/lit/ - Literature

So I just got blasted the other day in a political discussion and I felt pathetic. I feel like I want to give myself the resources needed to form an educated opinion on politics and how a society should be run, but I haven't read much to give me a foundation.

I've been recommended:
>Francis Fukuyama's Origins of Political Order
>Francis Fukuyama's Political Order and Political Decay
for starting out in politics, and
>Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
for economics.

What kind of a foundation will this build me and what are the key steps to go on further? I'm planning on reading Marx, Rand and probably Hayek later on, but I feel like I want to get into some philosophy first.

What do you think? Are these the right books to start with, what will they give me and could you recommend me some further reading on the subject?