Reading Classics

Not everyone received a Trivium education at Eton and Cambridge so they could take a Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) degree to be a Parliamentary assistant or SIS analyst. But all of the same books are available in physical and online libraries, free of charge.

The Constitution

De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae (c. 1230s–1250s) by Henry de Bracton
Medieval synthesis of English common law influenced by Roman law.
The Institutes of the Lawes of England (1628) by Edward Coke
Foundational 17th-century source on common law and constitutional precedent.
Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769) by William Blackstone
The cornerstone of English legal commentary.
Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament (1844) by Erskine May
Still used today by Parliament.
The English Constitution (1867) by Walter Bagehot
Explains how constitutional monarchy and Cabinet government function in practice.
Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885) by A.V. Dicey
Definitive exposition of parliamentary sovereignty and rule of law.
Lectures on the Relation Between Law and Public Opinion in England During the Nineteenth Century (1905), by Albert Venn Dicey
Explores the interplay of constitutional law and Victorian political philosophy.
The Constitutional History of England (1908) by F.W. Maitland
Historical depth from a leading Edwardian legal historian.

England & Englishness

The History of England (6 vols) (1754–1761) by David Hume
The History of England from the Accession of James II (1848–1855) by Thomas Babington Macaulay
A Short History of the English People (1874) by J.R. Green
The History of the Norman Conquest of England (1867–1879) by Edward Freeman
The Constitutional History of England in Its Origin and Development (1873–1878) by William Stubbs
Essays and Selected Writings by T.E. Hulme
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904); Heretics (1905); Orthodoxy (1908) by G.K. Chesterton
History of England (1926) by G.M. Trevelyan
The Age of Chivalry, The Age of Elegance, The Years of Endurance (1930s–1950s) by Arthur Bryant
Memory Hold-the-Door (1940) by John Buchan
The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius (1941) by George Orwell
The Abolition of Man (1943) by C.S. Lewis
Two Cheers for Democracy (1951) by E.M. Forster
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956–1958) by Winston Churchill
Notes from a Small Island (1995) by Bill Bryson
The English: A Portrait of a People (1999) by Jeremy Paxman
England: An Elegy (2000) by Roger Scruton
Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination (2002) by Peter Ackroyd
The English and Their History (2016) by Robert Tombs

The British Empire

Of the Dominion or Ownership of the Sea (1635) by John Selden
The History of the British Empire in India (1837–1841) by George Robert Gleig
Expansion of England: Two Courses of Lectures (1883) by John Robert Seeley
Builders of Greater Britain (1897) by Various Authors (ed. H.F. Wilson)
The Rise of British Dominance in India (1902) by Sir Alfred Lyall
British Colonial Policy (1907) by George Louis Beer
Our Empire Story (1908) by H.E. Marshall
Statesmen and Sea Power (1927) by Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond
The Cambridge History of the British Empire (Volumes I–VIII, 1929–1959) by J.H. Rose, A.P. Newton & E.A. Benians
The British Overseas: Exploits of a Nation of Shopkeepers (1950) by C.E. Carrington
The Age of Empire: 1875–1914 (1987) by Eric Hobsbawm
Rise and Fall of the British Empire (1996) by Lawrence James
The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (1997) by Lawrence James
The Oxford History of the British Empire (1998) by Nicholas Canny et al.
British Imperialism, 1688–2000 (2001) by P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins
Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World (2003) by Niall Ferguson
The Empire Project: The Rise and Fall of the British World-System, 1830–1970 (2011) by John Darwin
Architect of Prosperity: Sir John Cowperthwaite and the Making of Hong Kong (2017) by Neil Monnery
The Case for Colonialism (2023) by Bruce Gilley
Empire, Incorporated (2025) by Philip J. Stern

Savoir Faire

Principles of Politeness, and of Knowing the World (1786) by Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The Honours of the Table, or, Rules for Behaviour During Meals (1791) by Rev. John Trusler
A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary (1797) by John Walker
Beadle’s Dime Book of Practical Etiquette for Ladies and Gentlemen (1859) by Anonymous (Published by Beadle and Company)
Martine’s Hand-book of Etiquette, and Guide to True Politeness (1866) by Arthur Martine
The Gentlemen’s Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness (1873) by Cecil B.Hartley
The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness (1873) by Florence Hartley
How to Behave: A Pocket Manual of Republican Etiquette, and Guide to Correct Personal Habits (1887) by Samuel R. Wells
Social Life; or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society (1896) by Maud C. Cooke
Debrett’s New Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners: The Indispensable Handbook (1999) by John Morgan

Austrian Economics

Principles of Economics (1871) by Carl Menger
Capital and Interest (1884) by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
The Positive Theory of Capital (1889) by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
The Theory of Money and Credit (1912) by Ludwig von Mises
Prices and Production (1931) by Friedrich Hayek
The Road to Serfdom (1944) by Friedrich Hayek
Individualism and Economic Order (1948) by Friedrich Hayek
Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (1949) by Ludwig von Mises
The Constitution of Liberty (1960) by Friedrich Hayek
Man, Economy, and State (1962) by Murray Rothbard
Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure (1969) by Murray Rothbard
The Ethics of Liberty (1982) by Murray Rothbard
The Mystery of Banking (1983) by Murray Rothbard
The Fatal Conceit (1988) by Friedrich Hayek
Austrian Economics: Tensions and New Directions (1992) by Bruce Caldwell
The Austrian School of Economics: A History of Its Ideas, Ambassadors, and Institutions (2011) by Eugen-Maria Schulak and Herbert Unterköfler

The Classics

The Iliad by Homer
The Odyssey by Homer
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Histories by Herodotus
The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
The Republic by Plato
The Ethics by Aristotle
The Poetics by Aristotle
The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
The Aeneid by Virgil
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
The Analects by Confucius
The Histories by Tacitus
The Confessions by Augustine of Hippo
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
Utopia by Thomas More
The Essays by Michel de Montaigne
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
King Lear by William Shakespeare
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
Two Treatises of Government by John Locke
Candide by Voltaire
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith
Principles of Political Economy and Taxation by David Ricardo
Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke
Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill
The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Ulysses by James Joyce
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek
The Constitution Of Liberty by Friedrich Hayek
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Poets

The Passionate Shepherd to his Love (1599) by Christopher Marlowe
Sonnet 18 (1609) by William Shakespeare
Sonnet 116 (1609) by William Shakespeare
The Flea (1633) by John Donne
Love (III) (1633) by George Herbert
To His Coy Mistress (1681) by Andrew Marvell
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751) by Thomas Gray
The Tyger (1794) by William Blake
A Red, Red Rose (1794) by Robert Burns
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (1807) by William Wordsworth
She Walks in Beauty (1814) by Lord Byron
Ozymandias (1818) by Percy Bysshe Shelley
La Belle Dame sans Merci (1819) by John Keats
To Autumn (1820) by John Keats
My Last Duchess (1842) by Robert Browning
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1854) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Dover Beach (1867) by Matthew Arnold
Invictus (1875) by William Ernest Henley
The Windhover (1877) by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Loveliest of Trees (1896) by A.E. Housman
The Lake Isle of Innisfree (1890) by W.B. Yeats
The Darkling Thrush (1900) by Thomas Hardy
Sea-Fever (1902) by John Masefield
If— (1910) by Rudyard Kipling
The Soldier (1914) by Rupert Brooke
Anthem for Doomed Youth (1917) by Wilfred Owen
The Second Coming (1919) by W.B. Yeats
Dulce et Decorum Est (1920) by Wilfred Owen
Funeral Blues (1936) by W.H. Auden
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night (1951) by Dylan Thomas