Reading list · 8 books

Books to understand the right

For a progressive reader: conservatism in its own words, and two outsiders who went and listened.

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Makes the case

The Conservative Mind (opens Bookshop.org)

From Burke to Eliot

Russell Kirk · 1953

Russell Kirk's 1953 history of conservative thought from Edmund Burke to T.S. Eliot, which gave the postwar American right its founding argument for tradition, order and prudence.
Makes the case

A Time to Build (opens Bookshop.org)

From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream

Yuval Levin · 2020

Yuval Levin, editor of National Affairs, argues that distrust of institutions is the core problem in American life and that both parties should recommit to building them.
A portrait

Hillbilly Elegy (opens Bookshop.org)

A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

J.D. Vance · 2016

J.D. Vance describes growing up in Middletown, Ohio, in a family of Appalachian migrants, and the poverty, addiction and distrust of institutions he saw around him.
A portrait

Strangers in Their Own Land (opens Bookshop.org)

Anger and Mourning on the American Right

Arlie Russell Hochschild · 2016

Berkeley sociologist Arlie Hochschild spent five years among Tea Party supporters in Louisiana and writes a sympathetic outsider's account of the feelings behind their politics.
A portrait

The Politics of Resentment (opens Bookshop.org)

Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker

Katherine J. Cramer · 2016

Political scientist Katherine Cramer sat in on rural Wisconsin coffee klatches for years and found that resentment toward cities and elites shaped how residents heard politics.
Makes the case

The Conservative Sensibility (opens Bookshop.org)

George F. Will · 2019

Columnist George Will argues that American conservatism rests on the Founders' belief in natural rights and limited government, and traces the idea through Progressive-era and modern debates.
Makes the case

Conservatism: A Rediscovery (opens Bookshop.org)

Yoram Hazony · 2022

Yoram Hazony, an Israeli-American philosopher, argues that conservatism is a tradition of nation, family and religion, and makes the case for national conservatism against classical liberalism.
Makes the case

A Conflict of Visions (opens Bookshop.org)

Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

Thomas Sowell · 1987

Economist Thomas Sowell contrasts a constrained vision of human nature with an unconstrained one and argues that this split explains why the right and left keep disagreeing.