100 Books Like Can Might Make Rights?

Short and accessible, this is a book that I consistently return to when considering how the rule of law has been understood in different places and times from Ancient Greece through the Medieval World to today.

In my view, there simply isn’t a better starting point for understanding what the rule of law means and why it is so contested. At the same time, Tamanaha shows why the rule of law remains both a useful concept and an ideal worth aspiring to. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to understand the rule of law and its complexities.

My first job after university was as a junior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where I worked on the Democracy and Rule of Law Project, headed by Tom Carothers. It was there that I first read Promoting Democracy Abroad.

Over two decades later, I still find myself returning to this book for its insightful and systematic assessment of the opportunities and challenges facing international actors who seek to promote the rule of law and democracy.  

This book helped spark my own interest in the relationship between legal pluralism and the rule of law. Despite decades of transnational legal support for the rule of law, scholars and practitioners alike have overwhelmingly focused on state courts. Isser’s edited volume is an early and enduring corrective to that trend.

This highly accessible book offers an invaluable primer for understanding a wide range of customary legal systems, how external actors have approached these authorities, and how non-state justice can influence the development of the rule of law.

The rule of law often equates with peace at home and peaceful relations abroad. Yet, as Caplan shows, peace–and determining when we can confidently say peace prevails–is far from obvious. Measuring Peace clarifies the pitfalls and opportunities of peacebuilding.

The book shows why peace is often difficult to maintain but never loses sight of why it is such an important goal–both for society as a whole and as a foundation for the rule of law. 

Unlike the other recommendations on my list, this is a work of political science. But the qualitative components of this text rival that of any work of history.

In fact, it was this author’s first book that provided the model for my own, blending deeply researched case studies with conceptual innovations in the study of foreign policy decision-making. Her latest contribution, The Insiders’ Game, will set the agenda for the next generation of scholarship on the politics of war.

It reminds us that the public is not the only audience that leaders need to worry about when making decisions to initiate, escalate, or conclude a war. Maintaining the support of advisers, legislators, and military officials is also essential. As a result, it is often the bargains struck with these small groups of political elites that determine how democratic leaders wage war.

This book, a classic of the atomic age, knocked my socks off rereading it.

While outwardly about a group of marooned boys scrapping for dominance on a remote island, it also resembled my late-seventies, Southern California prep school.

Some kids survived there by physically menacing playground “Piggy’s.” Others, like decent-hearted Jack, appealed for unity, demanding they keep a fire stoked for potential rescue before the savages within all of them aren’t worth saving anymore.

With that conch and bloody glasses, we appreciate mankind’s warring dualities.

In this tour de force history of Great Britain’s 19th century ‘liberal empire,’ Elkins demonstrates the glaring contradiction between the official claim that British society and its colonies were governed by liberal principles of ‘the rule of law’ and the systematic violence that lay at its core. “Violence,” Elkins argues, “was not just the British Empire’s midwife; it was endemic to the structures and systems of British rule.”

In an age when liberal rights were ostensibly universal, race became how the empire was able to exclude black and brown people (which included ‘racialized’ groups such as the Irish and Afrikaners) from the ranks of ‘civilized’ peoples. The so-called ‘civilizing mission,’ in which ‘uncivilized’ peoples would be welcomed into the ranks of the ‘civilized’ at some unspecified point, was draped in the trappings of noble enterprise and moral duty. However, while this thinly veiled ideology may have served the interests of… show more.

Buddy the Soldier Bear is an adorable story that highlights the journey of a care package.

Having grown up in a military family, we sent care packages to our service members when they were away. I distinctly remember our classes encouraging us to write letters and add our favorite drawings to the packages. It makes a huge difference in morale for service members to know that someone cared enough to think of and send a handwritten note.

It’s an emotional story that encourages readers to remember the military community outside of special holidays. With very relevant illustrations, the story offers appreciation and compassion for military families. There is a sense of adventure as Buddy joins the soldiers during military assignments until he safely accompanies the soldier home. 

This book is an eye-opening look into modern warfare, particularly in the context of Colombia and America’s military involvement there. Klay, a veteran himself, writes with a moral clarity that brings home the idea that war is never just a localized conflict—it’s part of a much bigger web of power, politics, and personal ambition. The novel follows multiple perspectives, from American soldiers to Colombian civilians, each grappling with their role in the chaos.

What I found most compelling is how Klay shows the ripple effects of violence—how decisions made in one corner of the world can devastate communities thousands of miles away. This book intimates tough questions about the ethics of intervention and how far-reaching the consequences of these decisions can be. It’s an intimate, often painful look at how war transforms individuals, and it challenges us to think about the cost of global conflict—not just for those on the… show more.

Warfare and Armed Conflicts is indeed an Encyclopedia, arranged chronologically, that surveys five centuries of battles and wars. What makes it so indispensable is that it focuses not on the chronology of events or personalities, but primarily on the presentation of available numbers, including the size of armies in battles, personnel casualties, and equipment losses. A study of strategy, war causation, victory, and defeat, depends heavily on understanding the relative strengths and capabilities of adversaries, which makes this text so valuable for understanding the causes of the outcomes of battles and wars. The presentation of numbers often challenges the conventional wisdom of events, and helps explain the periodic disasters of military history.