If the reader is to have a well-guided will, he needs more than a mere jumble of facts in his head; he must have organized knowledge, knowledge acquired with his purpose in mind. He needs, first of all, an unshakable sense of identity: an understanding of who he is and what his relationship is to the world around him. This can come only from a broad knowledge of the history of his people. He needs to know their most distant origins, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses, the ways in which they differ from other peoples. He needs a knowledge of the way they have been shaped by events over the centuries and of the present challenges facing them.
In addition, he should have an acquaintance with the folk traditions, the legends and myths, and the lives of the great heroes of his people. He should be familiar with their natural spiritual inclinations, the directions of their philosophical questing, and their cultural achievements over the ages.
Finally, he must have as intimate as possible a knowledge of the enemies of his people.
Books are a natural source for all of this knowledge. Unfortunately, however, the most valuable books are not readily available. Bookstores are afraid to stock them, and the controlled media will not review them or permit them to be advertised. Many have been purged from libraries by alien groups determined that we not be permitted to regain control of our destiny. Even the universities have practically ceased functioning as disseminators of the knowledge necessary for a proper sense of identity; with an emphasis on "equality" at any cost, the teaching of Western history and culture has become awkward, at best.
Even when books have not deliberately been suppressed, they may be hard to find. Then there are the problems of choice and evaluation. Is a given book on history or race or politics really worth reading? Can its author be trusted? Where there are several choices in a particular subject, which is the book to buy? If each has something valuable in it, which should be read first?
National Vanguard Books exists to overcome all of these problems: It finds, evaluates, and makes available the books containing the facts and ideas essential to the survival and progress of our people. The books in this catalog have been gathered from several countries. Some are published by major firms with New York or London addresses; others come from "underground" printers with very limited distribution channels. Each has been selected because it has something valuable to offer.
The descriptions of the books in the catalog are necessarily brief, but they have been written with the interests of the racially conscious reader in mind. They provide a reliable synopsis of the contents of each book and an evaluation of its salient features.
The prices are as low as National Vanguard Books, which is a non-profit operation, can make them. Many are substantially reduced from the publishers' original prices.
Some books are essential to a basic understanding of the task facing us as a people. Others are also important, but primarily for filling in the details. The following guide is for those readers who want to be sure that they read all of the really essential books, and then as many of the others as their time and pocketbooks will permit, and who want to read them in a logical sequence.
HISTORY -- We should base our study of history on a knowledge of European prehistory. That is, before we begin compartmentalizing into Greek history, Roman history, German history, English history, and so on, we should understand the common racial, linguistic, and cultural roots of all of our Aryan ancestors. We should see the racial and tribal patterns in ancient Europe before we become distracted by national patterns.
The text and maps of McEvedy's Atlas of Ancient History give an excellent, concise overview of European and Middle Eastern prehistory. Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe and The Beaker Folk give a view of pre-Aryan continental Europe, and Prehistoric Avebury and Stonehenge look at the Megalithic Era of prehistory in the British Isles. In Search of the Indo-Europeans provides an excellent introduction to the study of Aryan origins.
After that one can focus on specific areas and peoples. For the Celts there is Chadwick's The Celts. For the Germanic peoples there are Jones' History of the Vikings, The Long-Haired Kings, The Anglo-Saxons, and History of the Goths.
Tacitus' fascinating Agricola and Germania, combined in one volume, and Caesar's Conquest of Gaul give views of the life of both the Celts and the Germans of two millennia ago.
Moving into the historical era, Ancient Greece and The Penguin History of Greece provide a good overview of Hellenic civilization. More details are found in Herodotus' Histories, the books on Alexander's conquests by Arrian and Curtius, the treatments of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides and Xenophon, and Livy's excellent books on Roman history (four of which are listed in the catalog). These can be supplemented by Kitto's The Greeks and Barrow's The Romans, which give excellent character sketches of the two peoples. Plato's The Republic and The Laws give a taste of the Classical-Pagan view of the world -- which in many ways was both more Aryan and more modern than the Medieval-Christian view which followed it.
Essential for the study of the Middle Ages is McEvedy's Atlas of Medieval History. The story of the supplanting of Roman power by German power is told especially well in Bury's Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians. A good general survey is provided by Everyday Life in Medieval Times. Dealing with events on the Continent are The History of the Franks, Chronicles of the Crusades, and Bury's History of the Later Roman Empire.
For the current historical era an indispensable reference work is McEvedy's Atlas of Modern History. Thirty Years' War by Langer covers the most important conflict at the beginning of the modern era. And for American history, be sure to read Teddy Roosevelt's magnificent Winning of the West and Myers' gripping account of White heroism, The Alamo.
LEGENDS AND FOLKWAYS -- Racial identity is based on more than history; the soul of a people is in its legends and myths. For the Greeks and Romans the outstanding legends are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid. An excellent collection is Guerber's Myths of Greece and Rome.
For the Anglo-Saxons the great classic is Beowulf. For the Celts The Mabinogion and Rolleston's excellent Celtic Myths and Legends are especially recommended. For the Germans The Nibelungenlied contains the text of the central legend, and the Illustrated Ring of the Nibelung and Lee's Wagner's Ring: Turning the Sky Around provide especially enjoyable synopses of Richard Wagner's operatic interpretation of this great body of Germanic lore.
For the Scandinavians all of the sagas are valuable, as well as The Poetic Edda, Heimskringla, and Guerber's Myths of the Norsemen.
WESTERN RELIGION AND IDEOLOGY -- European religious myths are narrated in many of the books listed in the preceding section. A more scholarly look at the pre-Christian religion of Europe is found in Davidson's two books, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe and Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe; and also in A History of Pagan Europe, by Jones and Pennick.
The modern expression of the Aryan race-soul is given in philosophical-religious terms in Shaw's Man and Superman; in Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Twilight of the Idols and the Antichrist, and Beyond Good and Evil; in Rosenberg's Myth of the Twentieth Century; and in Brown's The Might of the West. The same essence is expressed in political-social terms in Hitler's Mein Kampf. All seven of these books are really indispensable for the reader who wants to understand the vexing problems of this age from an Aryan standpoint.
RACE: SCIENCE AND SOCIOLOGY -- Eight books on race eminently suitable for beginners are Alien Nation, Paved with Good Intentions, The Dispossessed Majority, Race and Reason, Why Civilizations Self-Destruct, Destiny of Angels, The Ideal and Destiny, and Black Intelligence in White Society. Readers with an interest in the biology as well as the sociology of race will find Rushton's Race, Evolution, and Behavior and Darwin's The Origin of Species useful. Especially good for an understanding of racial differences is Baker's Race.
Valuable works on eugenics and dysgenics are Ancient Eugenics, War and the Breed, and Shockley on Eugenics and Race.
The three volumes of An Atlas of Mankind give a good photographic survey of racial types.
THE ENEMY -- Shahak's Jewish History, Jewish Religion , Goldberg's Jewish Power, and Cantor's Sacred Chain give us the facts about our foes straight from the horse's mouth. Beginners also will find much of value in the little book Bolshevism from Moses to Lenin. Also good for beginners are Jews Must Live, You Gentiles, and Last Days of the Romanovs.
Communism is not the only racially destructive movement the Jews have been behind; feminism (for Gentiles) is another, and two especially good exposures of its fallacies and its pernicious influence on American society are Brain Sex and The Great Sex Divide.
The destructive role of the Jews in psychology and psychiatry becomes apparent from a reading of The Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire.
The Judeo-democratic destruction of America's colleges and universities is detailed in two excellent books on Political Correctness, Illiberal Education and Prof Scam.
Much information about the parasitic Jewish role in American economic life is given in Den of Thieves and The Predators' Ball.
The role of Zionism in the Jewish drive to destroy America is brought out in Assault on the Liberty, The Samson Option, Deliberate Deceptions, By Way of Deception, and Territory of Lies.
The Jews' claim to immunity from criticism, based on their unique "victim" status -- specifically, on the alleged extermination of 6,000,000 of them in gas chambers during WWII -- is dealt with in Flashpoint, Auschwitz, The Hoax of the 20th Century, Did Six Million Really Die?, and My Banned Holocaust Interview.
Finally, the two video cassettes, The Eternal Jew and The Other Israel, are excellent documentaries which forcefully summarize the entire Jewish question. No patriot should be without them.
THE SECOND WORLD WAR -- The greatest calamity which has befallen our race in modern times was the Second World War. This suicidal conflict led us directly to the racial and moral chaos which is consuming the West today. Every racially conscious White person must understand what that war was really about and what really happened in it.
First, there are five books in the catalog which help the reader to understand why there was a war in the first place and who wanted it. They are Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, Betrayal at Pearl Harbor, Infamy, The Impact of Hitler, and Churchill's War.
There is hardly a need to offer the reader any books about the conduct of the war itself from the American side, because they are so readily and plentifully available elsewhere. But he may find it interesting to see what the war looked like from the other side. For this purpose Degrelle's Campaign in Russia, written by an outstanding warrior who was in the thick of it, cannot be matched. Commando Extraordinary, about the exploits of an extraordinary SS man, also is very good. Then there is the incomparable Wenn Alle Brüder Schweigen, a new edition of the best book ever on the SS. And Memoirs: 10 Years and 20 Days, by Karl Doenitz, Hitler's successor, is excellent.
Finally, there is the question of who the "good guys" and the "bad guys" were: who were the people fighting for the White race, and who were fighting against its interests; who showed a certain degree of decency and humanity in the conduct of the war, and who were the savages? The very disturbing answers will be found in Dachau: Hour of the Avenger, Advance to Barbarism, Terrible Revenge, The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau: 1939-1945, and Gruesome Harvest.
THE SOLUTION: WHAT IS TO BE DONE NOW -- The reader who is concerned about the future as well as the past should now read Mein Kampf again. And he definitely should read The Best of Attack! and National Vanguard Tabloid, which is the best bargain in the catalog. Finally, unless he is a timid or squeamish soul, he should read Hunter and The Turner Diaries. The government and the controlled news media have been raising quite a fuss about the last of these books for the past few years.
Our audio selections, many of them American Dissident Voices broadcasts, are especially good for helping listeners understand the significance of current events and for stimulating their thinking about appropriate action.
The reader who begins a library with the 125 or so books recommended here will have a very valuable source of knowledge and inspiration at hand indeed. He can then pick and choose from among the remaining books in the catalog to continue building his library, his knowledge, and his will to participate in shaping the future for his people.