The Mondo Politico Library
The Full Text of Some of the World's Most Important Political Books, Online and Free
Here, in the Mondo Politico Library, you will find a growing collection of fiction and non-fiction books of a political nature. Mondo Politico is preparing a broad selection of political classics for your online enjoyment and will add each one as soon as it is completed.
At present, you will find here Mondo Politico's presentation of:
| "1984" has long been the first book to which we have turned for a vivid picture of a government that has used war to justify infringement on freedom; that has used speech codes to limit everyone's ability to understand higher concepts or concepts that favour human individuality; that uses powerful media to build unwarranted consensus and rewrite history; and that has used technology to nip political opposition and individualistic or eccentric practices in the bud. Far from being a caricature, it insightfully and skillfully characterizes the tendencies and motivations of unlimited government power, and the horrifying, hopeless result of such government: humanity denied its freedom to think, to be rational, and to dissent...its freedom to be human.....(Click Here to start reading "1984") |
| Written as a "fairy story" (Orwell titled the book "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story"), the subject of Animal Farm is very much aimed at an adult audience. Orwell paints a vivid picture of a violent political revolution of farm animals against the farmer who owns all, works the animal population hard, sends their offspring to slaughter, and feeds them little. Arguably not critical of revolution itself, Orwell describes an all-to-familiar corruption that undermines the goal of the revolution: in which those leading the revolution rally the masses not so much for the good of the masses, but so that the leaders can assume the role of master, complete with all of the oppressive conduct that goes with an authoritarian regime....(Click Here to start reading "Animal Farm") |
| Though not recognized by some as such, the message in Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" is timeless. As he says in the booklet's opening: "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested. The laying of a Country desolate with Fire and Sword, declaring War against the natural rights of all Mankind, and extirpating the Defenders thereof from the Face of the Earth, is the Concern of every Man to whom Nature hath given the Power of feeling; of which Class, regardless of Party Censures, is the AUTHOR." Click Here to read "Common Sense". |
| The spread of communism was not sparked by the heavy theory of Karl Marx's "Das Kapital". Rather, it was the simplified theory and spirited call for action in Marx and Engels' "Communist Manifesto". Consider the authors' concluding lines: "The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!" Click Here to read the "Communist Manifesto". |
| What is the origin of individual freedom and limited government? Is democracy enough to guarantee freedom, or is a morality required? What role has Christianity played in explaining the origins or nature of freedom? In two speeches given to the Bridgnorth Institute in 1877, Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton (perhaps best known for his statement about absolute power corrupting absolutely) traces the history of freedom from the time of the Greeks through to the American Declaration of Independence. In his first address, "The History of Freedom in Antiquity", Lord Acton gives an enlightening review of the experiments in democracy and republicanism that pre-dated Christianity, and submits that Jesus' words - rendering unto Caesar only that which belongs to Caesar - specified a division of powers and a blueprint for fending-off absolutist government. In his second address, "The History of Freedom in Christianity", Lord Acton gives an account of the tugs of war between religion and state that eventually gave rise first, in Britain, to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and then, in America, to the Declaration of Independence. These two addresses are must-reads for students of individual freedom. |
 Individualist Anarchism vs. Communist Anarchism and Libertarianism | What is individualist anarchism? What is Communist Anarchism? What is Libertarianism? How are they related, and what is the history of each? Should true Libertarians join a Libertarian political party, or any political party at all for that matter? These and other interesting questions are addressed by Wendy McElroy in her important 1981 speech, "Individualist Anarchism v. Communist Anarchism and Libertarianism". Click Here to read it. |
 The Law | What is law? Where does government get its authority to use force? What is the scope of the power held by government? What happens to society when government ignores limits on the scope of its power, and establishes for itself the power to violate individual rights of life, liberty and/or property? Is taxation theft? These are the questions focussed upon by Bastiat in his famous pamphlet, "The Law". Click Here to read "The Law". |
| Adolf Hitler was instrumental in the formation and growth of the National Socialist German Workers' Party in Germany (the NSDAP, or "Nazi" party). He was imprisoned following his failed "Beerhall Putsch" of November 11, 1923. While in Landsberg prison, he dictated a book to fellow inmate Rudolf Hess that, in 1925, was released as "Mein Kampf" (meaning "My Struggle"). In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany. Under Hitler, Germany was set on a course of German "nationalism": a state only for persons who were held to be "Germans". The quest to extend German jurisdiction, and "Germanism", over much if not all of continental Europe eventually led to the second world war. No person who speaks with any authority about Adolf Hitler, Naziism, or the holocaust has neglected to read Hitler's "Mein Kampf", which provides both Hitler's history of the NSDAP and a de facto warning about the sorts of changes that were to be made in Germany under the government of Adolf Hitler. Click Here to read an English translation of Mein Kampf. |
| Andrew Petter's article, "Federalism and the Myth of the Federal Spending Power", is an in-depth examination of how, in a federal state, a federal government can free itself from constitutional limitations on its jurisdiction. Although Petter is discussing the situation in Canada in particular, his insights transcend Canadian politics by demonstrating a federal government's willingness to disregard constitutional limits on its jurisdiction, a provincial/state government's willingness to allow a violation of its legal rights in exchange for federal cash infusions, an academic community's (often politically-motivated) tendency to justify a government's disregard for jurisdictional limits, and a people's complete lack of any detailed awareness of the existence or importance of limits on legislative power in a federal state. Click Here to read "Federalism and the Myth of the Federal Spending Power". |
 The Social Contract | What gives a government a right to make laws and use physical force against the governed? Are the rights of individuals compatible with government? If so, how? And what, exactly, is the nature of the "social contract" that politicians, even in our time, continue to make reference to? Some particularly famous answers to these and related questions were provided by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his book, "The Social Contract". Click Here to read the G.D.H. Cole English translation. |
| In his book "Social Credit", Major Clifford Hugh Douglas argued that increases in productivity - resulting as they do from innovation and technological advancement over time - are a "cultural heritage" that belongs not to banks but to all members of society. His message was clear: under the current system of banking, the citizenry are prevented from benefitting from their own cultural heritage, and this leaves them increasingly indebted to banks, and unable to reduce, over time, the portion of their lives that they spend working and simply trying to survive. Under social credit, Douglas foresaw a decrease in work and an increase in leisure or, at least, the opportunity to work less if one were so to choose. Politically, Social Credit was - and remains - most influential in Canada, though the social credit movement, even today, can be found in much of the commonwealth. Click Here to read "Social Credit". |
 The Wealth of Nations | Drawing on examples from around the world, Adam Smith's book "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" demonstrated that free markets and competition actually reduce poverty and generally improve the standard of living. The Wealth of Nations provided the intellectual underpinnings for the following century of free trade and economic expansion....(Click Here to start reading "The Wealth of Nations")
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 What is Property? | Is Property actually...theft? So stated Pierre Joseph Proudhon in his two Memoirs on the subject of property and government entitled "What is Property?: An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government". Written in 1840 and 1841, this work was particularly important in the development both of anarchism and communism. Proudhon was arguably the first person to label himself an "anarchist". Click Here to start reading "What is Property?". This version was translated from the original french by individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker in 1890. It includes a section entitled "Front Matter" that gives a detailed account of Pierre Proudhon's life and work. |
In the weeks and months to come, we will be adding such classic (and often controversial) titles as:
- Republic (Plato)
- Leviathan (Hobbes)
- Locke's Second Treatise of Government
- On Liberty (Mill)
- Rights of Man (Paine)
- Das Kapital (Marx)
- Anthem (Rand)
and much, much more. So bookmark Mondo Politico, and keep coming back to see what we've added to the bookshelf.
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