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Great Expectations

by Charles Dickens

The thing about classics is that they are always newly great. I reread Great Expectations at the end of the summer, and I was amazed at how much was fresh to me and how powerful the book is.



Robinson Crusoe

by Daniel Defoe

This summer I hiked 173 miles on the Little Missouri River between Marmarth, North Dakota, to the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The trip made me think about the basic rhythms of life. So, when I returned, much dehydrated and leaned up, I read Robinson Crusoe. It was a wonderful read. Jefferson believed that in civilizing (not Christianizing) Indians, the first two English texts should be Aesop's Fables and Robinson Crusoe. Of course, we now know that American Indians did not need Jefferson to teach them civilization.

Walden

by Henry David Thoreau

If there were only one American book, it would have to be Walden. I read this on the Little Missouri River. It's the only book I have read twenty times. Note: Don't blame Thoreau for not being John Muir. He was not trying to live in the wilderness. He was engaged in a simplicity experiment. If you read this book the way it demands to be read, it will change your life.



The Sorrows of Empire

by Chalmers Johnson

This is one of the most sobering books you will read this year. Johnson's view is that we are an empire, we want to be an empire, and that we do everything that is required to maintain our empire. The book doesn't have anything to do with spreading freedom and self-government around the world.

The Re-Enchantment of the World

by Morris Berman

This is a really fabulous book about how western civilization cut itself off from the life of the spirit, the life of the planet, and the soul's work. Thoreau wrote, "how many a man has dated a new era of his life from the reading of a book?" That's what happened to me with Berman's book.



When Trumpets Call

by Patricia O'Toole

This is a marvelous study of the post-Presidential life of Theodore Roosevelt. During the ten years following his retirement from the Presidency, Roosevelt went on safari on Africa, and he explored one of the last uncharted rivers in South America. He also ran for a third term, wrote one of the best Presidential autobiographies, and crusaded for progressive reforms in the United States. This is a very well written study of Roosevelt's "retirement" years. It does not necessarily put him in a wholly favorable light.



His Excellency: George Washington

by Joseph Ellis

I think Joseph Ellis has written some of the best analysis of the Founding Fathers. His American Sphinx is a quirky study of Jefferson, but marvelous in its wit and thoughtfulness, and his Passionate Sage (John Adams) is one of the best books I have read about that era. His Excellency is a fresh look at George Washington. Ellis reminds us of two parts of Washington's achievement that have not received enough attention: his commitment to do something about slavery, and his interest in seeing to it that justice was done to the Indian tribes of the West. For new reasons, Washington emerges as the greatest of the Founding Fathers, much greater in character than Jefferson.