AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: What Is Conservatism? by Frank S., Ed. Meyer ISBN: 0-03-043730-X Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: June, 1964 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $4.95

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: One of the 25 most important conservative books
Comment: Meyer was a former Communist, but he atoned for this by the many contributions he made to the anti-communist cause and to the conservative movement. The latter, I believe, owes an incalculable debt to him. Before 1960, Meyer, who was at the time a senior editor of National Review, began arguing that there was no inherent contradiction between the two major streams of the Right in America, free-market principles and traditional values.

        He further argued that if the conservative movement was going to succeed, adherents of both lines of thought, natural allies on most issues, must be fused together. Supporters of a conservative economic policy, he taught, couldn't expect their policies to be enacted without the backing of social-issue conservatives. And it was equally true, he continued, that social-issue conservatives couldn't expect their policies to be enacted unless they allied with economic conservatives.

         The presidential elections of 1980, 1984 and 1988, as well as the congressional elections of 1994 and 1996, were manifestations of the wisdom of Frank Meyer.

Rating: 4
Summary: Some timeless essays, some dated
Comment: This collection of essays is pretty readable for a work published in the 60s. It's also amazing how much the debate has stayed the same - it still pits libertarians against cultural conservatives, with some of the essays in this book (Hayek's "Why I Am Not a Conservative", for example) remaining as crucial texts today. The authors in this book who remain famous are Hayek, Ropke, Garry Wills, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Russell Kirk. Unfortunately, the others are mainly of historical interest. All in all, it's worth reading just to see how timeless some of these arguments are and to see arguments of these important thinkers.