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Ross Douthat books: every book Ross Douthat wrote and recommended
Across 4 podcasts. Every show Ross Douthat appears on, in one place — not just one.
Books by Ross Douthat
Ross Douthat’s most recommended books
- After by Bruce Greyson
- Mind and Cosmos by Thomas Nagel
- Modern Physics and Ancient Faith by Stephen M. Barr
- Living with a Wild God by Barbara Ehrenreich
- Living in Wonder by Rod Dreher
- The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
- De Gaulle by Julian Jackson
- Modern Trial Advocacy by Steven Lubet
- Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Ross Douthat appears as a guest on prominent interview programs like The Ezra Klein Show and Interesting Times, where conversations frequently explore American politics, religion, philosophy, consciousness, and historical analysis. As a cultural and political commentator, Douthat often recommends books that grapple with existential questions, religious faith, scientific frameworks, and memoirs of historical transition. Among his philosophical and scientific recommendations are Stephen M. Barr's Modern Physics and Ancient Faith, which he highlights as a survey bridging physics and religion, and Thomas Nagel's Mind and Cosmos, praised for its critique of materialist worldviews. He has also directed audiences toward Bruce Greyson's After to examine near-death experiences and consciousness. In the realm of memoir and history, Douthat has recommended Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory for its evocative recollections of a Russian aristocratic boyhood prior to the revolution, alongside Julian Jackson's biography of Charles de Gaulle. Furthermore, demonstrating an interest in classic literature and family reading traditions, he has recommended Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island as a foundational adventure novel. Through these selections, Douthat showcases an intellectual curiosity that spans metaphysics, historical biography, and enduring literature.
Books recommended by Ross Douthat
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After
After by Bruce Greyson is a scientific exploration of near-death experiences written by a psychiatrist and neuroscientist from the University of Virginia who spent decades researching the phenomenon.
Recommended“I think people who are interested in this subject, interested in the conversation, one recommendation would be a book called After by Bruce Grayson, who's a I think psychiatrist or neuroscientist from the University of Virginia”
Where to get it
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Mind and Cosmos
Mind and Cosmos by Thomas Nagel is a concise philosophical work by a prominent non-religious thinker that challenges the fundamental limits, assumptions, and problems of a strictly materialist framework on the world.
Recommended“um but a book called Mind and Cosmos by Thomas Nagel was a famous philosopher not religious but arguing for the fundamental limits and problems with a materialist framework on the world and it is a very short book”
Where to get it
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Modern Physics and Ancient Faith
Modern Physics and Ancient Faith by Stephen M.
Recommended“The first one is a book called from about 20 years ago by a physicist named Steven Bar called ancient physics and modern faith. That is I think despite being a little bit dated is still really the best overall survey”
Where to get it
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Living with a Wild God
Living with a Wild God by Barbara Ehrenreich is a reflective memoir that chronicles a well-known secular atheist's unexpected encounters with profound and mysterious religious experiences.
Discussed“Famous left liberal writer wrote a whole book called and a famous atheist. yes. famous atheist called Living with a Wild God, right? And it was just a book about a very secular person who had a lot of religious experiences”
Where to get it
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Living in Wonder
Living in Wonder by Rod Dreher is a book that explores the return of the supernatural, spiritual experiences, encounters with God, and growing cultural anxieties regarding an artificial intelligence-driven future.
Discussed“And then your latest book, “Living in Wonder,” was about the return of the supernatural, and also about anxieties about an A.I. future.”
Where to get it
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The Benedict Option
The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher is a controversial political and cultural book that examines how religious communities can navigate an increasingly secular society.
Discussed“You wrote a book called “The Benedict Option” in the mid-2010s that crystallized a sense of Christian disillusionment with politics and disengagement with politics.”
Where to get it
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The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.
Discussed“So Anduril, it’s a Tolkien reference to what I know the answer, but some people might not. So the name is a conscious nerd detector. So we have identified you as such. The reference Anduril is aragorn’s sword in the Lord of the Rings. It is the flame of the West is, I think, the elven translation. There are narsil”
Where to get it
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De Gaulle
De Gaulle by Julian Jackson is an exhaustive and critically acclaimed biographical study of Charles de Gaulle, chronicling the life of the iconic French military leader, wartime resistance hero, and statesman.
Recommended“Uh I will recommend uh Julian Jackson's biography of Charles de Gaulle [snorts] on general principles.”
Where to get it
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Modern Trial Advocacy
Modern Trial Advocacy by Steven Lubet is a comprehensive instructional manual on courtroom litigation techniques used by lawyers and law students.
Recommended“Uh the first one is a book called from about 20 years ago by a physicist named Steven Bar called ancient physics and modern faith. Uh that is I think despite being a little bit dated is still really the best overall survey of sort of where arguments in modern physics that relate to religion stand and how a reasonable”
Where to get it
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Speak, Memory
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov is an autobiographical memoir that explores the author's early life as a Russian aristocrat prior to the Russian Revolution.
Recommended“I have been reading uh, Speak Memory by Vladimir Nambacov, Nbachov, however you want to pronounce it, which is his sort of memoir uh, mostly of his boyhood as a Russian aristocrat before the Russian the Russian Revolution.”
Where to get it
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Treasure Island
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson is a classic adventure novel that follows young Jim Hawkins on a dangerous quest for buried pirate treasure.
Recommended“And I will finally recommend the most recent book that I read to my children which is Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island.”
Where to get it
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A Time to Kill
A Time to Kill by John Grisham is a bestselling legal thriller about a racially charged murder trial in Mississippi that explores profound themes of justice, revenge, and prejudice.
Discussed“That lets us tell that we should be reading Hamlet before or distinct from reading the firm or a time to kill because Hamlet.”
Where to get it
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All watched over by machines of loving grace
Discussed“and you supplied the poem 'Machines of Loving Grace' the name of a poem by Richard Brautigan. Yes here’s how the poem ends. I like to think it has to be of a cybernetic ecology where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothers and sisters, and all watched over by machines”
Where to get it
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Battle for the American Mind
Battle for the American Mind by Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin is a prominent book examining education and cultural shifts.
Discussed“They wound up writing the battle for the American mind together. And so Hegseth knew about me from all the stuff I’d done on education.”
Where to get it
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Bronze Age Mindset
Bronze Age Mindset by Bronze Pervert is a controversial political manifesto that critiques modern egalitarian culture and champions a return to heroic, vitalist ideals inspired by antiquity.
Discussed“Anyone who goes from this conversation. And gets a copy of Bronze Age mindset and reads, certain paragraphs will say, well, this guy is a terrific racist, right.”
Where to get it
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Can We Trust the Gospels?
Discussed“One of the people you’ve debated in your many debates is a scholar and writer named Peter Williams, who wrote a book called, "Can We Trust the Gospels?"”
Where to get it
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Communion
Communion by J.
Discussed“You’re talking about your New book, which is called communion, Yes, Finding my way back to faith.”
Where to get it
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En El Congo/ in the Jungle (Tintin Facsimil)
Discussed“One of the early Tintin books is called Tintin in the Congo. And it’s super racist. Like it is a set of super racist caricatures of Africans”
Where to get it
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Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a classic dystopian novel depicting a future American society where books are outlawed and firemen burn any that are discovered.
Discussed“Or like the people in the Fahrenheit 415 or whatever the book or out in the woods that have memorized their memorizing. Memorizing the great books, the humanist.”
Where to get it
The other 20 books Ross Douthat recommended or discussed, ranked
- Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff
- God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley
- God Owes Us Nothing by Leszek Kolakowski
- Hamlet by William Shakespeare
- Hardy Boys Mystery Stories 1-2 by Franklin W. Dixon
- Introduction to the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI
- Listening to the Law by Amy Coney Barrett
- Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by Perry Moore
- The Firm by John Grisham
- The Odyssey by Homer
- The Principles of Psychology by William James
- The Republic by Plato
- The Sirens' Call by Chris Hayes
- THE SPACE TRILOGY - Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra & That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis
- The Strategy of Denial by Elbridge A. Colby
- The Unprotected Class by Jeremy Carl
- The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
- They Flew by Carlos M. N. Eire
Appearances
Other mentions (23: passing, ad reads, own books)
“So, just to take an example from this very podcast, uh, a couple weeks ago, I had Sam Mo on, who is a law professor at Yale, who's written a book called Gerontocracy in America.”
“He’s the impresario behind the Prof G media universe, and he’s the author of a new book that answers all of these questions. "Notes on Being a Man"”
“My guest this week is a Yale Law professor and the author of “Gerontocracy in America,” a new book that argues that the concentration of wealth and power among older Americans is our least-discussed crisis.”
“I remember Bernie Sanders was killed because he had an ad with Simon and Garfunkel song on it, America, come to follow thank God because he ran this ad right before the caucus in Iowa and the primary in New Hampshire.”
“Louise Perry is a reactionary feminist, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal free expression section, and the author of the book, “The Case Against the Sexual Revolution.””
“She’s a lawyer, a conservative court watcher, and the author of the New book, "Last Branch Standing."”
“But I want to start with your latest book, which focuses on Jesus as a moral revolutionary, I guess you would say — someone who kind of helped bring a new mode of ethics into the world, and the title is "Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West."”
“Paul Kingsnorth is a novelist, critic, his new book is entitled Against the Machine on the unmaking of humanity.”
“Well, let's let's end with a novel that you have written. Um called Alexandria, which came out in 2020, 2020.”
“And, Leah, you have a new book called "The Dignity of Dependence", where you suggest that liberal feminism has failed us by forcing women to suppress their nature and fit into workplaces and social systems made for men.”
“Dan Wang is a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and the author of the new book, "Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future."”
“Ezra had me on his show this past spring to talk about my recent book, Believe.”
“He’s the author of a provocative new book, NOTE Paragraph "The Right of the People," which makes the case for a new American founding.”
“So you wrote a book entitled toxic empathy how progressives exploit Christian compassion.”
“I think I wrote a column at that time describing Trumpism as a kind of dark mirror universe version of Grand New Party, right?”
“And unlike that movie Conclave, they’re not going to elect somebody who they met last week.”
“So I you know I wrote a lot about the concept of decadence, right? this idea that you know the west the developed world was sort of stuck in these kind of cycles and needed to break out somehow but the reality is you often can't break out of decadence without you know a big big mess so maybe Trump”
“Shurmer in the end works out, you know, he he he wants to have a theory of the multiverse where in some different timeline much like in the movie Interstellar his wife's great uncle is capable of accessing our timeline.”
“I've been reading about the Renaissance recently. Um Ada Palmer's great book on inventing the Renaissance.”
“the general religious picture and this is a book that you know I think for various reasons tries to start by laying out a very general case for why someone would be religious before you get to whether you should be Jewish or Muslim or Christian or Buddhist or whatever else.”
“I think there's sort of a general strangeness that uh that is one reason I wrote this book now is that I think we're in a a stranger moment than we were 10 or 15 years ago in terms of sort of the spiritual and the material.”
“which led eventually to the publication of our jointly authored book Grand new party how Republicans can win the working class and save the American dream”
“Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club novelist had chronic lyme disease and wrote about it as you know she would like drive to the grocery store and forget what city she was in”