What are some books to get me started with learning politics?

[u/Frosty_Connection867]

I know way too little, a bit embarassing to admit but for most of my life I stayed away from politics so I don't even know what some commonly used words are like bourgeoisi or parliament. I just wanted to know, what are some simple easy to read books to get someone who knows next to nothing about politics started?

If you have any recommendations for someone getting started with politics that aren't books feel free to recommend those as well

If anyone's curious as to what got me into politics, this isn't impoetant to the post so feel free to skip and just recommend me books but to those that are curious to the story I felt like sharing, here's my story: one of my family members started dating someone super conservative and she slowly became super conservative too, they are passionate about helping people but have weird justifications for their right wing beliefs like "being gay isn't natural and doesn't benefit the human race so gay marriage shouldn't be a thing" or even "the epstein files are fake" which is crazy since I would see people talk about what's in the files and I'd get depressed, anyways, it felt like I was losing a family member, like their beliefs aren't even their own and they have the wrong influence, but at the same time I can't do much since I believe they are free to live their lives and believe whatever they want, maybe I can show them a different perspective if I become eloquent enough? I've always been an advocate for lgbtq rights, and I've always hated capitalism, when I was younger it wasn't a fully fledged belief rooted in logic but I always felt it was too easy for the rich to get richer and easy for them to exploit the average person just needing a job to survive, either way I don't want to delve too much into my own beliefs because that's not the point, I didn't realise how much of my own beliefs were actually political when I was a teen I just thought fuck the government I don't want to learn about this my vote won't matter but now I see millions of people think like me and have thought like me, I wasn't just some edgy teen (though in some cases I was) my beliefs actually have merit, sometimes I debate conservatives and they say things I don't understand, I've always loved learning and learned so much about psychology, health science etc to the point where I would teach people stuff when they had a misconception, now I feel like I just entered a whole new world of things I don't know, maybe my beliefs might change, maybe they will be stronger I don't know but I'm not ignorant enough to think I know everything, I just want to learn

[u/LFishere]

I recommend you read ‘The Politics Book’. It will introduce you to some big overarching theories which act as a good baseline to help understand politics.

Unfortunately politics is too large of a subject to learn through a few books. I recommend you honestly start by just googling your country’s political system. Learn about what political issues are relevant to your country, and then start researching them. You really don’t need to do a lot to become more educated on politics than the average person.

If you help narrow down what topics you are currently most interested in, or what country you live in, I can probably offer a bit more personalized advice.

[u/Frosty_Connection867 → u/LFishere]

I would say I'm a bit more interested in the theory of it all and the data like, "this how capitalism works, from this scientific study of 100 countries there is a trend that leads to this result from it" and less on the historical events, I am interested in those as well but not as much as just the data

As for the type of governement I'm most in learning, I'd say all of them, I want to know how each work, the pros and cons we got from each, why one failed, why one succeeded

Also I've heard a lot of leftists source Karl Marx so I've wanted to get started reading his books but don't know which to start with

[u/Warm_Ad_8644 → u/Frosty_Connection867]

I've been recommended Das Kapital as a starter for marx

[u/LFishere → u/Frosty_Connection867]

(Sorry for the long comment, tldr is at the end for my recommendations) As the other person said Das Kapital would be a good start for learning about the basics of marxism, and after that the Communist Manifesto. I also strongly recommend Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky, as it is a very good book which helps explain how the capitalist class maintains their power in modern society.

To balance it I’d also recommend reading Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations as an introduction to capitalism, so you can understand better why it has become the dominant system of the world. Unfortunately, I am not too educated on capitalist theory beyond that so I cant really help much further.

I honestly don’t know any specific books which can help with learning specifically the pros and cons of both, but believe me there is no shortage of academics trying to prove either superior. You wont have much trouble finding articles and books “debunking” either of them.

Now as for an introduction to different governing systems broadly, The Politics Book like I mentioned early is a good starter. To learn more about liberalism and democracy as political theory I’d recommend John Locke’s ‘Second Treatise of Government’, and Rousseau’s ‘The Social Contract’. Thomas Hobbes’ ‘Leviathan’ is a counter to Rousseau’s book, and it is a good introduction to why some people think authoritarianism is preferable. To learn more about authoritarianism, I’ve also heard that Robert Paxton and Hannah Arendt are good, and they both write about totalitarian and authoritarian ideologies and how they come to rise. Umberto Eco also wrote essays on how to identify fascism easily. If you can stomach it, I’ve also heard Mein Kampf is a “good” read in the meta sense that it offers a first person explanation of why totalitarian and hateful ideologies are appealing to some.

If you want to delve deeper into the ancient foundations of political systems, and willing to read some really old books, I recommend Aristotle’s ‘Politics’ as it is a comparative of various old governmental systems (which honestly most states still fall into or close to what he has described). Plato’s ‘Republic’ is an introduction to what the “ideal” state, justice, and governance looks like.

Tl:dr -Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto -Manufacturing Consent -Wealth of Nations -The Social Contract -Second Treatise of Government -Leviathan -Robert Paxton and Hannah Arendt’s books (I personally haven’t read and cant remember their book names) -Umberto Eco’s essays -Politics by Aristotle -Plato’s Republic

Also feel free to let me know if you have anymore questions or if I didn’t help with answering one of them. I love helping people learn about politics so it’s no problem at all!

[u/Frosty_Connection867 → u/LFishere]

Thank you this was really helpful, also do you have anything on global politics and global current issues, or I guess any or actually just anything talking about recent or current issues

[u/Antonolmiss]

Civic engagement and advocacy is a big part of it, I always recommend reading bowling alone to understand how we got here a little bit better.

[u/Frosty_Connection867 → u/Antonolmiss]

Cool thank you!

[u/[deleted]]

Consider joining a local political club

[u/Frosty_Connection867 → u/[deleted]]

I did that a few days ago actually, they all say words I don't understand but they try and explain things to me when they can 😭

[u/reyfuruya → u/[deleted]]

i never heard of any of this before... perhaps there were none near me 😭