Top 10 Best Conservative Books Updated 04 /2024

All over the country, you can find hundreds of books written by conservative authors. They are selling like hot cakes at any book store.

There have been a lot of new and growing conservative authors in the last few years, thanks to the Tea Party movement and the presidency of Barack Obama. There has also been a lot of interest in the nonfiction works that have shaped conservative thought in American culture and politics again.

The following is a list of 13 books that every Republican should have. Despite the fact that this isn't a complete list, it's a good place to start for a young conservative who wants to get his or her feet wet in the right.

"The Conscience of a Conservative" by Barry Goldwater

It is often said that the publication of Goldwater's book in 1960 was a big part of the revival of the conservative movement and helped the Arizona Senator win the election in 1964.

As soon as the book starts, Goldwater makes a big deal out of separating right and left "It makes the Conservative's conscience hurt when someone tries to make someone less important than another person. Then, today, he is at odds with dictators who rule by fear, and with more civilized people who ask us to let them play God with the human race."

More than 50 years after it was written, The Conscience of a Conservative has been around and still inspires conservative thought.

"Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville

Tocqueville and Beaumont went on a nine-month journey across the American landscape in 1831. After they left their post-revolutionary home, they saw a healthy democracy that they thought could be a good example for other countries (including their own).

They went to 17 of the 24 states in the union and talked to people like settlers, lawyers, bankers, and even two presidents, then wrote down their findings in one of the most important and insightful analyses of American politics.

"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged is the fourth and last book by Ayn Rand, the founder of the Objectivist movement. It's called her "magnum opus," and it should be read by anyone who wants to be a conservative.

The book depicts a dystopian future in which society crumbles under more and more oppressive government control. The book's hero, John Galt, leads the way. The story lays out the main ideas of Rand's philosophy, like that reason, individualism, capitalism, and "rational selfishness" are important.

Despite being very long and very, very dark, Atlas Shrugged has been popular since it came out in 1957. If you haven't read the book, you should. Since the economic downturn in 2007, sales of the book have risen. The book's opening line, "Who is John Galt?" has been used on Tea Party signs and bumper stickers.

The Federalist Papers

Some of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay's 85 essays about the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1787 are found in the Federalist Papers, which they wrote together.

The historical collection is often used in court opinions to help judges understand what the framers meant when constitutional questions come up. Federalist 78, which talks about judicial power, has been used the most, according to a study from the Georgia School of Law. At least 37 opinions have used it.

For the other side of the coin, you can read the Anti-Federalist Papers to see different views.

"Witness" by Whittaker Chambers

Witness was written in 1952 and told the story of the author's upbringing and rise as a communist spy for the Soviet Union. A high-ranking member of the U.S. State Department named Alger Hiss was named a communist in the book. The book talked about how this happened.

Hiss-Chambers was a spy case in the late 1940s that had a big impact on the political world. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who was famous for going after people who were suspected of being communist, was made a household name after this.

Even more, it marked the start of a conservative rise that would lead to Ronald Reagan becoming President in 1980.

"The Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich von Hayek

The Road to Serfdom was written by Austrian-born economist Friedrich von Hayek and was first published in 1944. It has been one of the most important books in the fight for the free market and libertarian thought ever written.

Hayek was very concerned about central planning because he had just been through the experience of Nazi Germany. He pushed back against the rise in government control that he saw in Europe at the time.

With the rise of the Tea Party and Ron Paul's Liberty Movement, the works of Von Hayek and Ludwig von Mises have come back into fashion in a big way. On his Fox News show in 2010, Glenn Beck talked about The Road To Serfdom for a whole show. This helped make the book the best-selling book on Amazon at that time, and it went to number one.

"Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama" by Ann Coulter

Coulter is the right's femme fatale. She has built a media empire around her fight-to-the-death defense of conservative ideas and outrage at the political left.

Coulter's eight best-selling books are a good place to start if you want to learn more about right-wing ideas. Her most recent book, Mugged, says that liberals have taken credit for civil rights by making Republicans "racists."

Mugged can also be used with one of Coulter's other books, like:

Liars: Liberals say bad things about the American Right.

It was Liberal Treason from the Cold War to the war on Terrorism: Treason

Church of Liberalism is not God's house.

In order for Democrats to be Republicans, they would have to have brains first.

Liberal "victims" and their attacks on the U.S. are guilty of crimes against the country.

"The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Santayana" by Russell Kirk

The Conservative Mind was written by Russell Kirk, one of the most well-known and widely read conservative writers. It was published in 1953 and is the most important work of the post-World War II conservative movement.

The book starts with Edmund Burke, an 18th century philosopher who Kirk thought was the father of modern conservative thought. The book shows how conservative thought has changed over time. Kirk says that there is no such thing as a conservative ideology. Instead, he says that conservatism is a way of looking at the world and living your life.

"He wrote: "

A lot of what we call "conservatism" is an endorsement of normality in society's problems. A person isn't perfect but he can get a "tolerable level of order, justice, and freedom." There are standards we can work to improve.

Today, The Conservative Mind is important because it talks about the differences between social conservatives and the libertarians in the movement.

"Ideas Have Consequences," by Richard Weaver

Richard Weaver's 1948 book, Ideas Have Consequences, is a big part of what conservatives think about the decline of Western Civilization.

"This is another book about the end of the West," the book says. People in the 14th century began to think that there were no universal truths, which started the long decline of Western culture and morality, says Weaver. This is called "nominalism."

A lot of conservative thought has changed since the end of World War II because of the work of both Kirk and Weaver. The phrase "ideas have consequences" has become a common refrain in the movement.

"Free To Choose: A Personal Statement" by Milton and Rose Friedman

Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, wrote the book Free To Choose in 1980. It is a primer on Friedman's economic policy ideas, and it uses real-world examples to show how the free market leads to prosperity.

A lot of government policies, such as gas and tobacco taxes, public education, welfare, the Federal Reserve and labor unions are slammed in the book. It says that free market capitalism is the best way to run a country.

The book was a companion to a ten-part TV show with the same name.

"On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill

British philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote On Liberty in 1859. In this work, he talks about the fight between liberty and government overreach, which he saw as a conflict. Mill's most important work talks about the relationship between the individual and society, how he doesn't like government interference, and what he thinks are "basic liberties." These are things like the right to speak freely and the right to pursue your own tastes, as long as they don't hurt anyone else.

It could be even worse than a government that is ruled by a majority: Mill says the "tyranny of the majority" might be worse than the government's.

In his book, he says that going against the general opinion and feeling of the people can be much more difficult to fight than a dictator.

"God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of 'Academic Freedom'" by William F. Buckley, Jr.

In 1951, when William Buckley was 25, he came into the public eye with his first book, God and Man at Yale, which was an angry attack on his alma mater, Yale University, which he said was putting liberal academic orthodoxy on its students.

As a modern conservative leader, Buckley founded the conservative political magazine National Review, which is still very popular today. He was one of the most important political thinkers of the late 20th century. He is said to have combined political conservatism with free-market capitalism and anti-Communism, which helped shape the ideology of the Republican Party as we know it today.

Even though Buckley's later works are thought to be better, God and Man at Yale still resonates with new generations of Young Republicans who are fed up with the marginalization of conservative ideas in academia.

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