It is not to be expected that everyone has read or will read all of the books that influenced the course of growth the conservative movement would take in the post-war years

Ten Books That Shaped America’s Conservative Renaissance

by Jeffrey O. Nelson

If a conservative order is indeed to return, we ought to know the tradition which is attached to it, so that we may rebuild society;

 if it is not to be restored, still we ought to understand 

conservative ideas so that we may rake from the ashes 

what scorched fragments of civilization escape the conflagration of unchecked will and appetite. 

Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind

The above words were written, of course, with reference to the great inheritance of conservative thought in the West, the long drama of lived experience as glimpsed by poets and novelists, social philosophers and practical statesmen. But these words could also be applied to a more particular conservative experience, that of post-World War II America. If we are to know and rebuild a conservative civil social order in this country, then we need to “rake from the ashes” of recent American history the books that influenced a generation of conservative scholars and public figures, books whose message resonated with much of the American populace and resulted in astonishing political triumphs.

At the time these books were published there was no conservative movement, only a belief among a disparate group of thinkers that conservative ideas had something to say to a society sated with liberalism. As Frederick D. Wilhelmsen put it, the only thing conservatives had was their vision. Today, conservatism has become so much a part of American life that it is difficult to comprehend what an astonishing achievement it was to lay the foundations of a movement that was, as the publisher Henry Regnery once remarked, not only an “opposing force to liberalism, but a vital force in its own right.” With all the opportunities and outlets now available to conservatives it is easy for us to forget that the movement which arose at the century’s midpoint came after a long reign of doctrinaire liberalism, and was greeted, according to Regnery, almost as an escape from bondage.

William Bennett observed that one of the primary concerns of conservatives should be to re-articulate a philosophical case for the kind of conservative government and society we advocate and oppose it to the one advanced by activist liberals. The first step in this effort must be to reacquaint ourselves with the tradition—the books, the figures, and the ideas—that enlivened conservatism, that made it “a fact and a force” on the American political and social landscape.


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10 Books of the Conservative Tradition

The Road to Serfdom ……………………… F. A. Hayek

Socialism …………………………….. Ludwig von Mises

Memoirs of a Superfluous Man …… Albert Jay Nock

Witness …………………………… Whittaker Chambers

The New Science of Politics …………… Eric Voegelin

In Defense of Freedom …………………… Frank Meyer

The Conservative Mind ………………….. Russell Kirk

Ideas Have Consequences …………… Richard Weaver

The Quest for Community …………….. Robert Nisbet

On the Democratic Idea in America …. Irving Kristol

Some of the Best Historical Introductions to and Short Studies of Conservatism

History

The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 ………George H. Nash

Short Introduction to Conservatism

Conservatism: Dream and Reality …..Robert Nisbet

Short Introduction to Classical Liberalism

Liberalism ………………………………………..John Gray

History of Pre-WWII American Conservatives

Superfluous Men ……………………….Robert Crunden

Anthology

Portable Conservative Reader ………….Russell Kirk

Essay Collection

The Public Philosophy Reader ………Ed., Richard Bishirjian

Sourcebook of Conservative Thought Right Minds ……..Gregory Wolfe

Primary Sources

Reflections on the Revolution in France ………….Edmund Burke

Democracy in America ………..Alexis de Tocqueville

The Federalist Papers …….Hamilton, Madison, Jay

Other Great Books of the Conservative Tradition

The Roots of American Order …………..Russell Kirk

Bureaucracy ………………………….Ludwig von Mises

The Law ………………………………….Frédéric Bastiat

The Conservative Affirmation in America ………Willmoore Kendall

A Humane Economy ……………….Wilhelm Roepke

The Constitution of Liberty …………….F. A. Hayek

Natural Right and History ………………..Leo Strauss

A Better Guide Than Reason ………M. E. Bradford

The Crisis of Western Education ………….Christopher Dawson

The Anti-Capitalist Mentality ………….Ludwig von Mises

Democracy and Leadership ……………Irving Babbitt

The Social Crisis of Our Time ……….…..Wilhelm Roepke

The Servile State ………………………….Hilaire Belloc

I’ll Take My Stand ………………Twelve Southerners

Visions of Order ………………………Richard Weaver

Notes Toward the Definition of Culture ……..T. S. Eliot

The Managerial Revolution ………..James Burnham

Attack on Leviathan (retitled Regionalism and Nationalism in the U.S.) ….Donald Davidson

Christianity and Political Philosophy ……..Frederick D. Wilhelmsen

Enemies of the Permanent Things ……..Russell Kirk

Reflections of a Neoconservative ……….Irving Kristol

Our Enemy, The State ………………Albert Jay Nock

Crowd Culture ………………….Bernard Iddings Bell

The Politics of Prudence ………………….Russell Kirk

Literature and the American College…..Irving Babbitt

Order and History (5 vols) …………….Eric Voegelin

Up from Liberalism ……….William F. Buckley, Jr.

Historical Consciousness …………………..John Lukacs

Original Intentions ……………………M. E. Bradford

The Decline of the Intellectual …….Thomas Molnar

Human Action ……………………..Ludwig von Mises

Law, Legislation, & Liberty (3 vols) ..F. A. Hayek

Suicide of the West …………………….James Burnham

The Theory of Education in the United States ……..Albert Jay Nock