# Required reading for the budding revolutionary **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 14, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/required-reading-for-the-budding-revolutionary/155167 "2003-02-14T22:21:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![whiteboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@whiteboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiteboy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/required-reading-for-the-budding-revolutionary/155167/1 "2003-02-14T22:21:17Z")
I’m looking for a good Malcom X biography-ish book, and a collection of Che Guevara’s diary entries/another biography. Any specific books I should be looking for, as well as anything else I might be interested in? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/required-reading-for-the-budding-revolutionary/155167/2 "2003-02-14T23:35:59Z")
Well, you could always try “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, ghost-written by Alex Haley. There’s also a collection of speeches given by him in the last year of his life called “By Any Means Neccesary.” I’ve also heard Ilyasha Shabazz’s “Growing up X” is pretty good (She is his daughter). For Guevara, try his “Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Across South America”, his “Bolixivia Diaries”, and also “Guerilla Warfare”, which is one of his most famous works. (Also, if you’re interested in the subject, check out Mao Zedong’s book “On Guerilla Warfare”. For biographies, check out “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life”, and “Compenaro: The Life and Death of Che Guevara”. In general, check out Pathfinder Press, which you can find at [http://www.pathfinderpress.com/](http://www.pathfinderpress.com/) . It’s a publishing house run by the Socialst Worker’s Party, a Trotskyist party. You’ll find a lot of Communist revolutionary and worker’s liberation stuff there. ---
**Author:** ![No\_Me\_Ayudes\_Compadre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/no_me_ayudes_compadre/32/5224_2.png) [@No\_Me\_Ayudes\_Compadre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Me_Ayudes_Compadre)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2003, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/required-reading-for-the-budding-revolutionary/155167/3 "2003-02-15T01:26:35Z")
You might find the translated works of [Ricardo Flores Magón](http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/magon/works/index.html). Your collection won’t be complete without the works of [Thomas Paine](http://www.ushistory.org/paine/index.htm), and you might enjoy William Walker’s “War in Nicaragua.” You might also enjoy the works of [Leon Trotsky](http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/). ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/required-reading-for-the-budding-revolutionary/155167/4 "2003-02-15T03:46:10Z")
There’s always Sun Tzu’s _The Art of War_. Or _Mein Kampf_. ---
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2003, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/required-reading-for-the-budding-revolutionary/155167/5 "2003-02-15T06:26:10Z")
History shows that Machiavellian principles have always been as popular with the revolutionaries as with the rulers they despise. A lot of people suggest the _The Prince_ be recommended reading, but personally I found _The Discourses_ to be at least as educational.