Books like The neoconservative persuasion by Irving Kristol

Edmund Burke’s *Reflections on the Revolution in France*, first printed in 1789‑90, remains a foundational text of English conservatism, offering a critical view of the French Revolution and its impact on public opinion.

In the 1950s those whom we now call the neoconservatives emerged as a group of liberal New York intellectuals staunchly opposed to communism and its apologists. Their growing belief in the moral and political bankruptcy of American liberalism and opposition to the counterculture transformed the movement into a new conservatism based on a confidence in America and the rediscovery of traditional virtues and religious values. Through extensive research and revealing interviews with many of the movement's most prominent thinkers, including Irving Kristol, Gertrude Himmelfarb, James Q. Wilson, Norman Podhoretz, and Richard John Neuhaus, Gerson takes the reader inside neo-conservatism, providing historical perspective and many insights into this crucially important and frequently misunderstood group of intellectuals. Unlike any other account of neoconservatism, Gerson demonstrates how their ideas have had consequences - especially on the current Republican revolution. He explains the philosophical foundations and cultural implications of the neoconservative positions on issues including the welfare state, affirmative action, multiculturalism, abortion, environmentalism, foreign policy, religion in public life, and more.

Neoconservatism is the movement that has provided the intellectual foundation for the resurgence of American conservatism in our time. And if neoconservatism can be said to have a father or an architect, that person is Irving Kristol. Neoconservatism is the most comprehensive selection of Kristol's influential writings on politics and economics, as well as the best of his now-famous essays on society, religion, culture, literature, education, and - above all - the "values" issues that have come to define the neo-conservative critique of contemporary life. These essays provide an unparalleled insight into the 50-year development of Kristol's social and political ideas, from an uneasy socialism tempered with religious orthodoxy, to a vigilant optimism about the future of the American experiment. Those already familiar with Kristol's work will especially enjoy the new autobiographical essay that introduces this volume; it is sprinkled with personal recollections about such luminaries as Lionel Trilling, Leo Strauss, Saul Bellow, Sidney Hook, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and historian Gertrude Himmelfarb (who is also Mrs. Kristol). Those relatively new to Kristol's writings will be treated to some of the most lucid, insightful, entertaining, and intellectually challenging essays of our time.