88 Texts Our Students Are Reading

Plus: Yeonmi Park is speaking on campus this Thursday.

UATX Winter Reading List

• After the End of History: Origins of 21st Century Right-Wing Thought, Professor Michael Shellenberger

  • A Conflict of Visions, Thomas Sowell

  • The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, Louise Perry

  • Manliness, Harvey Mansfield

  • The Conscience of a Conservative, Barry M. Goldwater

  • Left, Right, and Center, Frank S. Meyer

  • Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America – Essays on Identity and Social Justice, Shelby Steele

  • Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties, Christopher Caldwell

  • I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche, Sue Prideaux

  • Genealogy of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche

  • Why Liberalism Failed, Patrick Deneen

  • The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom, James Burnham

  • The New Science of Politics, Eric Voegelin

  • My Life Among Deathworks: Illustrations of the Aesthetics of Authority, Philip Rieff

  • Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West, R.R. Reno

  • The Knife Went In: Real Life Murderers and Our Culture, Theodor Dalrymple

  • The Dark Enlightenment, Nick Land

  • Plus, select articles:

    • “The Great Feminization,” Helen Andrews

    • “On Being Conservative,” Michael Oakeshott

    • “Our Mission Statement,” William F. Buckley

    • “Conservatives and Neoconservatives,” Adam Wolfson

    • “The Idea of Conservatism,” Russell Kirk

    • “A Brief Explanation of the Cathedral,” Curtis Yarvin

    • “Principles of the Deep Right,” Curtis Yarvin

    • “Gnostic Politics,” R.R. Reno

• American History, Visiting Professor Robert E. Wright

  • A Patriot’s History of the United States: From Columbus’s Great Discovery to America’s Age of Entitlement, Larry Schweikart, Michael Allen

• Dante, Purgatorio, Professor Kirsten Herlin

  • Purgatorio, Dante

• Faith, Reason, and Science, Professor Victor Emma-Adamah

  • Historical and Critical Dictionary, Pierre Bayle

  • Introduction to Positive Philosophy, Auguste Comte

  • The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins

  • The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss, David Bentley Hart

  • The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James

  • Philosophy of Existence, Karl Jaspers

  • Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man, and the Origin of Evil, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

  • Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False, Thomas Nagel

  • On First Principles, Origen

  • Against Heresies, St. Irenaeus

  • A Secular Age, Charles Taylor

  • Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein

• Knowing, Doing, Making, Wisdom, sections taught by Professor Allen Porter and Visiting Professor Spencer A. Klavan

  • Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle

  • Politics, Aristotle

  • The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha

  • Complete Works, Plato

• Plato, Republic, Visiting Professor Spencer A. Klavan

  • The Republic of Plato, Plato

• Polaris Ideas: On the Moral, Political, Economic, and Social Conditions of Innovation, sections taught by Professors Phil Greenwald, Michael Hoffpauir, and Scott Scheall

  • The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin

  • How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom, Matt Ridley

• Political Psychology, Professor Arnold Kling

  • The True Believer, Eric Hoffer

  • Warriors and Worriers, Joyce Benenson

  • The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt

  • The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters, Kurt Gray and Daniel Wegner

  • Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, George Lakoff

  • The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides, Arnold Kling

  • The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium, Martin Gurri

• Reason and Revolution, Professor Kirsten Herlin

  • Letters on England, Voltaire

  • The Essential Writings of Jonathan Swift, Jonathan Swift

  • The Major Works, Alexander Pope

  • Rameau’s Nephew and D’Alembert’s Dream, Denis Diderot

  • The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, and Other Plays, Molière

  • A Sentimental Journey and Other Writings, Laurence Sterne

• Rise and Fall of Ancient Rome, Professor Isabella Reinhardt

  • The Aeneid of Virgil, Virgil

  • Ab Urbe Condita, Livy

  • The Histories, Polybius

  • Life of Numa, Plutarch

  • Life of Cato the Censor, Plutarch

  • Catiline’s War, Sallust

  • Miles Gloriosus, Plautus

  • Life of Tiberius, Plutarch

  • The Civil War, Julius Caesar

  • 2nd Philippic, Cicero

  • Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Augustus

  • Annales, Tacitus

  • Life of Nero, Suetonius

  • De Consolatione ad Marciam, Seneca

  • Thyestes, Seneca

  • Natural History, Pliny the Elder

  • Agricola, Tacitus

  • The Golden Ass, Apuleius

• Shakespeare’s History Plays, Dean Patrick Gray

  • Shakespeare’s English Kings: History, Chronicle, and Drama, Peter Saccio

  • Henry IV, William Shakespeare

  • Henry VI, William Shakespeare

  • Richard II, William Shakespeare

  • Richard III, William Shakespeare

• Special Topics in Ethics and Politics: Socrates, Professor Michael Hoffpauir

  • Four Texts on Socrates: Plato’s “Euthyphro”, “Apology of Socrates”, and “Crito” and Aristophanes’ “Clouds,” Plato and Aristophanes

  • Phaedo, Plato

• The American Experiment, sections taught by Professors Jacob Wolf and Scott Reznick

  • Billy Budd, Sailor and Selected Tales, Herman Melville

  • Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville

• The Sublime and Beautiful, Professor Clay Greene

  • Beauty: A Very Short Introduction, Roger Scruton

  • Classical Literary Criticism, D.A. Russell and Michael Winterbottom

  • Three Treatises on the Divine Images, St John of Damascus

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Earn $10,000 for Your Academic Excellence

UATX believes exceptional ability should be recognized and rewarded. And cost shouldn't prevent talented students from achieving their great ambitions.

Admitted students with top test scores (1540+ SAT, 35+ ACT, or 112+ CLT) who deposit by March 1 are eligible for a one-time $10,000 Merit Award on top of free tuition. Use it for housing, books, travel back home—whatever helps you make the most of your time at UATX.

No additional application required; if you've been admitted and your scores qualify, deposit early and the award is yours. (This award is separate from the Lonsdale Magaro Build Scholarship—students can receive one or the other, not both.)

For more information, contact admissions@uaustin.org.

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Campus Events This Week

• Zach Dell (Cofounder & CEO, Base Power) on the Austin Energy Landscape. Monday (today), February 2. 5:30-7:30 PM. RSVP here.

• Devin Stauffer (Professor of Government, UT-Austin) on “The Challenge of Glaucon and Adeimantus, and the Structure of Plato’s Republic.” Tuesday, February 3. 5-7 PM. RSVP here.

• Yeonmi Park (Freedom-fighter & Author) on escaping North Korea and Chinese human trafficking. Hosted by Young America’s Foundation. Thursday, February 5. 5:30-7:30 PM. RSVP here.

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High Schoolers: Join Us in Phoenix

UATX has hit the road, bringing smart high schoolers a glimpse of life at UATX—for free.

This February 28-March 1, attend college-level seminars, chat with current students, and meet the University Dean & Director of Admissions.

Seminars include:

• America’s Founding Principles, taught by UATX Visiting Professor Christopher Nadon

• Transhumanism, taught by Assistant Professor of Philosophy Allen Porter

• The Technology & Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, taught by Professor of Computer Science Clint Staley

• Philosophy & Politics, taught by Assistant Professor of Politics Michael J. Hoffpauir

• Why Does Government Fail So Often? Taught by Associate Professor of Politics & Economics Scott Scheall

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Announcing the UATX Summer Fellowship: America 250 Edition for Thinkers & Builders Worthy of 1776

This isn’t a boring summer camp—it is a rigorous academic residency for advanced high school and prospective students from other universities. Fellows will:

• Engage directly with top faculty in classes capped at 15 students, with topics ranging from America’s Founding to AI Engineering.

• Earn up to 3 college credits in escrow; competitive admission for high-potential students.

• Live in UATX’s dorms and build community with fellow students, celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday in Austin, Texas.

• Dates & Cost: June 20 – July 4, 2026. $2,500 covering program fee, housing, and meals.

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We’re Hiring

• Open-Rank Professor of Computer Science, Statistics, or Applied Mathematics

• Open-Rank Professor of History

• Visiting Professor of American History

• Campus Events & Operations Coordinator

• Videographer & Video Editor

Assistant Professor of Classics Isabella Reinhardt prepares students to debate: Should the Romans have killed Tiberius Gracchus? When, if ever, is extrajudicial killing merited?

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Faculty Spotlight

• Clay Greene (Interview with Peter Boghossian): “Should Reading Fiction Make You Feel Guilty?”

• Boris Fishman (New York Times): “Whatever Ails You, the Answer Is Dance.”

• Scott Scheall (The Problem of Policymaker Ignorance): “Policymaker Ignorance and the Vietnam War, Part 6: The Fall of Saigon and Series Overview.”

• Jacob Wolf (Philanthropy Daily): “On Our Present Anti-Institutional Age.”

• John Constable (Net Zero Watch): “Powering Freedom: The Thermodynamic Roots of Modernity.”

• Allen Porter (Interview with Peter Boghossian): “Transhuman: The New EUGENICS?”

• Plus, Robert Wright featured in Fox News: “How Venezuela went from South America’s richest to poorest economy despite massive oil reserves”

Associate Professor of Classics & Biblical Studies Carson Bay with the diploma to his Habilitation, awarded by the University of Bern, Switzerland (December 2025).

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We recruit top students the way other schools recruit top quarterbacks.

19 students and Professor Boris Fishman: “We played soccer until it got too dark.”