Self-proclaimed conservatives abound in politics, on the news and the political talk shows, on the editorial pages of major newspapers and on the bestseller lists-but what, precisely, is a conservative? Why do they think the way they do? How do their views of conservatism differ? One way to answer these questions is to examine the books espousing conservative thought through 4,000 years of moral and intellectual tradition. Chilton Williamson, Jr., has spent nearly three decades in conservative magazine journalism, and his fifty-two selections, from the Bible to Ann Coulter, illustrate the enduring ideas that inspire conservatism at its best. They include indisputably conservative classics like Bill Buckley's God and Man at Yale and The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek, and many choices that are not so obvious, such as Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. Williamson's picks will spur debate and foster intelligent discussion of the most vital issues of our time and prove that these essential works not only make up the structure of conservatism, they represent the very mainsprings of Western civilization. Book jacket.