The American Spirit

Browser's of Veeky Forums, I propose with this thread to create a list of the necessary writings to understand The Spirit of America. That is, I want to gather together those writings which founded this country in it's purest form.

I know not all browser's here are American, but that's fine. All I want is to discover those principles which are the foundation of our society.

I propose the following as necessary:

The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution of the United States
The Federalist Papers
and other writings by Founding Fathers (ex. I'm reading a book on the collected papers of John Adams, which I believe helps shed light on the makeup of the Spirit of America)

the ones I am more unsure of are:
Common Sense - Paine
Rights of Man - Paine
Two Treatises of Government - Locke

Obviously America was first European, and part of our cultural heritage is European, so a thorough understanding of European Philosophy is useful. For Example:

Kant
Nietzsche
and if we want to get more abstruse: Phenomenologists and their progenitors such as Hume and Descartes.

Discussion and Additions welcome, this is a large project, and one I hope to make fruitful.

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We mustn't forget contemporary contributions.

>The Declaration of Independence
>The Constitution of the United States
>The Federalist Papers

Bullshit, those ideals died long, long ago and have been an empty meme for generations. If you want to understand 20th and 21st century america, you need to understand two things, the frontier ethos and the suburban lifestyle. The interplay between the two is critical. America is a paradox of beautiful grandiose visions of absolute boundless freedom, and a banal, often depressing reality.

Well, it starts with Luther's 95 Theses..

What it means to be American is not the same as what an American is.
I am not Mom's apple pie but if I say "Mom's apple pie" you think about how American that sounds.

I'm gonna be lambasted for it but I think there should be included some quintessential American works like Huckleberry Finn and the likes. No, they are not particularly profound or masterful, just alright, but popular works by authors like Mark Twain really capture something difficult to describe about being American.
I suppose it may be the experience of starting with nothing and striking out to do what you want to do, whether it will ultimately work or not. Or maybe it is the characterization and its spectrum of various yet distinctly American types.
I couldn't be the only one who sees it, could I?

Anti-Federalist Papers
Democracy in America

Grapes of Wrath

>I'm reading a book on the collected papers of John Adams
Name?

>The Federalist Papers
Пpивeт, тoвapищ

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Jacques Barzun "Beliefs For Sale", free online, and "Of Human Freedom" if you can find one.

Ben Franklin’s Autobiography

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/pol/ hath taken over this thread.
SAGE

If you need to understand American Spirit, read history of baseball.

i hate you people more than i hate most /pol/acks

I’m sorry for you, soyboy.

The Spirit of Liberty, Learned Hand
Reason and Imagination, the Selected Correspondence of Learned Hand.

America folk lore, personal favorite being John Henry

>The Spirit of America
something about being brainwashed and getting assfucked by corporations on a daily basis

Manufacturing Consent

I sees it

It's called The John Adams Papers by Frank Donovan

I'm not necessarily trying to grasp what America has Become, so much as I am looking to uncover a truly American Tradition. America of today is a vast materialist wasteland of morons, I want to rectify that.

shut the fuck up you dumb propagandizing slave nigger
>shoyboy
kill yourself untermensch
something about pedophile blood drinking free masons founding the country for british anti-royalist bankers or whatever

that's a good one

that actually reminds me, books on frontiersmen might be a good edition. something like The Frontier Mind by Moore?

Doomed to failure. Conflicting ideologies will turn this into a clusterfuck shitstorm. A noble cause, user. Good luck and Godspeed.

>american tradition

> America doesn't have traditions
How about you look it up before being a pseud

The Art of the Deal
The Secret
The Book of Mormon
Dianetics
The Shack
Hamilton: the Musical
Think and Grow Rich
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
How to Win Friends and Influence People

>Le America has no traditions and culture meme
Are people who say this only pretending to be retarded?

Detected.

Did you eurofags have Cowboys, the gold rush, or country and folk music? No, you didn't. So fuck you

Britfags had some great folk music, to be fair. but checked

A baseball rule book is all you need wtf

Unironically

Add in the final nail of the Coffin, The Enlightenment.

>art
not sure how I feel about that one, I'm looking for Tradition not Super Capitalism.
>The Secret
no
>Mormon
a genuine choice, but Super Christianity is not exactly a Tradition that's going anywhere

I'm not even going to bother with the rest. The Shack was a terrible christian novel, I'd sooner add The Brother's Karamazov.

If you're serious, I'd like some explaining, pretty sure you're funposting though.

thanks user, I'm trying

The Enlightenment is not a book, but I see what you're aiming at. It seems I'll have to deal w/ Christianity as a whole. I was hoping to just side step it and ignore it but I guess not.

care to explain? I like baseball as much as the next guy, but beyond it being an American Past time, and America's Game, what does it add to the American Tradition? What's to be learned from it?

>cowboys
>what are gauchos, vaqueros, etc

>gold rush
>being a greedy cunt is part of being american
seems about right
>folk music
really nigger

>>gold rush
>>being a greedy cunt is part of being american
>seems about right

fucking lol, pls no bully, I want to resurrect the American Spirit, that mean killing Uber-Capitalism

Is this a good history book of burgerland?

not sure

>muh freedumbs

Too bad for you I'm not Euro, I'm Aussie. We had 4/4 of those. Problem, mutt?

the Enlightenment is a shitshow

Exactly what I was thinking. Add in Walden, and something Faulkner, just generally books that give a sense of being American

The buttblasted euros in this thread remind why this board is the Pinnacle of modern thought

Read Emerson.

>nobody's mentioned Thomas Paine

Well, you have no melville or welles. So, no, there really isn’t a problem lmao

At least you have your island wasteland

I can consume the work of Welles or Melville whenever I want. Those broader, more locally penetrating cultural elements, I can also lay claim to. America exports all its waste across the world, whatever pearls it has it throws before swine. Australia, however, is rich with concealed diamonds, unsullied by the dirty hands of mutts. I do not envy your position. If you would like any recommendations on Australian authors or directors though, I would be more than happy to oblige.

Lies My Teacher Told Me
A People's History of the United States
Legacy of Ashes
Killing Hope

>I can consume the work of Welles or Melville whenever I want.
Precisely. You can "consume" it, but never appreciate it, much less produce it.
>. If you would like any recommendations on Australian authors
my poor sides

Hahah, so these are the lies the mutt tells himself. Thank you for amusing me, friend.

>mutt mutt mutt
Is that all you’re provincial mind can muster? Name the australian melville. Give me any reason to believe an Australian isn’t just a third rate Englishman.