Orestes Brownson's 1865 book, The American Republic, ranks with The Federalist and Alexis de Tocqueville's classic Democracy in America as an indispensable analysis of the American experiment in republican self-government. Reproduced here for the first time in a manner worthy of its importance, replete with its first comprehensive index, this neglected American classic is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the "constitution, tendencies and destiny" of the American regime.
The Civil War is the defining event in American history, and Abraham Lincoln is the central figure of both the Civil War and American history. In his struggle to preserve the Union and redeem the nation from the original sin of slavery, Lincoln provided the most compelling expression of the American Dream and the preeminent justification of the American regime. Indeed, at Gettysburg he distilled the very essence of the nation's political creed. His political thought and leadership are of enduring significance to democracy at home and abroad.
If you hear about John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) at all nowadays, it's from liberals who try to tar him as a Southern-partisan relic whose thought was antiquated even in his own day. But conservatives who don't know Calhoun are depriving themselves of one of the most formidable defenses of liberty and republican government ever crafted. In Calhoun: Selected Writings and Speeches, Volume XII in the Club's own Conservative Leadership Series, you will find complete texts of his two major treatises, The Disquisition and The Discourse, plus a comprehensive collection of other important writings.
For the first time in over a century, the essential political writings of one of the nineteenth century's greatest orators -- and one of America's most impressive conservatives -- are now available in a collector's-quality hardcover edition.
When it was first published, Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop's new translation of Democracy in America was lauded in all quarters as the finest and most definitive edition of Tocqueville's classic thus far -- complete with the most faithful and readable translation to date, impeccable annotations of unfamiliar references, and a masterful introduction placing the work and its author in the broader contexts of political philosophy and statesmanship. Mansfield and Winthrop's astonishing efforts have not only captured the elegance, subtlety, and profundity of Tocqueville's original, but also give us some sense of how very essential this masterpiece continues to be.
"I once saw a book advertised, entitled New Views of the Constitution. I was startled! What right has a man to start new views upon it?" So exclaimed Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, in a lecture at Harvard Law School in the 1840s. And he had a point. But had he bothered to read John Taylor's book, he would have found that what was "new" about the Virginia statesman's defense of state sovereignty was not so much his interpretation of the Constitution as the revelatory new evidence he marshaled to support it.
This edition contains the key essays that were written in response to the Federalist Papers and were instrumental in helping shape the founding of our country.
Popularly known as “The Federalist Papers,” The Federalist (as originally titled) is a collection of anonymous essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, meant to drum up popular support for the proposed Constitution. The text in this edition is taken from the 1864 version edited by John Church Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton’s fourth son.
No book has done more to instruct, enlighten, and inform conservatives about economics that Adam Smith’s undisputed classic, The Wealth of Nations. Published in 1776, it was the intellectual counterpart of the volleys fired at Lexington and Concord – a stirring cry for economic freedom that resonates to this day. It is the very basis for the thoughts of contemporary conservative economists like Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell.
Modern conservatism begins with Edmund Burke and so does the Conservative Leadership Series, the Club’s exclusive library of the founding works of the Movement. Compiled, in this collector’s quality hardcover edition, is a collection of his most important writings and speeches – a must for every conservative library.
