The Book Every Conservative Must Read

By Isabelle Redfield

Barry Goldwater’s The Conscience of a Conservative begins, “I have been much concerned that so many people today with Conservative instincts feel compelled to apologize for them. Or if not to apologize directly, to qualify their commitment in a way that amounts to breast-beating.”  

Published in 1960, the late Arizona Senator and former 1964 presidential candidate’s succinct book reads like an enlightened manual. The Conscience of a Conservative is indispensable to American conservatism, and the quick read is undoubtedly the starting place for those looking to understand traditional conservative philosophy with crystal clarity. Goldwater’s stance on government size and scope, social welfare, free markets, and law and order paved the way for many of the policies rolled out by the Reagan Administration in the 80s. As such, the work is widely credited with reigniting the conservative movement. 

In 1964 Reagan delivered a speech worth watching titled “A Time for Choosing,” where he backed Goldwater for the presidency against Jonhson and again publicly declared he would no longer identify as a Democrat. The threat of government expansion Reagan spoke of fifty years ago holds true in the present day. Not long after the 1964 speech in Los Angeles, Regan’s political career took off, and Goldwater later supported his run for the presidency.

In 2017, I was assigned Conscience of a Conservative in its entirety for an American Political Thought course I enrolled in— regrettably, my attention fell elsewhere at the time. I am happy to report that today, the book rests by my bedside. Reading it cover-to-cover last summer solidified my identity as a conservative and revived my stance on several fundamental issues I once debated shakily. This book is a rallying call to American conservatives from all walks of life, and its present-day relevance is not to be overlooked in the year 2020.

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