Willmoore Kendall

Maverick political scientist Willmoore Kendall predicted the triumph of conservatism. Upon the 1963 publication of Kendall's The Conservative Affirmation, his former Yale student William F. Buckley, Jr. called him "one of the most superb and original political analysts of the 20th century," but even Buckley shook his head at what appeared to be Kendall's "baffling optimism." During the 60's, Kendall stood apart from the mainstream conservative movement which he accused of being anti-populist and of "storming American public opinion from without" by wrongly assuming that the American people were essentially corrupt and "always ready to sell their votes to the highest bidder." Kendall believed that Americans would come to actively realize the conservatism which they had always actually lived.

This reprinted work on political theory challenges core tenets of our political views deriving from the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. It argues that we need to look to the key documents of the founding era - the Mayflower Compact and the Virginia Bill of Rights.

In this work, the author invites the reader to travel along with him as he investigates many of the political questions that have long confronted our society: Congress vs. the President, is it deadlock, gridlock or two majorities? The American community, is it pluralism or orthodoxy? What do Americans mean by "All men are created equal"? Who should control our public schools? Is the genius of the American people for self-government failing? A posthumous collection originally published by 1971 by Arlington House, this reprinted edition includes for the first time Kendall's provocative essay, "The 'Open Society' and its Fallacies"—as relevant today as when it was first written. The essays, speeches, and part of a projected book included in this work direct the reader's attention to subjects that reflect the general theme running through all of Kendall's political thought—the ways that majority rule can bring about government that is sound and just.