As the nation stands at a crossroads, this "valuable collection" urges
us to reexamine the ideas and values of the American conservative
tradition--offering "a bracing tonic for the present chaos" (The
Washington Post).
A groundbreaking collection of mainstream conservative writings since
1900, featuring pieces by Ronald Reagan, Antonin Scalia, Joan Didion,
and more
What is American conservatism? What are its core beliefs and values?
What answers can it offer to the fundamental questions we face in the
twenty-first century about the common good and the meaning of freedom,
the responsibilities of citizenship, and America's proper role in the
world?
As libertarians, neoconservatives, Never Trump-ers, and others battle
over the label, this landmark collection offers an essential survey of
conservative thought in the United States since 1900, highlighting the
centrality of four key themes: the importance of tradition and the
local, resistance to an ever-expanding state, opposition to the threat
of tyranny at home and abroad, and free markets as the key to sustaining
individual liberty.
Andrew J. Bacevich's incisive selections reveal that American
conservatism--in his words "more akin to an ethos or a disposition than
a fixed ideology"--has hardly been a monolithic entity over the last 120
years, but rather has developed through fierce internal debate about
basic political and social propositions. Well-known figures such as
Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley are complemented here by important
but less familiar thinkers such as Richard Weaver and Robert Nisbet, as
well as writers not of the political right, like Randolph Bourne, Joan
Didion, and Reinhold Niebuhr, who have been important influences on
conservative thinking.
More relevant than ever, this rich, too often overlooked vein of writing
provides essential insights into who Americans are as a people and
offers surprising hope, in a time of extreme polarization, for finding
common ground. It deserves to be rediscovered by readers of all
political persuasions.
