I was asked in anonymous comments to provide reading suggestions for a newly formed readers’ club for people interested in conservatism. The club appeared in a very unexpected place, and I am very glad. I want to recommend this syllabus on conservatism in America, which is the only syllabus I have been able to find where conservatism is explored honestly and without hysterical name-calling.
If the syllabus is too much, I recommend starting with the books The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Santayana by Russell Kirk and Towards a Conservative Left: Selected Writings of Jean-Claude Michéa.
If you are wondering whether you might be a conservative, you need to ask yourself a single question. When you look back at the history of humanity, do you believe that you are morally superior to the mass of people who came before you? If you can accept a possibility that the many many generations of the past were not complete idiots mired in a pile of rotting refuse of bigotry, if you can look at the past with love and pride, then you can be one of us. Welcome to the club!
Clarissa's Blog 