Becoming Noble 2025 Reading List
The 15 books I'm most excited to read this year
This year I’m planning to refocus my output on the ‘core’ Becoming Noble subjects:
The practices and rituals of the great noble families
How to create legacies, rituals, and dynasties within your own family
The fertility crisis and how to address it
How to believe in God in modernity
I maintain an absurdly large ‘to-read’ list, and literally have overflowing crates of unread books at home, much to the annoyance of my wife.
To rectify this situation, I’m going to be more strategic about what I read this year. Out of all these books, these fifteen are the ones I’m prioritizing.
The list focuses on more obscure works in the hope that you won’t already be familiar with them. In no particular order:
The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy
David Cannadine, 1990
“At the outset of the 1870s, the British aristocracy could rightly consider themselves the most fortunate people on earth: they held the lion's share of land, wealth, and power in the world's greatest empire. By the end of the 1930s they had lost not only a generation of sons in the First World War, but also much of their prosperity, prestige, and political significance.
Deftly orchestrating an enormous array of documents and letters, facts, and statistics, David Cannadine shows how this shift came about--and how it was reinforced in the aftermath of the Second World War.”
The Eternal Woman: The Timeless Meaning of the Feminine
Gertrud von le Fort, 1934
“When The Eternal Woman was first published in Germany, Europe was a battlefield of modern ideologies that would sweep away millions of lives in war and genocide. Denying the Creator, who made male and female, Nazism and Communism could only fail to appreciate the true meaning of the feminine and reduce woman to a mere instrument of the state. In the name of liberating her from the so-called tyranny of Christianity, atheism, in any form, leads to woman's enslavement.
With penetrating insight Gertrud von le Fort understood the war on womanhood, and consequently on motherhood, that always coincides with an attack on the faith of the Catholic Church, which she embraced at the age of 50 in 1926. In The Eternal Woman, she counters the modern assault on the feminine not with polemical argument but with perhaps the most beautiful meditation on womanhood ever written.”
Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam
Raymond Ibrahim, 2022
“A riveting account of the lives and epic battles of eight Western defenders against violent Islamic jihad that sheds much-needed light on the enduring conflict with radical Islam.
In Defenders of the West, the author of Sword and Scimitar follows up with vivid and dramatic profiles of eight extraordinary warriors—some saints, some sinners—who defended the Christian West against Islamic invasions. Discover the real Count Dracula, Spain's El Cid, England's Richard Lionheart, and many other historical figures, whose true and original claim to fame revolved around their defiant stance against jihadist aggression.”
Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX
Andrew Willard Jones, 2017
“Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX explores the “problem of Church and State” in thirteenth century France by taking a detailed look at the lives of two men, Gui Foucois (Pope Clement IV) and Louis IX and the institutions they helped build.
It argues that the “problem” of Church and State did not exist in the thirteenth century. The spiritual and temporal powers existed, to be sure, but these were not parallel structures attempting to govern the same social space in a contest over sovereignty. Rather, the spiritual and the temporal powers were wrapped up together in a differentiated and sacramental world, and both included the other as aspects of their very identity.”
The Crisis of Modernity
Augusto Del Noce
“Del Noce maintained that twentieth-century history must be understood specifically as a philosophical history, because Western culture was profoundly affected by the major philosophies of the previous century such as idealism, Marxism, and positivism. Such philosophies became the secular, neo-gnostic surrogate of Christianity for the European educated classes after the French Revolution, and the next century put them to the practical test, bringing to light their ultimate and necessary consequences.
One of the first thinkers to recognize the failure of Marxism, Del Noce posited that this failure set the stage for a new secular, technocratic society that had taken up Marx’s historical materialism and atheism while rejecting his revolutionary doctrine. Displaying Del Noce's rare ability to reconstruct intellectual genealogies and to expose the deep metaphysical premises of social and political movements, The Crisis of Modernity presents an original reading of secularization, scientism, the sexual revolution, and the history of modern Western culture.”
A Handbook for Dissidents: The Spiritual Testament of a Samurai of the West
Dominique Venner
“We have comfort, knowledge, wealth. But our cities are crumbling, and our ancient homelands are not what they used to be. The worst rule the best. Money has become the exclusive standard of all value. Our historical memory is attacked and its symbols destroyed. Under the trappings of "democracy", we are not free. The causes go back a long way. But history never stands still.
The time has come for the Europeans and their brothers, the Amerikaners, to awaken and free themselves. How? Certainly not by retracing the steps that have led us here. We share a rich hidden Tradition, going all the way back to Homer, the repository of all the values we need for our future rebirth. Faced with the emptiness around us, the insane voracity of the financial oligarchs, the threat of an ethnic war on our soil, this "Handbook" sets out to awaken our memory, and allow us to think differently and rebuild our lives, our communities, and eventually our nations, out of fidelity to a higher vision.”
The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church
Vladimir Lossky, 1944
“In his classic exposition of the theology of the Church, Lossky states that the Eastern Tradition..."has never made a sharp distinction between mysticism and theology; between personal experience of the divine mysteries and the dogma affirmed but the Church."
The term "mystical theology" denotes that which is accessible yet inaccessible those things understood yet surpassing all knowledge.”
Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites: A Theme Illuminating American Social History
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, 1993
“Since the eighteenth century, generations have been schooled in utopian principles proclaiming total equality as the guarantor of liberty and justice for all. The egalitarian myth of a classless society was proffered as the unquestionable path down which mankind must travel to reach perfect social harmony.
This book does much to shatter these myths and provide a Catholic approach to the way society should be structured as seen by the Popes.”
The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation
James C. Russell, 1990
“While historians of Christianity have generally acknowledged some degree of Germanic influence in the development of early medieval Christianity, Russell goes further, arguing for a fundamental Germanic reinterpretation of Christianity.
This first full-scale treatment of the subject follows a truly interdisciplinary approach, applying to the early medieval period a sociohistorical method similar to that which has already proven fruitful in explicating the history of Early Christianity and Late Antiquity. The encounter of the Germanic peoples with Christianity is studied from within the larger context of the encounter of a predominantly "world-accepting" Indo-European folk-religiosity with predominantly "world-rejecting" religious movements.”
The Wild Places
Robert Macfarlane, 2007
“Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? That is the question that Robert Macfarlane poses to himself as he embarks on a series of breathtaking journeys through some of the archipelago's most remarkable landscapes.
He climbs, walks, and swims by day and spends his nights sleeping on cliff-tops and in ancient meadows and wildwoods. With elegance and passion he entwines history, memory, and landscape in a bewitching evocation of wildness and its vital importance.”
The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology
Edmund Husserl, 1936
“The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, Husserl's last great work, is important both for its content and for the influence it has had on other philosophers. In this book, which remained unfinished at his death, Husserl attempts to forge a union between phenomenology and existentialism.
Husserl provides not only a history of philosophy but a philosophy of history. As he says in Part I, "The genuine spiritual struggles of European humanity as such take the form of struggles between the philosophies, that is, between the skeptical philosophies-or nonphilosophies, which retain the word but not the task-and the actual and still vital philosophies. But the vitality of the latter consists in the fact that they are struggling for their true and genuine meaning and thus for the meaning of a genuine humanity."
Correspondence 1949–1975
Martin Heidegger, Ernst Jünger
“Beginning in 1949, the German novelist and essayist Ernst Jünger began a correspondence with the philosopher Martin Heidegger that lasted until Heidegger's death in 1975…
Jünger's and Heidegger's correspondence is of enormous historical interest, revealing how both men came to understand their cultural roles in post-war Europe. It is valuable as well for showing the emergence of themes pervasive in Heidegger's post-war thought: his cultural and political pessimism and his concern with the problem of global technology. The correspondence also reveals the evolution of a philosophical friendship between two writers central to twentieth century European thought, and the mutual influence that friendship worked on their writing.”
The World We Have Lost
Peter Laslett, 1965
“The World We Have Lost is a seminal work in the study of family and class, kinship and community in England after the Middle Ages and before the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution.
The book explores the size and structure of families in pre-industrial England, the number and position of servants, the elite minority of gentry, rates of migration, the ability to read and write, the size and constituency of villages, cities and classes, conditions of work and social mobility.”
Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness
Walter J. Ong, 1981
Demonstrating the importance of contest in biological evolution and in the growth of consciousness out of the unconscious, Ong also shows how adversary procedure has affected social, linguistic, and intellectual history. He discusses shifting patterns of contest in such arenas as spectator sports, politics, business, academia, and religion.
Human beings' internalization of agonistic drives, he concludes, can foster the deeper discovery of the self and of distinctively human freedom.”
An Essay in Aid of A Grammar of Assent
John Henry Newman, 1870
“John Henry Newman's seminal book on the philosophy of faith. Completed in 1870, the book took Newman 20 years to write, he confided to friends.
Newman's aim was to show that the scientific standards for evidence and assent are too narrow and inapplicable in concrete life. He argued that logic and its conclusions are not transferable to real life decision making as such. As a result, it is inappropriate to judge the validity of assent in concrete faith by conventional logical standards because paper logic is unequal to the task. "Logic is loose at both ends," he said, meaning that the process of logic initially depends on restrictive assumptions and is thus unable to fit its conclusions neatly into real world situations.”
I very much hope that some of you will take on these works as well, and that we can have a rich discussion on them further down the line.
Sic transit imperium,
Johann
I have Before Church and State and An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent on my reading lists as well. I intend to do a thorough series on Grammar of Assent. It seems very important for the current moment.
The overlap on your to-read and my to-read/have-read is notable. I have bookmarked this list because there are one or two others that look interesting.