Well-written and generous description of the conservative movement in America. ( )

An insightful, well-written, and thoroughly enjoyable read. Perhaps it is because of their distance from the subject at hand, the authors are able to present a work that does not seem ideologically bent in a liberal or conservative direction. This is neither a hate-filled diatribe or a jingoistic, flag-waving anthem from a conservative perspective.

For me, one of the best books written on understanding the conservative nature of American politics. ( )

In the run up to the 2004 election publishers cranked out more political screeds than there were voters to read them. You know the books I'm talking about, both sides cranked them out - the ones that featured some indignant looking character on the cover with titles using words such as: shut up, stupid, dumb, fat, idiot, jerk, liar, etc. Yes it was an age when political discourse raged with a fevered pitch, and almost all Americans came out looking like dumb stupid idiot jerks by the time the whole thing was said and done. Somewhere amid all this mindless wrangling came a book that actually set out to understand the American electorate at the beginning of the 21st century in a dispassionate objective and thoughtful way. Written as more of a work of political anthropology it reads more like a book by De Toqueville than Al Franken or Ann Coulter.

The question the authors set out to answer is, what is the cause of America's decided tilt to the right over the last thirty years. The answers suggested are many, and would behoove any thoughtful reader interested in politics or American culture to consider. For those on the right this book will show that the world of conservative thought did not begin with talk radio, that there existed, and exists today a very directed and active core of conservative intellectuals that in many ways serve as the ballast of what is now the conservative movement. People on the left will benefit to learn that the people whom they disagree are not all just a bunch of illiterate Bible thumpers - and why the those that are illiterate bible thumpers are so decidedly conservative.

Somehow authors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, a couple of Brits, have been able to more clearly understand the American political landscape than even we can. This is one book that will probably be read many years from now and will serve as a work to help future generations understand the political time in which we are living through now. Great book. ( )