41 used & new from $0.01
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
The Conservative Bookshelf: Essential Works That Impact Today's Conservative Thinkers
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

The Conservative Bookshelf: Essential Works That Impact Today's Conservative Thinkers (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


10 new from $18.95 29 used from $0.01 2 collectible from $19.95

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover -- $18.95 $0.01
  Paperback $14.95 $9.03 $3.81

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Reagan I Knew

The Reagan I Knew

by William F. Buckley Jr.
3.1 out of 5 stars (18)  $19.00
Ideas Have Consequences

Ideas Have Consequences

by Richard M. Weaver
4.4 out of 5 stars (24)  $8.18
God And Man At Yale: 50Th Anniversary Edition

God And Man At Yale: 50Th Anniversary Edition

by William F. Buckley Jr.
4.4 out of 5 stars (19)  $10.00
The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran

The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran

by Robert Spencer
3.8 out of 5 stars (16)  $13.57
The Abolition of Man

The Abolition of Man

by C. S. Lewis
4.6 out of 5 stars (89)  $8.63
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

One doesn't have to read much of this excellent book to wonder whether its subtitle is wishful thinking. Many of the works discussed are demanding, the likes of Augustine's City of God, Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, and Richard M. Weaver's Ideas Have Consequences--hardly books that Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, or David Brock might curl up with. But as Williamson elucidates in the introduction, these books reflect conservatism, not the neoconservatism of current Republicans. And what is conservatism? "Man's willingness to discern for himself, and to accept from God, a fundamental, practical, just, human, and unchangeable plan for man--and to stick with it," Williamson says, later distinguishing two branches of conservatism, one "founded on eternal principles" and one "that appeals to historical context and the status quo, prudence, and pragmatism." Williamson presents 50 selected books in declension of categories, beginning with theology and ending with contemporary affairs. Book number 1 is the Bible; book 50 is Treason, by Anne Coulter, despite her support of the Bush administration. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Citadel (October 1, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0806525371
  • ISBN-13: 978-0806525372
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,108,955 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #31 in  Books > Reference > Publishing & Books > Bibliographies & Indexes > Politics

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Chilton Williamson
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Chilton Williamson Page

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Conservative Bookshelf: Essential Works That Impact Today's Conservative Thinkers
67% buy the item featured on this page:
The Conservative Bookshelf: Essential Works That Impact Today's Conservative Thinkers 4.0 out of 5 stars (6)
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning
10% buy
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning 4.1 out of 5 stars (497)
$11.18
The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
9% buy
The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot 4.4 out of 5 stars (37)
$22.79
Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
8% buy
Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics 4.4 out of 5 stars (199)
$9.86
Explore similar items

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
 
(11)
(9)
(7)
(5)
(5)
(4)
(4)
(3)
(3)
(3)
(3)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more
 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Be A Thinking Conservative, November 11, 2004
Long-time conservative book reviewer Chilton Williamson discusses 50 books "that impact today's conservative thinkers." The books date from the Bible to Thomas Fleming's 2004 THE MORALITY OF EVERYDAY LIFE. He provides an overview of each work, discusses its author and, when appropriate, relates it to contemporary issues (such as the neocon/paleocon dispute). The books are divided into religion, politics, society, literature, economics, and present day disputes. I should note that the "texts" under consideration are serious works and not a collection of anti-Clinton screeds written by second-tier neoconservatives. If you've always wanted to know what works elaborate on the essentials of conservative thought, Mr. Williamson is a sure guide. If you don't want to know why Burke was a Rockingham Whig instead of a Tory, then look someplace else.

Ten of the 50 books are works of fiction. I don't have a problem with that, but as a result there are some important thinkers who are not mentioned that most would consider "essential" to contemporary conservatism (such as Eric Voegelin and Christopher Dawson). I also would have liked to see a little more interaction with libertarianism. Von Mises and Rothbard are mentioned only once. While Von Mises was not a conservative in the contemporary sense of the word, every conservative should read HUMAN ACTION. In addition, the section on religion is quite slim, and it would have been a good place to mention Dawson.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The Paleoconservative Bookshelf, July 13, 2005
By Michael Kim (Elk Grove, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Mr. Williamson goes over 50 books he considers most strongly reflects his view of what being a true conservative means. The 50 books are organized into several subjects in rank of decreasing importance with religion on top, then politics, society, economics, the prophetic artist (works of fiction), and the present day. Each book is summarized in a four to ten page chapter with Mr. Williamson often commenting on the work's importance in today's world. The one central key to understanding Mr. Williamson's compilation is the selection is heavily biased towards a traditional view of conservatism or in today's political lingo Mr. Williamson is a paleoconservative. One can view today's conservative movement in the US as being made up of three pillars: traditional conservatives, neo-conservatives, and libertarians. Each strain of conservatism is represented by a major political magazine. The National Review might be the most representative of traditional conservatives (although neo-conservative views are well represented), the Weekly Standard is dominated by neo-conservatives, and Reason magazine takes a libertarian position. Mr. Williamson does not hide his preference for traditional conservatism and his disdain of neo-conservatives. In reading this book one is not sure if Mr. Williamson has more hatred of the left or the neo-conservatives. Mr. Williamson would describe a true conservative as being the conservatism that grew out of the 19th/early 20th centuries. I believe that Mr. Williamson would be much more a fan of late 19th century populist William Jennings Bryant than say Theodore Roosevelt. To Mr. Williamson true conservatism is embodied with respect for tradition, distrust of big government and large corporations, faith, love of country, isolationist foreign policy, pragmatism, distrust of one size fits all theoretical solutions, and acceptance that each nation will have its own peculiar culture and institutions worth defending. Mr. Williamson summarized these as the values of "small town" America.
Mr. Williamson does not include a single writer from the neo-conservative movement, except perhaps Ann Coulter, ignoring the Kristols, David Horowitz, etc. He basically ignores the libertarians although he does include Hayek's Road to Serfdom. This bias against libertarians and neo-conservatives can be shown most illustratively in his exclusion of any writings from Milton Friedman in the Economics section, or Ayn Rand from his selection of fictional works.
I would recommend this book as it does go over some important works that might led to further exploration. But one has to keep in mind this is a work concentrating on one strain of the conservative movement. This branch of conservatism has seen its influence decline tremendously with the rise of the neo-conservatives. One can feel Mr. Williamson's anger and bitterness as he see his movement being hijacked by imposters or more dangerously a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Guaranteed to give you something to think about!, September 18, 2005
By Paula L. Craig (Falls Church, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
I found this book a fascinating introduction to paleoconservatism. I consider myself quite conservative in some respects, and quite liberal in others. I have always had trouble understanding where neoconservatives like George Bush were coming from, since their actions so often seemed to throw the best conservative principles out the window. After reading this book, I find that my views match much more with the paleoconservatives. I certainly don't agree with all of the ideas presented, but I found several books that I definitely plan to read. What more can you ask of a survey book like this?
I was surprised to see environmentalism classed by Williamson as a naughty liberal idea. As Williamson says, conservatism is about preferring the familiar to the unknown, the tried to the untried. Williamson has missed the essential conservatism of environmentalism. Since we don't have a spare planet to live on, we should be quite cautious about accepting innovations that will destroy the natural resources our lives depend on. This is true even where those innovations date back some decades, such as the auto-centered culture of modern America. It is true that some environmental proposals are naive, but environmentalists aren't alone in making naive proposals. (The neoconservative idea that America should accept an unlimited number of immigrants strikes me as more naive and stupid than anything the environmentalists have come up with.) Having a stable, sustainable economy with a stable population size is a thoroughly conservative idea--and that's really what environmentalism is about.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Samizdat for paleocons
This is a book that desperately needed to be written. Although many will disagree with the author's specific definition of conservatism, and many will quibble with this or that... Read more
Published on November 1, 2007 by J. Michael

5.0 out of 5 stars The Conservative Bookshelf: The Title Says It All
~The Conservative Bookshelf: Essential Works That Impact Today's Conservative Thinkers~ put together by conservative writer Chilton Williamson, Jr. Read more
Published on September 13, 2007 by Ryan Setliff

2.0 out of 5 stars An Eclectic Take
I find it strange that many in Europe and other parts of the world see the US as a right wing nation, far from it (besides, the term is outdated and belongs to the French... Read more
Published on November 20, 2006 by thisisgibbie

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:












i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.



Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.