The following is a short list of what I regard as “the red pill” books.
Many of them are "big picture" books that explain the ideas, values, and events that have shaped much of the modern world. Some of them explain what we got right and where we went wrong (and some offer steps to be taken to correct the mistakes).
The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion by Rodney Stark (I disagree with some of his conclusions. However, the book is still superb.)
Searching for Truth in Vegas, Hollywood & Bethlehem: The Quest to Discover if God is Real by George Sarris (A good book that is easy to read.)
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff. This book explains what is good about the social justice movement, but it also shows where the movement has gone wrong. Clear thinking and the freedom to express those thoughts are essential for people to be free. The following is a quote from the book:
There is a principle in philosophy and rhetoric called the principle of charity, which says that one should interpret other people’s statements in their best, most reasonable form, not in the worst or most offensive way possible.
Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe by Niall Ferguson (This book puts the most recent pandemic in perspective.)
Last Call for Liberty: How America's Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat by Os Guinness
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution by Carl R. Trueman. (John Anderson gave an interview with Trueman which is available on YouTube. Professor Carl Trueman | Hedonism and the Modern Psychological Self
Trueman’s book is very important for understanding the West's morality today, and how we got here. Many of the philosophers and theorists that have shaped the Western view of individualism and sexuality had a deep hatred of Christianity. Unfortunately, Trueman does not delve into the intellectual reasons behind this hatred. The West is in trouble because the beliefs on which the West were founded have been undermined. (Much evil has been done in the pursuit of "good" causes. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao believed that the crimes they committed could be justified because they were for the greater good. In Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov becomes capable of murder once he determines that the end justifies the means. The more westerners embrace the idea that the end justifies the means, the more capable of horrendous evil they will become. The emphasis on loving others and putting their needs before our own is being replaced with putting one's own needs and desires first. The more we return to the law of the jungle, the more rapidly Western society will collapse due to corruption and crime. "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom." - Benjamin Franklin)
Many atheists are drawn to the character of Jesus, but they cannot accept a God who punishes the innocent and acquits the guilty (See Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus's Death by Andrew Remington Rillera). They also cannot accept that God truly loves people if he allows them to suffer endlessly. (There are no good reasons for the Church to hold on to this doctrine. You do not have to believe it to be a Christian. See here.)1 People will not bother to learn about the God of the Bible while they regard him as unjust or evil. The following book looks at the biblical evidence against endless torment.
The Inescapable Love of God by Thomas Talbott
Many westerners are sickened by what they see in the Church today. Weakness and hypocrisy attract no one. They long for a Christianity which is characterised by courage, love, humility, and strength. That is why I recommend the following.
Prayer : Three "Unspoken Sermons" by the man who inspired C S Lewis (Prayer and the following recommendation are both extracts from volume 2 of Unspoken Sermons.)
The Way by George MacDonald. (I also highly recommend his book Donal Grant, edited by David Jack. It contains the original text with an English translation on each page. “I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself. Hence his Christ-like union of tenderness and severity. Nowhere else outside the New Testament have I found terror and comfort so intertwined.” - C.S. Lewis.)
The first five chapters of C.S. Lewis’ book Mere Christianity, in the section entitled “Right and Wrong: A Clue to the Meaning of the Universe,” and the chapter "The Great Sin."
No book has shaped the Western world as much as the Bible.
The Magna Carta of Humanity: Sinai’s Revolutionary Faith and the Future of Freedom by Os Guinness
The Rational Bible: Deuteronomy: God, Blessings, and Curses by Dennis Prager
The Truth and Beauty: How the Lives and Works of England's Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus by Andrew Klavan
No matter what your belief about the afterlife, you will find the following book worth reading. But if you can't get your head around challenging material, don't bother. This book is very deep.
Destined for Joy by Alvin Kimel (particularly the chapter “The Gospel as Story and Promise”)
Because Islam is the second largest religion in the world, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (which consists of 57 member states, only the UN is bigger) issues binding agreements that influence the laws of every nation where Muslims live (no matter how small the Muslim population, see "The Cairo Declaration of Human Rights" and the YouTube video "The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and its Role in Enforcing Islamic Law" by Stephen Coughlin) I'm recommending these key books about Islam.
Note: Sometimes you can see clearer when you're on the outside looking in, than when you're on the inside looking out. It's very hard for a Muslim to understand what it is like for a non-Muslim to live under sharia. Many Muslims would find the following books enlightening.
The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom by Mark Durie (For an example of Durie's sensitivity, clarity of thought, and ability to express those thoughts in writing, see his article "Australian Imams Stand up for Shariah." His book Which God? looks at the similarities and differences between the God of the Bible and the Allah of the Quran.)
After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East by Elizabeth Kendal. Some samples from the book can be read on the following. Who Will Lead the Muslims Today?
Islam and Science by Pervez Hoodbhoy (This book explains why science rapidly advanced in the Islamic world, and why it no longer does.)
Sword and Scimitar and ‘Defenders of the West’ by Raymond Ibrahim
The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS by Robert Spencer
Because most people would rather live in a wealthy country than a poor country under the control of a despot, I strongly recommend the following.
Wealth, Poverty, and Politics: An International Perspective, Basic Economics, and Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell ("Race, Culture, and Equality" was the speech by Sowell that first inspired me to start reading his books.)
The Government Against the Economy by George Reisman.2 Chapter 7, "The Tyranny of Socialism" is available here. Chapters 6 to 8 of Reisman’s book Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics are based on this book. (These chapters are available for free online here. Reisman's article, Why Nazism Was Socialism and Why Socialism Is Totalitarian is the article that helped me to see that communism can never work, no matter how decent the leadership is. And it was that article that inspired me to read some of his books.)
The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution by Barry Asmus and Wayne Grudem (If you live in a poor country and would like to see your countries GDP increase, read this book.)
The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek
The following book is a must read if you have a daughter (or female friend) in her teens or early 20s.
Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier
If enough Westerners do not admit that we have been heading down a dangerous path, and change the direction in which the West is heading, it is only a matter of time before we are under Communist Party rule, or Sharia, or some form of international mercantilism, where a wealthy few, own everything—and everyone.
Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World by Clive Hamilton
Because many academics have a deep hatred of the values and beliefs that have shaped the West, the following is important.
The War on the West by Douglas Murray
I recommend the following with some reluctance. It is certainly no Brothers Karamazov; but if you think America is fundamentally evil, and that it should be destroyed, you should at least understand what it is you are seeking to destroy, and what the results of your efforts will be.
How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps by Ben Shapiro
What about the Great Reset? Is it real? And if it is, should we be concerned? I’m not going to tell you what I've come to think about it, but I will say this, if you are not sure if it is real, and you want to know, read "An Offset for the Reset?" in Os Guinness' book Zero Hour America, and watch The Great Global Reset documentary which is available at Salem Now.
And finally, a warning.
1984 by George Orwell. This is where we are heading if we don't wake up soon. It is for good reason that Orwell's book is banned in China. They don't want their citizens to think for themselves.
There are many other books I could recommend, but these are the most relevant for where we in the West find ourselves today. (They are also very important for societies that are following the West's lead.) If you read these books before reading the great works of literature, you will have a sound framework through which to view them. (And you will be less likely to be led astray by the skill of brilliant writers, some of whom believed some very foolish things.)
1. And to be a follower of Christ, you can believe that Christ died for you, without believing that Jesus was punished by God in your place. See What's Wrong with the Innocent Dying for the Guilty?
2. “Every commentator on current affairs who is not a fully trained economist ought to read this book if he wants to talk sense. I know no other place where the crucial issues are explained as clearly and convincingly as in this book.” - F. A. Hayek, Nobel Laureate, in Economics for 1975, and author of The Road to Serfdom. (Chapter 7 of The Government Against the Economy is available for free here.)