One Dozen Candles

One Dozen Candles was a series of history and opinion books criticizing communism, labor unions, and welfare policies that was assembled by Robert W. Welch, Jr. and published during the 1960s by Western Islands, the publishing arm of American paleoconservative advocacy group the John Birch Society. On the series packaging, the name One Dozen Candles was accompanied by the adage "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." Earlier editions also carried the branding for the "American Opinion Reprint Series" while later editions were part of "The Americanist Library."

The books included in the One Dozen Candles were paperback reprints of books written between 1938 and 1965 by a variety of authors, some of whom were never members of nor ideologically aligned with the John Birch Society.[1] The twelve selections changed slightly over the course of the years and a thirteenth volume was added in later collections.[2][3][4][5]