Conservative Heroes ─ Fourteen Leaders Who Shaped America, from Jefferson to Reagan

The Story of American Conservatism in Fourteen Lives

Conservatism in America, as one early-twentieth-century politician said, is “as old as the Republic itself.” But what exactly are its foundational principles, and how did they form the conservative movement we know today?
Author Garland S. Tucker III tells the story in this lively look at fourteen champions of conservative thought—some well-known, others hardly remembered at all. Taking readers on an exciting tour from the American Founding to the modern era, Tucker traces the development of five basic tenets of conservatism and shows how these leaders put principle into action (some more successfully than others).
Conservative Heroes offers brief but penetrating profiles of:

• Thomas Jefferson and James Madison: These Founders agreed that the primary purposes of government are to ensure order and to preserve liberty—but often differed on how best to achieve the balance between the two
• John Randolph and Nathaniel Macon: In the early nineteenth century these congressional leaders fought to preserve the founding vision of a limited national government
• John C. Calhoun: Remembered primarily for his defense of slavery, this statesman nonetheless made considerable contributions to American constitutional history
• Grover Cleveland: The last Democratic president to advance the conservative principles of limited government, free markets, and sound money
• Calvin Coolidge and Andrew Mellon: In the 1920s the president and his treasury secretary reduced taxes and the size and scope of the national government—and sparked an economic boom
• Josiah W. Bailey and John W. Davis: Forgotten today, these two Democrats spearheaded the conservative challenge to FDR’s New Deal
• Robert A. Taft: “Mr. Republican” led the revival of the GOP as the conservative party
• William F. Buckley Jr., Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan: The driving forces behind the ascent of modern conservatism

Garland S. Tucker III is the author of The High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge, and the 1924 Election. He serves as chairman and CEO of Triangle Capital Corporation, a publicly traded specialty finance company located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Tucker graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Washington and Lee University and received his MBA from Harvard Business School. A former member of the New York Stock Exchange, he serves on the boards of a number of companies, schools, and charitable organizations.

Amity Shlaes is the author of four New York Times bestsellers: Coolidge,The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, The Forgotten Man (Graphic Edition), andThe Greedy Hand: Why Taxes Drive Americans Crazy.