The Founding Fathers of the United States were among the best-read generations in history. Because of their extensive reading, they knew human nature was flawed, but also capable of greatness. That is why they constructed a government that divided power, gave each division the ability to check and balance the other, and insisted that only a knowledgeable and virtuous people could maintain a free government, even with the best of constitutions. They cited writers, historians, philosophers, lawyers, and statesmen from many nations across thousands of years of history. Here is a growing list of those books and authors that were in their libraries. This list will continue to be updated. (Last updated December 1, 2017)
PRE-CLASSICAL PERIOD
Sacred Books (Hebrew Bible)
- Torah (“Teachings,” Five Books of Moses)
- Nevi’im (“Prophets”)
- Ketuvim (“Writings”)
CLASSICAL PERIOD
Homer
- Iliad and the Odyssey
Herodotus (484-425 BC)
- The Histories
Thucydides (c. 460-c. 400 BC)
- History of the Peloponnesian War
Plato (c. 428-c. 348 BC)
- The Republic (c. 380)
- The Laws
- Rhetoric
- Poetics
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
- Nicomachean Ethics
- Politics
Demosthenes (384-322 BC)
- The Orations of Demosthenes (the Olynthiacs, the Phillipics, public trials, political speeches)
Polybius (c. 200-c. 118 BC)
- The Histories
Cicero (106-43 BC)
- De Legibus (“On the Laws”)
- De Officiis (“On Duties”)
- De Oratione (“On Oratory”)
- De re publica (“On the Commonwealth”)
Virgil (70-19 BC)
- Aeneid (c. 29-19 BC)
Titus Livius (59 BC-17 AD), “Livy”
- History of Rome
Plutarch (c. 46-125 BC)
- Parallel Lives (second century BC)
Pliny the Elder (23-79)
- Natural History (79)
Pliny the Younger (61-c. 113)
- Epistulae (“Letters”)
Epictetus (c. 50-135)
- Discourses
- Enchiridion
Tacitus (c. 56-120)
- On the Origin and Situation of the Germanic Peoples (“Germania”)
- Histories (c. 100-10)
- The Annals
Marcus Aurelius (121-80)
- Meditations
Sacred Books (the Bible)
- New Testament (first century)
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Justinian (c. 482-565)
- Corpus Juris Civilis (the “civil law”) (sixth century)
Henry de Bracton (c. 1210-c. 1268)
- On the Laws and Customs of England (mid-thirteenth century)
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
- Summa contra gentiles (c. 1259-65)
John Fortescue (1394-1479)
- In Praise of the Laws of England (c. 1468-71)
- The Governance of England (1471)
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
- Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy (1531)
- The Prince (1532)
Thomas More (1478-1535)
- Utopia (1551)
EARLY MODERN PERIOD
Michel de Montaigne (1533-92)
- Essays
Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634)
- Coke’s Reports (1600-15)
- Institutes of the Laws of England (1628-44)
Richard Hooker (1554-1600)
- Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (late sixteenth century)
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
- The Advancement of Learning (1605)
- Novum Organum (“New Instrument”) (1620)
- De Augmentis Scientarum (“Partitions of Science”), 1623
- Essays (1625)
- The New Atlantis (1627)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
- All the plays and sonnets
Hugo Grotius (1583-1645)
- On the Law of War and Peace (1625)
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
- Leviathan (1651)
John Milton (1608-74)
- Areopagitica: A Speech by Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, to the Parliament of England (1644)
- The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth (1660)
- Paradise Lost (1674)
Matthew Hale (1609-76)
- A History and Analysis of the Common Law of England (1713)
- The History of the Pleas of the Crown (1736)
James Harrington (1611-77)
- Oceana (1656)
Algernon Sidney (1622-83)
- Discourses Concerning Government (1698)
William Petyt (1636-1707)
- The Ancient Right of the Commons of England Asserted (1680)
John Somers (1651-1716)
- Vox populi, vox dei: Judgment of Kingdoms and Nations Concerning the Rights, Privileges, and Properties of the People (1709)
ENLIGHTENMENT PERIOD
John Locke (1632-1704)
- Two Treatises of Civil Government (1689)
- A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)
- An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)
- Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and Raising the Value of Money (1691)
- On the Reasonableness of Christianity (1696)
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
- Principia (“Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”), 1687
Paul de Rapin (1661-1725)
- History of England (1726-31)
John Trenchard (1662-1723) and Thomas Gordon (c. 1691-1750), “Cato”
- Cato’s Letters (1724)
- A Short History of Standing Armies in England (1698); Trenchard and Walter Moyle (1672-1721)
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
- All the works, essays, etc.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
- All the works, essays, etc.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
- All the works, essays, plays, etc.
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)
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
- The Dunciad (1728)
- Of False Taste (1731)
- Of the Uses of Riches (1732)
- An Essay on Man (1733-34)
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)
Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui (1694-1748)
- The Principles of Natural and Politic Law (1747)
Francois Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778)
- Letters on the English Nation (1733)
- Works (1751)
- General History and State of Europe (1756)
Abbé Gabriel Mably (1709-85)
- Observations on the Romans (1740)
- Observations on the Government and laws of the United States (1784)
David Hume (1711-76)
- A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40)
- An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1751)
- Treatise: An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751)
- Political Discourses (1752)
- History of England (1754-62)
- The Natural History of Religion (1755)
- Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78)
- Discourse on the Origin of the Inequality of Men (1754)
- The Social Contract (1762)
- Emile (1762)
Emerich de Vattel (1714-67)
- The Law of Nations (1759-60)
William Blackstone (1723-80)
- Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69)
Richard Price (1723-91)
- Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty (1776)
- Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution (1784)
Adam Smith (1723-90)
- Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
- An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
Catharine Macaulay (1731-91)
- History of England (1763-83)
Edward Gibbon (1737-94)
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88)
Cesare Beccaria (1738-94)
- An Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1764)
Jean Louis de Lolme (1740-1805)
The Constitution of England (1771)






