Big Tent: The Story of the Conservative Revolution--As Told by the Thinkers and Doers Who Made It Happen

by Mallory Factor (Editor), Elizabeth Factor

Drawing from his comprehensive, star-studded course at the Citadel, Mallory Factor, the New York Times bestselling author of Shadowbosses, brings together a fascinating and diverse range of essays from leading figures and activists which explore and illuminate the conservative intellectual tradition in American politics.

Ambitious in its breadth and depth, The Big Tent is a panoramic portrait of the intellectual history of the conservative movement. Some of the leading lights of the right offer an unparalleled introduction to conservative figures and ideas, from the Revolution to William F. Buckley; Barry Goldwater to the Reagan Revolution; Libertarianism to the War on Terror.

Insightful and stimulating, The Big Tent is an outstanding survey of the movement over three centuries.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

464 pages, Hardcover

First published April 8, 2014

Reviews

[Paige]

A better title would've been "Establishment Conservatives Provide Mediocre Defense of Their Beliefs: Featuring an Ayn Rand Chapter."
Really disappointing, but the libertarian chapters bumped this rating from a 1 to a 2.

[Scott]

I picked up this book from being thrown away at work and because I had worked with the editor before and his publicist before. I admit, it took me awhile to get to this book. When I first started it, I struggled caring. However, when I finally forced myself to get through it, I was glad that each contributor wrote differently and most of them were much more approachable than my initial reading.

Ultimately, this book shows just exactly why the GOP is a "Big Tent" party with so many differing ideologies that make up their coalition. This ranges from Newt Gingrich (former Speaker) to Rand Paul (libertarian Senator) to Donald Rumsfeld (former Sec of DOD). This showed me aspects of why I don't agree with them and others where I do. Regardless, I garnered a few ideas from this and appreciated the authors insights. Some I appreciated more than others, but it was important to consider the wide views of all when trying to move the GOP to adopt certain tenets or support causes. It's not easy to do this.

Regardless, it is informative for anyone trying to get a better understanding of the GOP and some of its leaders philosophies.

[John]

I was very disappointed by this book. I was expecting an intellectual rundown of the story of Conservative thought. What I got was mostly opinion pieces with general themes. Some of these were a complete waste of time, such as Phyllis Schlafly's, Alfred Regnery's, and Douglas Feith's, while most of the others were slightly more tolerable, but not by much. The only ones worth reading were Michael Barone's essay on de Tocqueville and Daniel Mitchell's on economic policy. Besides that, a pretty thin book that does a disservice to the vibrancy of the Conservative movement.

[Isaac Foo]

This book made me a democrat.

Jokes aside, I got this book to see the both sides of things, only to be majorly turned off by Republican soundbites from this book.

Stay in school, don't do propaganda, kids.

[David Roberts]

This is an interesting series of essays on political conservatism by a wide variety of authors, from Phyllis Schlafly to Donald Rumsfield, that is based on a series of lectures given at The Citadel in 2012-2013.

You don't have to be a "Republican" to enjoy this book and many (but not all) of the essays/lectures are thoughtfully crafted.

Some of the essays are particularly well done, such as the one on Libertarianism and others including Neoconservatism. There are a few essays that tend to be more polarizing and narrow, sometimes belittling the "competition," but in general the book steers clear of such rancor.

This was loaned to me by a friend but I think it is worth buying for those interested.

[Amy E.]

I enjoyed reading this book. It was a compilation of some guest speakers/seminars done at the Citadel. Some interesting history on the history of conservatives in America. It's good to hear that there is something conservatives actually stand for and believe in, that it is not just being against liberals and progressives as the media would have everyone believe.

[Karen]

Really enjoyed this book. It is a collection of essays that are very well written and show so much promise of what this country can be.