Conservatism: A Rediscovery

I have submitted the final manuscript for my book Conservatism: A Rediscovery, which will be published by Regnery on May 17.

The book includes some history, tracing Anglo-American conservatism from Fortescue, Hooker, and Selden up to Burke and the American Federalist party.

But my main focus is political theory. I want to know “What Went Wrong?”—that is, why Anglo-American conservatism lost the ability to conserve much of anything from one generation to the next. More importantly, I want to know what political or religious conservatives would have to do (and what they would have to be like) if they are ever to go back to conserving anything again.

This is the heart of the book: A theory of how things can be conserved and transmitted from one generation to the next. I promise, this is not the same old song. You’ll find things here that will challenge much of what you’ve thought until now about how families and congregations, tribes and nations, work when they’re flowering.

I’ve also included a chapter about how my wife Yael and I chose a conservative life during college. I don’t know how you’re going to react to my including this personal material in the book.

But I decided that all the history and political theory can only take you so far. Being a conservative was never just a theoretical position for me. Yael and I decided when we were young that we wanted to live a conservative life—a life of conservation and transmission, in which we would make certain ideas and a certain way of life available to our children and grandchildren.

Without living a conservative life, in which all the big ideas are implemented in practice, political conservatism just doesn’t amount to very much. And so in this book, I tell a bit about how and why we took up a conservative life.

My publisher is anxious about showing pre-order sales. This would help me and it would help him show that this book was a good idea. So if you can spare a moment, please order the book now rather than waiting until it comes out.

You can order the book here. Thanks for your help!

Here’s the table of contents:

Intro: Is Conservative Revival Possible?

1. The English Conservative Tradition
2. American Nationalists
3. The Conservative Paradigm
4. God, Scripture, Family, and Congregation
5. The Purposes of Government
6. Liberal Hegemony and Cold War Conservatism
7. The Challenge of Marxism
8. Conservative Democracy
9. Some Notes on a Conservative Life

Conclusion: On Being a Conservative Person

You can order the book here. Thanks again for your help!