First published 1996
James D. Hornfischer tackles the sprawling history of conservative thought by collecting wisdom from 2,500 years of thinkers and leaders. His approach involves careful curation rather than lengthy analysis, gathering voices from Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley to Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The collection spans more than 130 figures, mixing political leaders with literary giants like T.S. Eliot and philosophers from St. Augustine to Ayn Rand. Hornfischer includes unexpected entries like George Bernard Shaw alongside predictable choices, creating a broad survey that attempts to capture conservatism's varied expressions across centuries and cultures. The book serves as both reference tool and argument, using the selected quotations to sketch the boundaries and core principles of conservative thinking. Readers get access to concentrated doses of conservative philosophy without wading through complete works, while Hornfischer's selections implicitly make the case for conservatism's intellectual depth and historical continuity.
Genres: history, political-science, non-fiction, biography-memoir, academic, american-history
Vibes: informative, intellectual, thought-provoking
Tropes: intellectual-survey, reference-work
Period: 2500 YEARS, 19TH CENTURY, 20TH CENTURY, 21ST CENTURY
156 pages · Paperback · Pocket Books