BOOKS ON VIRTUES OF A FREE SOCIETY

Conserving LibertyMark Blitz

In this volume, Blitz defends the principles of American conservatism, countering many of the narrow or mistaken views that have arisen from both its friends and its foes. He asserts that individual liberty is the most powerful, reliable, and true standpoint from which to clarify and secure conservatism—but that individual freedom alone cannot produce happi-ness. The author shows that, to fully grasp conservatism’s merits, we must also understand the substance of responsibility, toleration, and other virtues.

Hoover Institution Press, 2011

Published by members and contributors of the Task Force on Virtues of a Free Society

The Boyd and Jill Smith Task Force on Virtues of a Free Society examines the evolution of America’s core

values, how they are threatened, and what can be done to preserve them. The task force’s aims are to

identify the enduring virtues and values on which liberty depends; chart the changes in how Americans have

practiced virtues and values during the course of our nation’s history; assess the ability of contemporary

associations and institutions—particularly schools, family, and religion—to sustain the necessary virtues;

and discuss how society might nurture the virtues and values on which its liberty depends. The task force

is cochaired by Hoover fellows Peter Berkowitz and David Brady. Other members include Gerard V. Bradley,

James W. Ceaser, William Damon, Robert P. George, Tod Lindberg, Harvey C. Mansfi eld, Russell Muirhead,

Clifford Orwin, and Diana Schaub.

Designing a Polity: America’s Constitution in Theory and PracticeJames W. Ceaser

In his book, Ceaser illustrates how America’s founders sought to build into American life the principles of liberty, limited government, and political moderation. Drawing on essays published during the past ten years that have been extensively updated and revised to refl ect current politics, Ceaser engages the Founding Fathers, particularly James Madison, emphasizes Alexis de Tocqueville as a model of political inquiry, critiques current and recent theorists such as Richard Rorty and Jacques Derrida, and explores the varieties of contemporary conservative thought.

Rowman and Littlefi eld, 2011

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What So Proudly We Hail: The American Soul in Story, Speech, and SongAmy A. Kass, Leon R. Kass, and Diana Schaub

Civic identity and civic virtue in the United States today face unprecedented challenges, making it more urgent than ever to fi nd better forms of civic education. That sense of urgency has given rise to the call to educate minds and hearts, not only to enable the young to live decent private lives but also to be attached to our country and to use their freedom to uphold and improve its institutions and values. What So Proudly We Hail uses story, speech, and song in a dozen selections on American identity, character, and civic life by our country’s greatest writers and leaders to help Americans realize more deeply their heritage as citizens of the United States.

Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2011

Failing Liberty 101: How We Are Leaving Young Americans Unprepared for Citizenship in a Free SocietyWilliam Damon

The author argues that we are failing to prepare today’s young people to be responsible American citizens—to the detriment of their life prospects and those of liberty in the United States of the future. He identifi es the problems—the declines in civic purpose and patriotism, crises of faith, cynicism, self-absorption, ignorance, indifference to the common good—and shows that our disregard of civic and moral virtue as an educational priority is having a tangible effect on the attitudes, understanding, and behavior of large portions of the youth in our country today.

Hoover Institution Press, 2011

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iety Endangered Virtues

Multiple Authors, Online Volume

The Endangered Virtues essay series is an online volume, written by members of Hoover’s Boyd and Jill Smith Task Force on Virtues of a Free Society, that rests on several shared convictions: that the American constitutional tradition is a source of wisdom about the mutual dependence of liberty and virtue and the tension between them; that the tradition places primary responsibility for the cultivation of the virtues on which liberty depends not on government but on the institutions of civil society, particularly the family and faith but also on education, work, and civic life; that in recent decades and owing to a variety of causes—social, cultural, economic, and political—those virtues and the sources that sustain have been exposed to danger and are weakening; and that renewing the virtues and the sources that sustain them is an urgent task.

Hoover Institution Press, 2011

Alexis de Tocqueville: A Very Short IntroductionHarvey C. Mansfi eld

Drawing on his immense knowledge of Alexis de Tocqueville’s work, Mansfi eld provides a succinct and readable introduction to one of the most important political thinkers of the last two centuries. With great skill and unfailing clarity, he not only informs the reader about Tocqueville (the man and his life) but also sets out the content of Tocqueville’s two great masterpieces: Democracy in America and The Ancien Régime and the French Revolution.

Oxford University Press, 2010

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