The Open Society and Its Enemies
Karl Popper · 1945
Written in New Zealand exile while Nazism consumed Europe, Popper's attack on Plato, Hegel, and Marx as proto-totalitarians and his defense of liberal democracy as the only society that allows for peaceful correction of mistakes became the intellectual foundation of post-WWII liberalism.
The case against
Polemic at seven hundred pages, with endnotes that nearly outweigh the text. Popper's Plato is a totalitarian assembled by selective quotation, and the Hegel chapter argues with snippets lifted from an anthology; neither portrait survives a careful reading of the originals. Come for the defense of fallibilism; keep a classicist within reach.
Non-Fiction · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
