Levin: "On Prudence and Progress"

I picked up on your blog through your comments on Sowell...

As a conservative, I have learned that much dispute exists among conservatives about just what conservatives believe. I have read a few books trying to explain it all. The seminal work on conservatism is allegedly Russell Kirk's, The Conservative Mind. This book gave conservatives in the 1950s thieir "A-ha" moment in their search for a tradition. But Kirk erroneously traces roots of American conservatism back to Burke and Europe. American rejected that whole tradition in 1776. Kirk should have looked for an American conservative tradition within our LIBERAL revolutionary context of the D of I: all men are created equal. It sounds like Levin has followed Kirk in the same error. I recently glanced at a book by Levin at a relative's house. It may have been the one you are reviewing. . . . I was not impressed either.

A different stream of conservatism runs through the work of Harry Jaffa at the Claremont Institute and through his book Crisis of the House Divided. He focuses on equality as a conservative principle. Needless to say, he has has not been enthusiastically embraced by conservatives like Kirk and Levin.

Ill keep watching your updates on chapters of Levin