Ben Shapiro’s Recommended Reading

Image by Simson Petrol | Licensed under Creative Commons Zero

For a more up-to-date list, check here (Google Sheet).

Episode 243: On how Hitler came to power and factors that lead to the rise of dictatorship

• The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans

On illegal immigration and data analysis

• Adios, America: The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole by Ann Coulter

Episode 242: On other evil dictators of the 20th century that tend to go unnoticed

• Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang

Episode 241: On the depravity of dictators besides Hitler and Mussolini

• Franco: A Biography by Paul Preston

Episode 240: On fascism

• Mussolini by R. J. B. Bosworth

Episode 239: A memoir on growing up in a family with the looming specter of death; changing your life’s direction, and becoming healthy

• When We Were Five: The Diary of an American Family by Derek Gray

Episode 238: On teaching children what guns mean, why you have to be safe with them, how to be safe with them and what they do

• Safety On: An Introduction to the World of Firearms for Children by Yehuda Remer

Episode 237: On teaching patriotism to children

• I am George Washington by Brad Meltzer
• * I am Martin Luther King, Jr. by Brad Meltzer
• * I am Abraham Lincoln by Brad Meltzer

Episode 236: A French intellectual of the Left on the global rise of antisemitism partially due to the alliance between the Left and Islamofascism

• The Genius of Judaism by Bernard-Henri Lévy

Episode 233: On propaganda against the 1960’s Left

• The Plot Against America: A Novel by Philip Roth
• * American Pastoral by Philip Roth
• Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010 by Charles Murray

Episode 232: On debunking the myth of the lack on income mobility in the United States and the benefits of inequality with respect to markets rewarding risk

• The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class by Edward Conard

Episode 227: Elie Wiesel’s cousin, Jack Slomovic, on surviving the holocaust

• * The Memoirs of Jack Slomovic by Jack Slomovic, ghostwritten by Ben Shapiro

On the best of all possible worlds; on the meaning of Israel and the struggle of man to obey God in spite of present circumstance or lack of temporal benefit

• * Candide: Or Optimism by Francois Voltaire
• * The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Episode 226: On the economic and employment consequences of mass job replacement with technology

• ** The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

Episode 225: On comedic writing (see especially the audiobook)

• Based on a True Story: A Memoir by Norm Macdonald

Episode 224: On consequentialism

• * Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant

On a universal or guaranteed income

• * Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman

Episode 223: On key debates inside the conservative movement

• Patriotism Is Not Enough: Harry Jaffa, Walter Berns, and the Arguments that Redefined American Conservatism by Steven F. Hayward
• Natural Right and History by Leo Strauss

Episode 222:

• ** The Plot Against America: A Novel by Philip Roth

Episode 221: A glimpse at American politics in the 1930’s

• It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

Episode 220: On the history of economics in the 20th century

• The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw

Episode 219: On perspectives on the middle class

• Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

Episode 218: On Winston Churchill and on the justification of human action

• Churchill: A Life by Martin Gilbert
• The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, 1874–1965 by William Manchester and Paul Reid
• Churchill by Paul Johnson
• The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religionby Jonathan Haidt

Episode 217:

• The Second World War by John Keegan
• The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme by John Keegan
• Officer’s Professional Reading Guide by United States Military Academy at West Point

Episode 216:

• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

Episode 215:

• The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

Previous Episodes:

• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance
• Myths & Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict by Mitchell Bard
• The Beast That Crouches At The Door by Rabbi David Fohrman
• Exodus by Leon Uris
• The Source: A Novel by James A. Michener
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
• Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
• String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis by David Foster Wallace
• Ball Four by Jim Bouton
• Ghosts of Manila: The Fateful Blood Feud Between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier by Mark Kram Jr.
• The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate by Robert D. Kaplan
• The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
• Tragedy and Comedy by Walter Kerr
• The Professor in the Cage: Why Men Fight and Why We Like to Watch by Jonathan Gottschall
• Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
• ** The Whites: A Novel by Richard Price and Harry Brandt
• The Insanity Offense: How America’s Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens by E. Fuller Torrey
• The Once and Future King by T. H. White
• * The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Devils by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America by Barry Latzer
• Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
• Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
• * 1984 by George Orwell
• * Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill
• Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution by A. J. Langguth
• Modern Times Revised Edition: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties by Paul Johnson
• The Long March: How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America by Roger Kimball
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity by James Fitzjames Stephen
• The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe by Heather Mac Donald
• Wealth and Poverty: A New Edition for the Twenty-First Century by George Gilder
• Knowledge and Power: The Information Theory of Capitalism and How it is Revolutionizing our World by George Gilder
• The Scandal of Money: Why Wall Street Recovers but the Economy Never Does by George Gilder
• * The complete works of George Gilder
• Going Red: The Two Million Voters Who Will Elect the Next President — and How Conservatives Can Win Them by Ed Morrissey
• The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America by Barry Latzer
• Black Rednecks & White Liberals by Thomas Sowell
• The Quest for Cosmic Justice by Thomas Sowell
• Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Henry Hazlitt
• Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell

Episode 19:

• * The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles

No recommendations on the Ben Shapiro Show prior to Episode 19

Further Mentions:

• * Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke
• Mortal Peril: Our Inalienable Right to Health Care? by Richard Epstein

* 40 Books on Glenn’s Nightstand in 2016

• The American Miracle: Divine Providence in the Rise of the Republic Michael Medved
• Asleep by Molly Caldwell Crosby
• Because of Bethlehem: Love Is Born, Hope Is Here by Max Lucado
• The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Doug Abrams
• The Book of Mysteries by Jonathan Cahn
• Currency Wars by James Rickards
• Deception by Ken Timmerman
• Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Small Government Is Smarter by Ilya Somin
• The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
• The Fate of Empires by Arthur John Hubbard
• Flyover Nation by Dana Loesch
• Foreign Agent by Brad Thor
• Green Card Warrior: My Quest for Legal Immigration in an Illegals’ System by Nick Adams
• Hillary’s America by Dinesh D’Souza
• The House of Secrets by Brad Meltzer
• I Am George Washington by Brad Meltzer
• The Immortal Nicholas by Glenn Beck
• Into the Magic Shop by James R. Doty
• The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson by David Barton
• Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O’Reilly
• A Letter to Mary by Jason Wright
• Liars by Glenn Beck
• Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps by Burgess Owens
• Lowell Park by Mike Chapman
• Michael Vey 6: The Fall of Hades by Richard Paul Evans
• Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe by Robert Matzen
• A Nefarious Plot by Steve Deace
• Our Lost Constitution: The Willful Subversion of America’s Founding Document by Mike Lee
• Pendulum: How Past Generations Shape Our Present and Predict Our Future by Roy Willams and Michael Drew
• Progressive Racism by David Horowitz
• Retaking America: Crushing Political Correctness by Nick Adams
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
• Settle for More by Megyn Kelly
• So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
• Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History by Brian Kilmeade
• Tough as They Come by Travis Mills
• True Allegiance by Ben Shapiro
• unashamed, candid conversations about dating, love, nakedness and faith by Tracy Levinson
• Under Our Skin: Getting Real About Race. Getting Free From the Fears and Frustrations That Divide Us by Benjamin Watson
• War on Guns by John Lott, Jr.
• The Art of Being Free: How Alexis de Tocqueville Can Save Us from Ourselves by James Poulos
• Our Republican Constitution: Securing the Liberty and Sovereignty of We the People by Randy E. Barnett
• Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion by Paul Bloom
• F*ck Feelings: One Shrink’s Practical Advice for Managing All Life’s Impossible Problems by Michael Bennett MD and Sarah Bennett
• The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics by Peter J. Boettke and Christopher J. Coyne
• * The complete works of Whittaker Chambers
• * Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion by Paul Bloom
• People’s Republic by Kurt Schlichter

Books by Ben Shapiro:

America 2030: What the End of the Free World Looks Like, and How to Stop It (2017)

True Allegiance (2016)

People Vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against the Obama Administration (2014)

Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans (2013)

The Memoirs of Jack Slomovic by Jack Slomovic and Ben Shapiro (2012)

Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV (2011)

Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House (2008)

Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future (2005)

Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth (2004)

* indirectly mentioned

** mentioned, but not necessarily recommended

Ben Shapiro is Editor-In-Chief at The Daily Wire, syndicated columnist, host of The Ben Shapiro Show and The Morning Answer, National Review, NYT bestseller and can be reached at bshapiro@dailywire.com. This ever-developing list of book recommendations is principally from Shapiro’s “Things I Like and Things I Hate” segment of The Ben Shapiro Show. This post will be updated to reflect the release of new episodes and as the writer combs its archives. Note: if you know of a recommendation not included here, kindly leave a comment including the author, title and source.