Il Milione- Marco Polo  (1300) 
Written in 1300 by Rustichello da Pisa, and recalled by the stories he heard from Marco Polo while they were in prison together. Polo traveled between 1271 and 1295. He traveled to the court of Kublai Khan, then through southeast Asia, India, and up the eastern coast of Africa, as well as stints through Asia minor, the steppes, the Caucasus and across Russia.  

Blood Meridian- Cormac McCarthy  (1985) 
Historical fiction set in mid 19th century southwest. The main protagonist is known only as “the kid”, and then later as “the man”. The kid is born in Tennessee, makes his way to Nacogdoches Texas, where he crosses paths with a man named Toadvine. They join a filibuster regiment that gets annihilated by some Comanches before being picked up by the Glanton gang, a group of malevolent drifters paid by the Mexican govt to hunt Apaches. The Glanton’s run afoul of everyone the come across because they cause trouble everywhere. Eventually the Mexican government puts a bounty on them, but what finally does them in is their own criminal behavior brings the wrath of an Indian tribe that exterminates most of them. The kid survives and we catch up to him later in life back in Texas, where he himself is killed by the Judge, an exceptionally intelligent, gifted, and perhaps the most malevolent of the entire gang. 

War Before Civilization- Lawrence Keeley  (1996) 
This book confronts the competing myths about the prehistoric past: Hobbes assertion that war was the rule that civilization holds back, and Rousseau’s contention that humans were generally peaceful until civilization’s notions of private property and monogamy brought in envy and strife. 
The book discusses the prevalence of war in pre-state societies; the tactics and weaponry; the casualties, profits and losses, and causes and contexts. It also spends an interesting chapter on the conditions of peace. Wars generally started then for the same reason they start now: someone committed some act of violence, and the root of that was probably economic. Peace can be maintained for the most part through institutions strong enough to mediate disputes and enforce the outcomes. But there also has to be incentive to maintain the peace- which essentially comes down to the ability to reap the fruits of one’s efforts. But war is one way to obtain things when there aren’t other options, and as long as people have a sense that they can’t get what they need through non-violent means, violence will persist as an option.  

There is also a discussion of why so many in the modern era believe the myth of the pacific past. Part of it has to do with a variety of factors that lead us to believe that our own civilization has failed, and as we get further away from primitive life, it is easier to imagine it might have been a pristine state. The problem is that such a view would lead us perhaps to wish for a return to such a state, which, if it turns out that it was worse, leaves us all in an even worse predicament. 

Life at the Bottom- Theodore Dalrymple  (2001) 
“The worldview that makes the Underclass” is the subtitle to the book. 
Theodore Dalrymple is the pen name of Anthony Daniels, an English prison physician and psychiatrist.  I’ve listened to him as a speaker (on YouTube) many times and always appreciated his insights. This is the first book of his I’ve read. 

The author looks at why patterns of self-destructiveness emerge in the English underclass, and writes that the ideas people hold are the source of their misery. The first part of the book is called “Grim Reality” in which he looks at various typical behaviors and their source. 

There is the dishonesty that so many show in acting as if they are merely pawns in larger forces, and therefore not responsible for their own actions. They have of course been told this, and since it furnishes them with an easy, ready-made excuse for their actions, they’ve jumped fully on board. Modern welfare states have also stripped the underclass of ambition and interests. With no fear of starvation and no hope of betterment, the only meaning they find is in entertainment and relationships. But entertainment breeds resentment by showing them a world they can’t have, and relationships, freed from obligation, become arenas for maintaining control.  

One of the ideas pushed is Multiculturalism. But it requires respect for mutually incompatible value systems, and there is no way incompatible systems can coexist without friction.  

A discussion of the consequences of the sexual revolution- the separation of sex from restraint was supposed to lead to freedom, but because the reality is that women are vulnerable to men, and the conflicting desires to have as many partners as one wants, yet wanting the partner remain faithful has led to disastrous consequences. 

One of the malignant educational ideas is that correction of those who are marginalized will lead to a further degradation of self-esteem, and is therefore to be avoided. The lack of correction is then seen as a stamp of approval on whatever behavior, and when correction is applied, it is considered arbitrary coercion, which should be resisted.  

Academics and Intellectuals, following Marx and in rebellion against England’s elitist past, have sown the ideal that there is no better or worse when speaking of cultures, only different. If there is no right or wrong, only different, then vulgar behavior and lack of restraint is easier, and more authentic and democratic.