Every book Walter Russell Mead recommended on podcasts

Walter Russell Mead is an American academic. He is the Alexander Hamilton Professor of Strategy and Statecraft at the University of Florida's Hamilton Center, and taught American foreign policy at Yale University. He was also the editor-at-large of The American Interest magazine. Mead is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, a scholar at the Hudson Institute, and a book reviewer for Foreign Affairs, the bimonthly foreign policy journal published by the Council on Foreign Relations. During an appearance on the EconTalk podcast in an episode titled Walter Russell Mead on Innovation, Religion, and the State of the World in August 2023, Mead discussed global trends, historical developments, and the state of modern civilization. In the course of the conversation, Walter Russell Mead mentioned John Gray's book titled Seven Types of Atheism, describing it as a phenomenal book to support his argument about secular ideologies and how various non-religious movements and systems of thought, such as Marxism, function by providing meaning to people's lives in ways structurally similar to traditional religious frameworks. Mead referenced the book to illustrate how secular philosophies often emerge from historical and spiritual roots, maintaining religious characteristics even when explicitly rejecting traditional theology, thereby offering listeners a deeper perspective on the complex interplay between faith, philosophy, and political ideology in the modern world.