A Generational Odyssey, 1997, David Horowitz -- An important confessional. If you don't believe me, then track down your own copy of...

Free World Colossus: A Critique of American Foreign Policy in the Cold War, 1971, David Horowitz -- This is a marvelous example of 1960's "New Left" delusion at the height of its intellectual ambition. Where Horowitz used to live, and that's what makes "Radical Son" so important.

Letters To A Young Contrarian, 2001, Christopher Hitchens -- Instruction for the Angry Young Man, exquisitely rendered by a master of the life.

Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought In Twentieth Century America, 1997, Richard Rorty -- Know your enemy. That is all.

Vietnam: A History, 1983, Stanley Karnow -- "The First Complete Account of Vietnam At War". Consider that sentence very carefully, ladies and gentlemen. It's true. It's also important to understand that this book is about Vietnam at war, which is not the same thing as America at war in Vietnam. Read the whole book very carefullly.

Contract With America, 1994, Gingrich, Armey, and the House Republicans -- The Declaration of Foolishness, by stupid cowards who promptly got their asses kicked all over hell and half of Georgia by a nation that simply does not value freedom. Read it and weep. Personally, I laughed all day long.

In Defense Of Elitism, 1994, William A. Henry III -- 212 pages of fact and truth, shortly after the publication of which the author promptly died of a heart attack. His own mother said that it was probably all for the best, because Henry would not have to face the abuse he would take over this thing from all the caring and loving shitbags on the scene.

The Crisis Of The Old Order, 1957, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. -- A horribly maudlin thing: the kitty brings a ratty present to FDR's grave. If you think today's expiring hippies are nostalgic for utter nonsense, wait'll you get a load of this gummy paean to the second Great American Moral Adventure of the 20th century.

Tenured Radicals -- How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education, 1990, Roger Kimball -- A twit named Rudy Dutschke is often credited with announcing a "long march through the institutions" in 1968. This happens under the pens of ignoramuses who don't know Antonio Gramsci. Whole herds are marching, now, and Kimball's book illustrates how they're taught to step.

The Closing Of The American Mind, 1987, Allan Bloom -- A fairly feeble flail at an extremely important subject. Not stellar, but a keeper.

Socialism And War -- Essays, Documents, Reviews, 1997, F.A. Hayek (edited by Bruce Caldwell) -- A terrifically dense collection of articles illustrating Hayek's evolution from economist to philosopher through contemplation of events and issues of the 1930's and 1940's.

From Dawn To Decadence -- 1500 To The Present, 2000, Jaques Barzun -- If you want to get from Martin Luther to Martin Luther King, you have to go through Jean Jaques Rousseau and John Dewey.

The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud, 1938, translated and edited by Dr. A. A. Brill -- the drawings of the architect of the powder-room of philosophy.

The Rhetoric Of Reaction, 1991, Albert O. Hirschman -- the only book I've ever seen exclusively devoted to the the history of the logic of political stimulus and response, and where it all lays, today.

Critique of Pure Reason, 1781, Immanuel Kant (translation by F. Max Muller) -- Where the Enlightenment went off the rails for real.

The Papers Of Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Volume I, 1992, edited by Clayborne Carson -- The intellectual birth of a genuinely tragic American character.

Essays On Philosophical Subjects, 1980, edited by W.P.D. Wightman -- Adam Smith, the neglected philosopher.

The Fatal Conceit -- The Errors Of Socialism, 1988, F.A. Hayek -- This is the book that Hayek should not have written.

The Big Spenders, 1966, Lucius Beebe -- You might not know this, but America was once a place where gloriously rich people knew how to play with their money in a big, big way. Try to imagine Texans shooting holes in medieval tapestries with six-guns at their dinner parties, replete with solid gold baskets at table to catch the hot cartridges so as not to burn the antique carpets. And that ain't the half of it. This is a wonderful history of a culture savagely beaten to death by envy.

Carnage And Culture -- Landmark Battles In The Rise Of Western Power, 2001, Victor Davis Hanson -- A finely integrated history of combat according to a specific set of traditions culturally unique. Damned good argument.

Morgan: American Financier, 1999, Jean Strouse -- A fine biography of one of the most viciously and wrongly maligned Americans of all time: J. Pierpont Morgan.

The Prize: The Epic Quest For Oil, Money, And Power, 1991, Daniel Yergin -- Indispensible history of the oil industry.

Darkness At Noon, 1941, Arthur Koestler -- One of the very few novels you're going to see here. It's about a man whose beliefs led him to the bitter end, in Stalin's murder cellars. I took the name of my blog from this book.

Animal Farm, 1946, George Orwell -- A fable, of timeless pertinence.

A World Lit Only By Fire -- The Medieval Mind And The Renaissance, 1992, William Manchester -- There is a reason for Manchester's success: he's a splendid writer. Here, he takes up a subject fairly remote to the life of, say, a person who's crashed Harley-Davidsons, flies airplanes, and plays loud electric guitars, and I thank him for it.

Eichmann In Jerusalem: A Report On The Banality Of Evil, 1963, Hannah Arendt -- The most singularly probing examination of the actual character of Nazi monsters -- and their victims -- this book was an act of great courage. The questions in your mind will occur of necessity by implication.

Common Sense, 1776, Thomas Paine -- You can still read the original spark of The American Revolution, and you bloody well should.

The Fundamentals Of Liberty, 1988, Robert LeFevre -- A theoretical and historical exposition by a disgracefully neglected modern American libertarian.

God Is My Co-Pilot, 1943, Col. Robert L. Scott -- This is the first adult book I ever read, in the fourth grade. One man's fight to get into the fight, culminating in his command of the 23rd Fighter Group (successors of The Flying Tigers), in China.

The Count Of Monte Cristo, 1844, Alexander Dumas -- One of the finest adventure stories of all time, this book makes possible a belief in the existence of "indomitable human spirit".

The New Individualist Review, 1981, various -- This is a complete collection of The New Individualist Review, published at the University of Chicago, from April 1961 through Winter 1968. A deeply rich look at individualist academics living and writing the 60's. Very, very good.

Ayn Rand -- The Russian Radical, 1995, Chris Matthew Sciabarra -- This book is invaluable. This is the first full-blast examination of That Woman's philosophy to issue from academia, the province where she was never before tolerated. Sciabarra gets it all right, in a book so completely documented that I use it as a master index to her own works. Only ignoramuses ignore Rand, now. (Their huge numbers are meaningless in the face of this fact.) If you cannot bring yourself to read her in the original, you should stop being an ignoramus and read Sciabarra. He'll do you right.

Introduction To Objectivist Epistemology, 1979, Ayn Rand -- This book represents the premier advance in all of 20th century philosophy. In an era when thought was abused as pretense in practice, Rand was working out elements stretching back 2500 years in error passed down the ages. I was going to write that "Using the word 'thought' without grasping what this book is all about is a manifest irresponsibility", until I thought about it, and then I wrote it, deliberately.

The Virtue of Selfishness, 1964, Ayn Rand -- An ethical outrage, which the culture richly deserved.

Atlas Shrugged, 1957, Ayn Rand -- "The most subversive political implication of 'Atlas Shrugged', is that individual freedom is possible only to those who are strong enough, psychologically and morally, to withdraw their sanction from any system that coercively thrives off their productive energies." (Sciabarra -- "The Russian Radical", pp. 301-302) Say no more.

The Good Society -- The Humane Agenda, 1996, John Kenneth Galbraith -- It's not pretty to watch an old Nouveau Deal hack doddering down the road to ethical gibberish, but his reputation calls for it.

Economics In One Lesson, 1946, Henry Hazlitt -- This book has never been surpassed for its efficacy at putting economic principles before the average person for easy understanding of actual facts. H.L. Mencken noted Hazlitt as "one of the few economists in all of history who could really write," and it's true. He also knows his subject inside-out.

The Seduction Of Hillary Rodham, 1996, David Brock -- Hillary Rodham Clinton is the single most dangerously misunderstood character in American politics today. Do you understand? It's like living in a box with a monster, without seeing it. For instance: how many people do you know who understand her Christian background? Do you understand it? Do not read another single word about Those Horrible People until you read this, first.

Acid Dreams -- The Complete Social History Of LSD: The CIA, The Sixties, And Beyond, 1985, Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain -- Everything you know about acid is wrong, and I've got proof.

This Bread Is Mine, 1960, Robert LeFevre -- A sentimental favorite: this book was autographed and given to my father by LeFevre, and that was the dawn of libertarian culture in my family. 1969.

Leviathan, 1651, Thomas Hobbes -- Here's a hint: you know that word, "neocon", that's making the rounds lately? It's a pathetic joke, 350 years late.

The Origins Of Totalitarianism, 1951, Hannah Arendt -- "The philosophical origins of the totalitarian mind." A landmark study.

The Birth Of The Clinic -- An Archaeology of Medical Perception, 1963, Michele Foucault -- Every thinking person should have at least one ghastly French lunatic on their shelves. I have several, but this one is the most delightfully plumed of those in the 20th century.

The Wealth Of Nations, 1776, Adam Smith -- This is the beginning of "the dismal science" (economics).

The Worldly Philosophers, (sixth edition) 1986, Robert L. Heilbroner -- This charts the course of where the dismal science has ended up.

The Theory of Money And Credit, (English edition) 1953, Ludwig von Mises -- Murray Rothbard called this book "The culmination and fulfillment of the Austrian School of economics". I don't quite agree, but it is that important. Very technical. Put your thinking caps on.

Human Action, 1949, Ludwig von Mises -- This is the "culmination and fulfillment of the Austrian School of economics". It is the philosophical counterweight to Marx's "Das Kapital". And, for almost all of you out there, I'm the first person who ever told you that. You bloody well didn't hear it in high school or college, you poor mistreated bastards.

Socialism, 1922, Ludwig von Mises -- A stake to drive through the heart of the rampant delusion that should have been buried in the Enlightenment, but keeps rising to walk the earth, undead, right down to the present day.

Frederic Bastiat -- A Man Alone, 1971, George Charles Roche III -- Biography of the single most lucid Frenchman (I know: a miracle), ever.

The Holocaust -- A History Of The Jews Of Europe During The Second World War, 1985, Martin Gilbert -- One-stop-shopping for all the tragedy and horror.

The Anti-Federalist -- Writings By The Opponents Of The Constitution, 1981, edited by Herbert J. Storing -- If you have Hamilton, Adams, and Jay, then you're lopsided if you don't have this, too.

When Thunder Rolled, 2003, Ed Rasimus -- Sub-titled "An F-105 Pilot Over North Vietnam", this book illustrates the trip from idealism to the nitty-gritty, in one man's experience of the air war through one hundred rides Up North. Very well done.

Conflicts Of Law And Morality, 1987, Kent Greenawalt -- Incompetence rising to its natural level in a field riven with incompetence, while addressing a subject of enormous import with professional (academic) impunity. This one goes in the Horror section.

Anarchy, State, And Utopia, 1974, Robert Nozick -- If anything remotely libertarian has had any influence among the Eloi in the past thirty years, this is probably it. Some of them will know the title, anyway. It's worth quite a bit more than that.

A Theory Of Justice, 1971, John Rawls -- Well... that's what it is: "a theory of justice"... which is rather like calling Janet Reno "a woman": it just doesn't work, although you wouldn't know that from the influence this thing has enjoyed, at large.

Language Truth & Logic, (second edition) 1946, A. J. Ayer -- The first comprehensive statement of Logical Positivism, an utter disaster in philosophy.

Looking Backward: 2000-1887, 1887, Edward Bellamy -- Oh, for the days when commies were mainly dreamers with pens, instead of legislators in action. This edition (Houghton Mifflin -- 1926) includes the bonus of an Introduction by Heywood Broun, one of untold numbers of waterheads who lost their minds in all the "romance" of the early 20th century -- right about the time when the practice was starving people by the hundreds of thousands in Russia. Very stylishly comic, this novel.

The Politics, 350 BC, Aristotle -- This is the first systematic analysis of social organization in Western history. That's remarkable enough by itself, but it only gets better on realizing how pertinent it remains after all that time.

The Basic Writings Of Bertrand Russell, 1961, edited by Egner and Denonn, preface by Russell -- Eighty-one essays and excerpts from Russell, which was all it took to convince me that he is one of the most revered twits in modern history.

The Killing Of History -- How Literary Critics And Social Theorists Are Murdering Our Past, 1996, Keith Windschuttle -- A whole monstrous swath of academic fraud laid open, if you have the nerve to look.

In Retrospect -- The Tragedy And Lessons Of Vietnam, 1995, Robert S. McNamara -- The story of a man of enormous potential, who destroyed himself while doing his worst to scar this country forever.

Man Versus The State, 1892, Herbert Spencer -- Yet another seminal libertarian of whom you probably never heard, unless a professor was cursing him to everlasting hell or yawning in your face.

Zemke's Wolf Pack, 1988, Roger A. Freeman -- The story of the fabled 56th Fighter Group, led by Col. Hubert "Hub" Zemke, through combat in Europe, World War II.

Parting The Waters -- America In The King Years, 1954-1963, 1988, Taylor Branch -- A fine history of the best part of the Civil Rights Movement.

Pillar Of Fire -- America In The King Years, 1963-1965, 1998, Taylor Branch -- A fine history of the worst part of the Civil Rights Movement.

Economic Freedom, 1991, F.A. Hayek -- A marvelous anthology, including the single most lucid analysis of the phenomenon of inflation that I ever saw, a not-to-be-missed argument for privately-issued commodity-based currencies, and bits of Hayek's correspondence with John Maynard Keynes, with a lot more, besides. This is Hayek at the peak of his game.

Individuals And Their Rights, 1989, Tibor Machan -- An intensely focused presentation of the case for rights from metaphysics up through politics. Comprehensive, compact, and hard-hitting.

The Gonzo Letters, Volume II -- Fear And Loathing In America, 2000, Hunter S. Thompson -- Thompson's correspondance, outlandish and audacious as you'd expect, but also probably more thoughtful than you might expect. This is Thompson laying the meat of the bat on the ball: the years when he had serious things to say and the voice with which to say them. Beginning in 1968, this collection surpasses Volume I with its maturity of the man's journalism.

Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72, 1973, Hunter S. Thompson -- If you look around the 'net, you'll see various morons attributing the publication of this book to 1972. They're fucking morons, which means: none of them are bright enough to get past stuff like the outrageous allegation of Thompson's doing LSD with John Chancellor. "Like, wow, man, that's so groovy..." (>boot< "Just shut the fuck up, moron.") This book is the first fully-penetrating look at the state of American politics in the second half of the 20th century, and arguably the first book on politics in all of American history in which the brutality of the prose matched its subject, blow-for-blow.

Present At The Creation -- My Years In The State Department, 1969, Dean Acheson -- A very dubious character presses a cunning intellect through the mid-century crucible and into your hand for a low, low price. Despicable, but illuminating.

The Best And The Brightest, 1972, David Halberstam -- A history of incompetence fulfilling its destiny.

The Vampire Economy -- Doing Business Under Fascism, 1939, Guenter Reiman -- Your average American these days is very likely to agree with the proposition that Nazi Germany represented some sort of "capitalism". That's because your average American these days is a walking, talking rutabaga, with no remotely discernable grasp of the simplest facts more than about thirty days aft of his own ass. Here is a book -- researched on the scene, at the moment -- which could probably not shake loose the ethical deformities taken root in a rutabaga's so-called "mind", but, at least, it would bore them to pieces with the actual data.

The Counsels, Civil And Moral, 1597, Francis Bacon -- Very good Enlightenment remarks on attributes of human character.

The Influence Of Sea Power Upon History, 1892, Alfred Thayer Mahan -- This book was a rage 112 years ago. It swept the whole world with awe at its author's synthesis of ancient political truths with Industrial Age technical outlook. And it was a turning point away from the warning ("foreign entanglements") in George Washington's Farewell Address, toward an American imperialism. Teddy Roosevelt thought it was just boss.

The Rage And The Pride, 2002, Oriana Fallaci -- Hell holds no fury like that of an Italian firebrand shaking the dust of the World Trade Center out of her hair. Look out.

Blood, Class, And Nostalgia -- Anglo-American Ironies, 1990, Christopher Hitchens -- A very curiously neglected book attending a very curiously neglected subject: the cross-imperial relationship between Britain and America, holding hands through history. Exemplary Hitchens.

The Roosevelt Myth, 1948, John T. Flynn -- Sobriety. In the face of generations of drunkeness.

America's Search For Economic Stability -- Monetary And Fiscal Policy Since 1913, 1992, Kenneth Weiher -- A very good, sharply technical, history of facts and consequences.

The Metaphysical Club: A Story Of Ideas In America, 2001, Louis Menand -- The story of four crabbed and crippled people -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Charles Sanders Pierce, William James, and John Dewey -- who grew up to advance their various scars and scabs through American culture in the form of everlasting disgrace: Pragmatism.

Economics And The Public Welfare: A Financial And Economic History of The United States, 1914-1946., 1949, Benjamin M. Anderson -- Another great compendium of facts and implications.

The Keynesian Episode -- A Reassessment, 1979, Wm. H. Hutt -- A fine economic analysis of the subject, which does not neglect its political implications.

Only Yesterday -- An Informal History Of The 1920's, 1931, Frederick Lewis Allen -- An immensely engaging look at America just beginning to outgrow itself.

The Age Of Reason, 1793, Thomas Paine -- Ninety-five years after publication, the florid dingbat Theodore Roosevelt was referring to Paine as "that filthy little atheist" on account of this book. A person like Roosevelt could have been predicted to choke on it, inept as he was to deal with the questions about religion that Paine raised, and which are still compelling.

What Is To Be Done?, 1902, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin -- A professional revolutionary's incitements.

The Art Of War, c. 350 BC, Sun Tzu (translation by Samuel B. Griffith) -- The oldest formal treatise on war in existence, the essential principles of which have remained pertinent throughout history.

Selected Works (three volumes), 1897-1923, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin -- Again: "Know your enemy."

Das Kapital, 1867, Karl Marx --Still: the predominant rationale for the worst evil in the modern world.