For more than four decades, George F. Will has been trying to discern the principles of the Western political tradition and apply them to America’s public life. Today, the challenges are more significant than ever. Fundamental questions about human nature, rights, equality, and the supremacy of the majority are evident in the daily events in America.

The vision of the Founders, first expressed in the Declaration of Independence and realized in the Constitution, offers the new democracy a framework of government unique in world history. Their beliefs in natural rights, limited government, religious freedom, and human virtue and dignity have birthed two centuries of American prosperity. Now, as Will shows, conservatism is under threat—from progressives as well as from elements within the Republican Party.

America has transformed into an administrative state structure, while destructive trends have seized family life and higher education. Quasi-autonomous executive agencies wield essentially unaccountable power. Congress has failed in its duties to exercise its legislative powers. And the executive power has veered away from the avenue of the Constitution.

In the intellectual battle between the vision of the Founders, like James Madison who advanced the notion of natural rights that precede government, and the progressivism of Woodrow Wilson, the Founders are losing ground. It is time to reverse America's political fortunes.

Extensive, intellectually exhilarating, and written with the refined irony that has endeared Will to millions of readers, The Conservative Sensibility is a remarkable new book by one of America's most recognizable political writers.

Pages: 640, Year of Publication: 1208, Dimensions: 15.4x15.4cm