Founding Father’s Library
A list of the most read books in the libraries of key figures in the American Revolution and the founding of the American Republic.
- Bibliographies: Founding Father’s Library: A Bibliographical Essay
- Collections: The Founding Fathers of the U.S. Constitution
- Collections: The American Revolution and Constitution
The Most Commonly Read Books of the Founding Generation
The Founding Fathers of the American Constitution made it clear what authors and texts had influenced their own thinking on the idea of liberty. Goodrich Seminar Room list and a few more besides. Lutz's "top 40" texts (actually 37) by frequency of citation by the founding generation are listed below.
Another source of information about what books influenced the thinking of the American founding generation are the lists of recommended books they themselves drew up. Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson drew up a list of key texts in letters they wrote and, in the case of Jefferson, he actually donated his personal library (twice) to Congress to create the beginnings of what is now the Library of Congress and also drew up a catalog for the University of Virginia library.
The "Top 40" Authors cited by the Founding Generation (with links to material in the Online Library of Liberty)
- St. Paul
- Montesquieu
- Sir William Blackstone
- John Locke
- David Hume
- Plutarch
- Cesare Beccaria
- John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon
- De Lolme
- Samuel Pufendorf
- Sir Edward Coke
- Cicero
- Thomas Hobbes
- William Robertson
- Hugo Grotius
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Lord Bolingbroke
- Francis Bacon
- Richard Price
- William Shakespeare
- Livy
- Alexander Pope
- John Milton
- Tacitus
- Plato
- Abbe Guillaume Raynal
- Abbe Gabriel Mably
- Niccolo Machiavelli
- Emmerich de Vattel
- William Petyt
- Voltaire
- John Robinson
- Algernon Sidney
- John Somers
- James Harrington
- Paul de Rapin-Thoyras
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Texts They Read
St. Paul
Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
- Persian Letters (1734)
- Reflections on the Causes of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (1734)
- The Spirit of the Laws (1748)
Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780)
- Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69)
John Locke (1632-1704)
- An Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690)
- The Two Treatises of Civil Government (1689)
- A Letter on Toleration An Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690s)
- Some Consideraations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and Raising the Value of Money (1691)
- On the Reasonableness of Christianity (1696)
David Hume (1711-1776)
- A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-1740)
- An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1751)
- Treatise: An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751)
- Political Discourses (1752)
- History of England(1754-1762)
- The Natural History of Religion (1755)
- Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779)
Plutarch (c. 46-125)
- Roman Lives
Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)
- An Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1764)
John Trenchard (1662-1723) and Thomas Gordon (?-1750)
- Cato's Letters (1724)
- Trenchard and Walter Moyle (1672-1721), A Short History of Standing Armies iin England (1698)
Jean Louis Delolme (1740-1805)
- The Consitution of England (1771)
Samuel, Baron von Pufendorf (1632-1694)
- Elementa Jurisprudentiae universalis (1661)
- De jure naturae et gentium (1672)
Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634)
- Institutes of the Laws of England (1628-1644)
Cicero (106-43 BC)
- De Legibus
- De Officiis
- De Oratione
- De Republica
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
- Leviathan (1651)
William Robertson (1721-1793)
- History of Scotland (1759)
- History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V (1769)
- History of America (1777)
Hugo Grotius (1583-1645)
- On the Law of War and Peace (1625)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
- Discourse on the Origin of the Inequality of Men (1754)
- The Social Contract (1762)
- Emile (1762)
Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751)
- The Freeholder's Political Catechism (1733)
- A Dissertation Upon Parties (1735)
- Remarks on the history of England (1743)
- The Idea of a Patriot King (1749)
- A Letter on the Spirit of Patriotism (1749)
- Letters on the Study and Use of History (1752)
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
- The Advancement of Learning (1605)
- Novum organum (1620)
- De argumentis scientarum (1623)
- Essays (1625)
- The New Atlantis (1627)
Richard Price (1723-1791)
- Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty (1776)
- Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution (1784)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Titus Livius (Livy) (59BC - AD17)
- History of Rome
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
- The Dunciad (1728)
- Of False Taste (1731)
- Of the Uses of Riches (1732)
- An Essay on Man (1733-34)
John Milton (1608-1674)
- The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth (1660)
Tacitus (c. 56-120)
- History of Germany
- The Histories
Coxe
Plato (c. 427-347 BC)
Abbe Guillaume Raynal (1713-1796)
- Philosophical and Political History of ... the East and West Indies (1770)
Abbe Gabriel Mably (1709-1785)
- Observations on the Romans (1740)
- Observations on the Government and Laws of the U.S. (1784)
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
- Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy (1531)
- The Prince (1532)
Emerich de Vattel (1714-1767)
- The Law of Nations (1759-1760)
William Petyt (1636-1707)
- The Antient Right of the Commons of England Asserted (1680)
Francois Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778)
- Letters on the English Nation (1733)
- Works (1751)
- General History and State of Europe (1756)
John Robinson (1575-1625)
Algernon Sidney (1622-1683)
- Discourses Concerning Government (1698)
John Somers (1651-1716)
- Vox populi, vox dei: Judgement of Kingdooms and Nations Concerning the Rights, Privileges, and Properties of the People (1709)
James Harrington (1611-1677)
- Oceana (1656)
Paul de Rapiin-Thoyras (1661-1725)
- History of England (1726-31)
Secondary Sources
Donald S. Lutz, "The Relative Importance of European Writers on Late Eighteenth Century American Political Thought," American Political Science Review 1984, no. 189, pp. 189-97.
Donald S. Lutz, "Appendix: European Works Read and Cited by the American Founding Generation," in A Preface to American Political Theory (University Press of Kansas, 1992), pp. 159-164.
Douglas L. Wilson, Jefferson's Books (Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1996). Originally published in Thomas Jefferson: A Reference Biography, ed. Merrill D. Peterson (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1986).
Thomas Jefferson's Library: A Catalog with the Entries in his own Order, ed. James Gilreath and Douglas L. Wilson (Washington: Library of Congress, 1989).
Trevor Colbourn, The Lamp of Experience: Whig History and the Intellectual Origins of the American Revolution (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1998). Colbourn has compiled a useful Appendix of "History in the Colonial Library", pp. 245-86, including a section on the history books owned by Thomas Jefferson, pp. 267-73.
Thomas Jefferson, "Letter to Peter Carr. Paris, Aug. 10, 1787," pp. 900-906 and "Letter to Robert Skipworth with a List of Books. Monticello, Aug. 3, 1771," pp. 740-45 in Thomas Jefferson, Writings (The Library of America).
The Library of Congress online exhibition of Jefferson's Library, August 9, 2001 at http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jefflib.html
Rick Gardiner's The American Colonist's Library: A Treasury of Primary Documents at http://personal/pitnet.net/primarysources/ Visited: August 14, 2001.
Bibliographies
- 18thC Middle Class Radicalism: A Bibliographical Essay by Isaac Kramnick
- Alexis de Tocqueville: A Bibliographical Essay by John Lukacs
- American Anti-Interventionist Tradition: A Bibliographical Essay by Justus Doenecke
- American Early Republic: Bibliography of Primary Sources
- American Revolution as a People’s War: A Bibliographical Essay by William Marina
- American Revolution: A Bibliographical Essay by Murray N. Rothbard
- Arthur Young: A Bibliography
- Bach’s Christmas Oratorio
- Bastiat: An Annotated Bibliography by Sheldon Richman
- Benjamin Tucker and Liberty: A Bibliographical Essay by Wendy McElroy
- Buchanan: A Bibliography of His Writings
- Chaucer: A List of His Works
- Chinese Classic Poetry: The Shih King
- Coke: Selected Readings on Sir Edward Coke
- Destutt de Tracy (1754-1836): An Annotated Bibliography by David Hart
- Economics and Ideology: Aspects of the Post-Ricardian Literature by S. Hollander
- Edmund Burke: A Select Bibliography
- Ethics in the 20th Century: A Bibliographical Essay by John Hospers
- Founding Father’s Library
- Founding Father’s Library: A Bibliographical Essay by Forrest McDonald
- Frank A. Fetter: A Bibliography
- Frank Chodorov: A Selected Bibliography
- Frank H. Knight: An Annotated Bibliography by Ross Emmett
- Friedrich Hayek: A Bibliography of his Writings
- Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912): An Annotated Bibliography by David Hart
- Hayek and Classical Liberalism: A Bibliographical Essay by John Gray
- Hugo Grotius and the Free Seas: A Bibliography
- Huss and the Church
- Idea of Progress: A Bibliographical Essay by Robert Nisbet
- International Trade: A Bibliography
- Jefferson-Hamilton Debate - Session 1
- Jefferson-Hamilton Debate - Session 2
- Jefferson-Hamilton Debate - Session 3
- Jefferson-Hamilton Debate - Session 4
- Jefferson-Hamilton Debate - Session 5
- Jefferson-Hamilton Debate - Session 6
- Jevons: The Writings of William Stanley Jevons
- Johannes Althusius: A Bibliography
- John Jay (1745-1829)
- Kantian Natural Law: A Bibliography
- Lachmann : A Bibliography
- Laissez Faire in Nineteenth-Century Britain: A Bibligraphical Essay by Ellen F. Paul
- Legal History: A Selected Bibliography
- Libertarian Political Philosophy: A Bibliographical Essay by David Gordon
- Locke and Religious Toleration
- Locke on Property: A Bibliographical Essay by Karen Vaughn
- Marxism: A Reading List by H.B. Acton
- Mercy Otis Warren: A Bibliography
- Monetary Reform: A Bibliographical Essay by Pamela J. Brown
- Natural Law: A Bibliographical Essay by Henry Veatch
- Natural Law: A Select Bibliography
- Petrarch: A Bibliography
- Property Rights and Natural Resource Management: A Bibliographical Essay by Stroup and Baden
- Pufendorf and the German Empire: A Bibliography
- Radical Individualism in America: A Bibliographical Essay by Eric Foner
- Ramsay, David: A Bibliography
- Reader’s Forum on Norman Barry’s “The Tradition of Spontaneous Order”
- Richard Cobden: A Bibliography
- Roscoe Pound’s Bibliography on Law
- Say (1767-1832): An Annotated Bibliography by David Hart
- Separation of Powers: A Bibliography by Vile
- St. Francis of Assisi: Bibliography
- Taylor, John: A Bibliography
- The Anti-Federalists: A Bibliography
- The Tradition of Spontaneous Order: A Bibliographical Essay by Norman Barry
- Turgot (1727-1781): An Annotated Bibliography by David Hart
- Utopia and Liberty: A Bibliographical Essay by Kingsley Widmer
- William Graham Sumner: A Bibliography
- William James Ashley’s Bibliographical Appendix to John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy