Most Necessary for (Wo)Men to Know.

[la_marquise_de_]

So, back in the ninth century, having established himself as king of Wessex, Alfred the Great initiated a programme of education of his male aristocracy and oversaw the translation into Old English of a number of books he considered to be 'most necessary for men to know'. These were mainly religious, but also included Bede's A History of the

Comments

[watervole]

Three Men in a Boat - to remind us to never take ourselves too seriously.

[chickenfeet2003]

Well I'd be with Alf on Boethius and I would probably add Marcus Aurelius. I find stoicism almost the only possible way of coping with an increasingly impossible world. I'd want a transcript of the Putney Debates and Marc Bloch's "Strange Defeat"; as good a description of a society willing its own destruction as any I know.

[la_marquise_de_]

Those are all excellent choices. Bloch remains such a strong voice, despite movement on in theory.

[anef]

Thucydides - not that I particularly enjoyed reading him as a student, but his accounts of the Athenians and their struggles with empire are a primer of how not to manage stuff. The Sicilian expedition in particular often reminds me of current politics.

[la_marquise_de_]

I must read more of him!

[anna_wing]

I've been away, so I'm seeing this for the first time, sorry. My (many) suggestions:

Lord Chesterfield: Letters
Michel de Montaigne: Essays
Isaiah Berlin: "The Hedgehog and the Fox"
Daniel Kahneman: "Thinking Fast and Slow"
John Keegan: "The Mask of Command"
Niccolo Machiavelli: "The Discourses"; "The Prince"
Sun Zi: "The Art of War"
Helmut von Moltke: "The Art of War, selected writings"
Lee Kuan Yew: "The Singapore Story"; "From Third World To First"
Nassim Taleb: "Fooled By Randomness"
Epicurus: Writings
Aristotle: The Art of Rhetoric
Eric Hoffer: The True Believer

[la_marquise_de_]

Those are very interesting: thank you!

[anna_wing]

I've been away, with not a lot of internet access, so they're a bit late, sorry.