Rave Reviews for Cooke Book

Dear NR Friend,

If you haven't yet ordered your copy of Charlie Cooke's The Conservatarian Manifesto: Libertarians, Conservatives, and the Fight for the Right's Future, I have to ask you one question: What's the matter with you?!

OK, two questions: So, when are you going to get your copy?

And even an answer to that: Now, and here.

OK, all kidding and nagging aside, the book is meeting with great and deserved acclaim. Let me share a few reviews, and then let me suggest you . . . convince yourself, as you should be convinced: That this is one of those books, one that really is going to be very consequential, the kind that comes around so rarely, one that I really need to own, because by reading it, it's going to help me a lot as I think about the future of our movement and all those causes (and rights!) I hold dear.

Now, about those reviews . . .

"Well-written and vital." –Tyler Cowen , bestselling author of The Great Stagnation

"First-rate. . . . A summons to conservatives to unite around the "timeless principles" that inform the American founding. In applying those principles to a host of prominent issues of public policy, [Cooke] demonstrates refreshing common sense, a confident command of empirical realities, and savvy political judgment."– Peter Berkowitz , Real Clear Politics

"Quite good . . . Can conservatives appeal to the folks who are tired of the shrillest voices telling them what to watch and how to live their lives? Probably not, if folks like Mike Huckabee have their way. But if the future belongs to the Charles C.W. Cookes of the world? Well, then maybe we have a shot."–Sonny Bunch, Washington Free Beacon

Great, no? And then there's John Hood's take of The Conservatarian Manifesto just published in the new issue of National Review:

The Conservatarian Manifesto is full of brilliant insights and powerful arguments. Cooke uses the failures of gun control and the drug war to illustrate the proper limits of state power, without lapsing into dogma or ignoring the inherent tradeoffs of opting for personal freedom. There is a crucial difference, he points out, between saying "Society would be better off if the drugs vanished overnight" and saying "Society is better off when the government tries to make drugs vanish." He also discusses at some length something I noticed several years ago: Today's generation of young conservatives is more accepting of gay rights and less accepting of abortion than my generation was in the 1980s. Although left-wing analysts see these developments as confusing and contradictory, they are in fact entirely understandable and consistent applications of principle-and suggest to Cooke that conservatives "should spend their time on more fruitful endeavors" than fighting a rearguard action against what are really inevitable changes in marriage laws and customs.

But Cooke also properly warns against the irrational exuberance of certain libertarian activists who claim that if the Republican Party would simply drop its opposition to drug legalization and same-sex marriage, it would suddenly command the allegiance of large swathes of young voters. Unfortunately, most of today's voters in the 18-to-29 group have quaffed large amounts of welfare-state propaganda served up by their teachers, professors, and celebrity icons. A nasty hangover awaits them, of course, but in the meantime their votes won't be so easy to get.

Unlike the notorious tract published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848, The Conservatarian Manifesto is informed by sound principle and devoted to a noble goal, but it does resemble that earlier work in several ways: it is concise. It is quotable. And it makes no attempt to describe in a comprehensive fashion Cooke's entire political philosophy, or to work out all the details of how that philosophy might be turned into a practical system of governance.

Wow.

So get thee to a bookstore, whether it be the one in the mall or the one online, and get your copy of Charlie Cooke's tremendous new work, The Conservatarian Manifesto: Libertarians, Conservatives, and the Fight for the Right's Future, and get it having the complete confidence of knowing that you will be making one of your best book purchases.

Ever.

God bless,

Jack Fowler
Publisher
National Review

www.NationalReview.com

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Rave Reviews for Cooke Book

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