Firebearer

The books

Curated, not exhaustive. Begun, not finished.

These are not here because they are prestigious. They are here because they form the judgment a man needs before he is given anything to decide. Read them slowly, in any order, over years.

Where a work is listed with its parts, the part is the unit. Plutarch is read a life at a time and each life counts on its own; the same is true of the plays and the books of Scripture. Nobody is asked to swallow a shelf whole.

Scripture

Ground conscience, duty, and the limits of authority.

  • The Old TestamentRead whole in time. Begin with these.
    • Genesis
    • Exodus
    • Joshua
    • 1 & 2 Samuel
    • Job
    • Psalms
    • Proverbs
    • Ecclesiastes
    • Isaiah
  • The New Testament
    • Matthew
    • Mark
    • Luke
    • John
    • Acts
    • Romans
    • 1 Corinthians
    • Hebrews
    • Revelation
  • Confessions · Augustine
  • Summa Theologiae · Thomas AquinasSelections.
  • The Rule of St. Benedict

Epic and Tragedy

Train the eye for virtue, fate, loyalty, and betrayal.

  • The Iliad · Homer
  • The Odyssey · Homer
  • The Aeneid · Virgil
  • The Oresteia · Aeschylus
    • Agamemnon
    • The Libation Bearers
    • The Eumenides
  • The Theban Plays · Sophocles
    • Oedipus Rex
    • Oedipus at Colonus
    • Antigone
  • Ajax · Sophocles
  • Philoctetes · Sophocles
  • The Bacchae · Euripides
  • Medea · Euripides
  • The Divine Comedy · Dante
    • Inferno
    • Purgatorio
    • Paradiso

Lives and History

Learn the patterns of rise, decay, and renewal — in men and in nations.

  • Lives · PlutarchRead one life at a time. Each counts on its own.
    • Theseus
    • Romulus
    • Lycurgus
    • Solon
    • Themistocles
    • Pericles
    • Alcibiades
    • Coriolanus
    • Alexander
    • Caesar
    • Cicero
    • Cato the Younger
    • Brutus
    • Antony
  • History of the Peloponnesian War · Thucydides
  • The Histories · Herodotus
  • The Early History of Rome · LivySelections.
  • Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · Edward GibbonSelections.
  • A History of the English-Speaking Peoples · Winston Churchill

On Rule

Understand authority, legitimacy, and the ends of government.

  • The Republic · Plato
  • Nicomachean Ethics · Aristotle
  • Politics · Aristotle
  • On Duties · Cicero
  • Meditations · Marcus Aurelius
  • The Prince · Niccolò Machiavelli
  • The Federalist Papers
  • Democracy in America · Alexis de Tocqueville

The list will grow, and it will be argued over. A book earns its place by forming men who go on to build something, not by reputation — and once in, it is rarely removed.