Common Sense question

I read a lot of books, however at times I raise my head and look around at the current issues at hand, I become perplexed and discouraged. I return to read again my favorite, "The Conservative Mind" from Burke to Eliot (Seventh Revised Edition) and I become more realized at why things are the way they are.
Sully

Americans should read everything we can get our hands on. There is such a myriad of ideas and thoughts available, you can't possibly read them all. I think the Constitution is a great place to start, which contains the Bill of Rights. My suggestion is if you read politics, then read both sides of the argument, not just the side you agree with to get a fuller version of the picture. Read the Federalist Papers as well as the Anti-Federalist Papers.

As for books, just a starter list:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Moby Dick
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The Jungle
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
To Kill a Mockingbird
Losing My Cool: How a Father's Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture
The Right Stuff
The Pact
The Catcher in the Rye
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Fahrenheit 451
Dandelion Wine
Slaughterhouse-Five

Feel free to add to the list as you see fit. I tried to add books that catch our uniquely American views. Of course read Shakespeare and every other great literature. Read works by foreign authors.

Just read.

all great choices; from my end I have found the following especially illuminating and reaffirming: 1) Ron Chernows Hamilton, (the first quintessential American), Halberstam's The Children (no better description of American born courage and social/morale vision), de Toqueville, just because writing about us in 1836-7 was so damn amazing, Gary Wills, LIncoln at Gettysburg, or anything written about Lincoln and his speeches...I can go on , as we all can,,,,,but a start for 2015....