A leading figure in the American conservative movement for more than 40 years, Edwards argues loudly and clearly that conservatives today have abandoned their principles and have become champions of that which they once most feared.

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.

Many conservatives want to know: Where did the Right go wrong? Justin Raimondo provides the answer in this captivating narrative. Raimondo shows how the noninterventionist Old Right - which included half-forgotten giants and prophets such as Senator Robert A. Taft, Garet Garrett, and Colonel Robert McCormick - was supplanted in influence by a Right that made its peace with bigger government at home and "perpetual war for perpetual peace" abroad. First published in 1993, Reclaiming the American Right is as timely as ever. This new edition includes commentary by Pat Buchanan, political scientist George W. Carey, Chronicles executive editor Scott Richert, and the Ludwig von Mises Institute's David Gordon.

Carson? Christie? Rubio? Cruz? Trump? This is the best we can do? This is what passes for conservatism these days? When did that once-honorable political tradition become so narrow, boorish, and ignorant?It's time to take the conversation back. Conservatism can be intelligent and thoughtful. There is an alternative to the excesses of liberalism that doesn't require us to turn the clock back a century, that isn't tied to religion, that embraces a responsibility for society and culture, that isn't terrified of change, and that speaks to the commonalities we share instead of dividing us into tribes. Conservatives and liberals could work together if they would take an honest look both at each others' beliefs and at their own.In the 2016 Presidential primary season, half the Republican candidates were clowns and the rest were, if not actually clowns, giving every appearance of bowing to the ringmaster and piling into the clown car. They called themselves conservative but their understanding of what that means seemed shallow and opportunistic. Theirs was a parody of conservatism that mocked the real thing.Yet it seems most people take them at their word and grant them the authority they assert for themselves: not merely that they are conservative but that their brand of conservatism is the entirety of conservatism; not merely that they are conservative but that they speak for all conservatives. It is infuriating. And it is wrong.There are many books about politics, but most of them contain either dryly academic pedantry or overtly partisan persuasion. This book is neither. It is a polemic, of a sort, but the intent is not to persuade people to vote conservative or that conservatism is completely right. It is to persuade people that conservatism has something worthwhile to say to them, that conservatism is not what its most abhorrent spokesmen claim it to be. The intent is to change the conversation. If that changes the outcome, so much the better.

"This book is for those who are alarmed by the current state of politics in America. It is a plea for moderation, a defense of our 300-year old constitutional democracy, a criticism of political extremism, and a warning of the destructive consequences of the politicization of aspects of life that should be left to the discretion of individuals. Quarter of a century ago I published the twin volumes of Against Liberalism and A Case for Conservatism. I thought then that liberals and conservatives had fundamental political disagreements. I entered the fray on the side of conservatives. I now realize that I was mistaken. Liberals and conservatives certainly disagreed, but not fundamentally"--

To his fellow conservatives, John Derbyshire makes a plea: Don't be seduced by this nonsense about "the politics of hope." Skepticism, pessimism, and suspicion of happy talk are the true characteristics of an authentically conservative temperament. And from Hobbes and Burke through Lord Salisbury and Calvin Coolidge, up to Pat Buchanan and Mark Steyn in our own time, these beliefs have kept the human race from blindly chasing its utopian dreams right off a cliff. Recently, though, various comforting yet fundamentally idiotic notions of political correctness and wishful thinking have taken root beyond the "Kumbaya"-singing, we're-all-one crowd. These ideas have now infected conservatives, the very people who really should know better. The Republican Party has been derailed by legions of fools and poseurs wearing smiley-face masks. Think rescuing the economy by condemning our descendents to lives of spirit-crushing debt. Think nation-building abroad while we slowly disintegrate at home. Think education and No Child Left Behind. . . . But don't think about it too much, because if you do, you'll quickly come to the logical conclusion: We are doomed. Need more convincing? Dwell on the cheerful promises of the diversity cult and the undeniable reality of the oncoming demographic disaster. Contemplate the feminization of everything, or take a good look at what passes for art these days. Witness the rise of culturism and the death of religion. Bow down before your new master, the federal apparatchik. Finally, ask yourself: How certain am I that the United States of America will survive, in any recognizable form, until, say, 2022? A scathing, mordantly funny romp through today's dismal and dismaler political and cultural scene, We Are Doomed provides a long-overdue dose of reality, revealing just how the GOP has been led astray in recent years–and showing that had conservatives held on to their fittingly pessimistic outlook, America's future would be far brighter. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to embrace the Audacity of Hopelessness.

Americans have been forced from their homes. Their jobs have been outsourced, their neighborhoods torn down to make room for freeways, their churches shuttered or taken over by social justice warriors, and their very families eviscerated by government programs that assume their functions and a hostile elite that deems them oppressive. Conservatives have always defended these elements of a rooted life as crucial to maintaining cultural continuity in the face of changing circumstances. Unfortunately, official “conservatism” has become fixated on abstract claims about freedom and the profits of “creative destruction.” Conservatism has never been the only voice in America, but it is the most distinctively American voice, emerging from the customs, norms, and dispositions of its people and grounded in the conviction that the capacity for self-governance provides a distinctly human dignity. Emphasizing the ongoing strength and importance of the conservative tradition, the authors describe our Constitution’s emphasis on maintaining order and balance and protecting the primary institutions of local life. Also important here is an understanding of changes in American demographics, economics, and politics. These changes complicated attempts to address the fundamentally antitraditional nature of slavery and Jim Crow, the destructive effects of globalism, and the increasing desire to look on the federal government as the guarantor of security and happiness. To reclaim our home as a people, we must rebuild the natural associations and primary institutions within which we live. This means protecting the fundamental relationships that make up our way of life. From philosophy to home construction, from theology to commerce, from charity to the essentials of household management, our ongoing practices are the source of our knowledge of truth, of one another, and of how we may live well together.