If books could have children, The Politics of Prudence would be the son of The Conservative Mind. They appeared 40 years apart, an interval during which the “conservative movement” sprang up. When The Conservative Mind was published in 1953, there was no National Review or Young Americans for Freedom, no Federalist Society or Claremont Institute, no Heritage Foundation or CPAC, and of course no Barry Goldwater presidential campaign or Ronald Reagan presidency.
The Conservative Mind is not a book about American conservatism as most people would recognize it today because it antedated almost all of the institutions and icons of the modern American right. Four decades later, in The Politics of Prudence, it was time for Kirk to pass judgment on this new movement that had taken conservatism for its name.
Read Full Article »